"Ghetto" now (also) means "jury-rigged"?

[Alice Faber]

Wow...I *never* understood *any* implication of illegality in "ghetto"
(as in "ghetto-blaster"), *never*. The back story I've assumed for it
(going back to the mid-80s) was associated with street life. If music is
important to you, and you're hanging around outside, and you have the
wherewithal to bring your music with you...

More recently, I've seen "ghetto" as a more generic put-down, meaning
something like "tacky".

Joel S. Berson wrote:
> Rather, "stolen" (theft from the property, intellectual or real, of
> sellers of hand-scanners), from how those in the ghettoes are
> presumed to operate habitually?  Associated with "ghetto blaster,"
> also presumed to have been stolen (ghetto blacks are poor; they can't
> afford blasters, or shouldn't be wasting their money on them;
> therefore stolen)?
>
> Joel
>
> At 1/9/2006 03:15 PM, you wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      "Ghetto" now (also) means "jury-rigged"?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> From today's SlashDot:
>>
>> "[The computer-science student thereby] made [his mouse] into a
>> _ghetto_ B&W handscanner."
>>
>> -Wilson Gray


--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963