idea of the "ghetto." White sociologists applied this word, which had a precise meaning once in Europe, to black slum neighborhoods in this country and thereby did what intellec- tuals are noted for: they applied a label to a human problem and made it impossible to think about it. What most whites think of when they say "ghetto" is a black slum. To them, all black communities are alike — run- down, crime-ridden jungles. When blacks use the word "ghetto" they almost always prefix it with "so-called," to re- ject this white stereotype. Of course, "ghetto" originally con- tained some insight; it
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