I am aware of the “one-drop” rule
It’s not accurate to say that non-black mothers have black babies. They have biracial or multiracial babies.
They have to pay a fine, usually in the $500 to $1,000 range but sometimes higher.
The profession with the most infractions, by far? The answer was surprising to me too, because I didn’t know they had to be licensed. LOCKSMITHS. :eek: 
The most common reason? They lied about their criminal records. :smack:
I told an elderly woman about this, and she replied that when she and her late husband were first married, they worked in his family’s hardware business, and all of a sudden, there were certain tools they were no longer allowed to sell. This was in the 1960s.
Correct, and in these cases, there’s no doubt about it. And like I said, there are never any men with these people over the age of, oh, 8 or so.
All the businesses have ugly, crudely handpainted signs full of misspellings, replacing the 1950-era neon signs of pre-white-flight stores.
Rally’s = Checkers. Same chain, different name (depending on region).
Laws vary by state. In fact, only 12 states plus DC and New York City require locksmiths be licensed.
Some states, oddly not necessarily the same ones, may consider tools such as lock pick sets as “burglar’s tools”. Laws by state are conveniently compiled here.
Bulletproof glass in the liquor store (to protect the store clerks, I guess). There’s also a fried chicken place in Hamilton Heights (part of West Harlem) that has bulletproof glass, and I’m sure this is the case elsewhere. HH is actually an up and coming (read: gentrifying) neighborhood, and the fried chicken place will probably be replaced with a third-wave coffee shop within a few years.
I’ve lived in Oakland, Harlem, and real Brooklyn (not the hipster part). The most “ghetto” elements of these areas were more sad than funny: depressing-looking schools with no resources, drug addiction, and the like.
These areas are also food deserts for the most part. Flatbush (Brooklyn) has a large West Indian population, and there is some healthful and inexpensive West Indian food. However, there isn’t a good grocery store with a large selection of produce, organic products, etc. unless you live right by the coop, and the coop is overpriced. It takes a huge amount of effort to keep your kitchen stocked with healthy food if you’re not wealthy and don’t have a car to transport groceries. West Harlem is great because there’s a Fairway (excellent supermarket) at the bottom of the neighborhood, and it’s much easier to get to a variety of grocery stores by train–and they’re close to the train, so it’s not such a hassle to transport groceries if your apartment is near a stop as well.
I feel the need to note that New York City is incredibly safe for a city with its population density, and that most neighborhoods perceived as dangerous are just not white neighborhoods. There is really very little violent crime in NY.
That brings up another few…
Women with three kids shopping for dinner at a gas station mini mart.
Grocery stores are packed the first weekend of the month and deserted on the last weekend of the month.
My ghetto experience involved leaving my apartment by the front door rather than the back so you wouldn’t risk stepping on syringes - never really looked close enough to see if I was risking needles or not, when I saw the syringes were being left in the alley, we started using the front door.
My husband had neighbors across the hall that we never figured out if they were very slow drug dealers or very quick prostitutes. But the had a lot of men coming and going for brief periods of time.
The whole bullet proof glass thing is not necessarily ghetto. I’d guess that almost all the markets and liquor stores have them in my neighborhood. They’re a hold over from when crime was a bigger problem, but the owners have been slow to remove them. At a lot of markets, they bullet proof glass is still there, but they keep the door to the booth open. Newer places that are being built don’t have the glass. I imagine that if you aren’t familiar with it, you’d be put off by the bullet proof glass.
I’m sure they would if they were caught.
It might surprise you that there are a lot of things that go on in the ghetto that are not legal.
All the banks in Center City Philly had the BP glass, as did many banks in the suburbs. A handful still have them but most removed them for more open air look that makes customers feel a more welcome.
An extremely high level of corruption within the police department assigned to monitor the area. Driving through Newark, I’ve seen uniformed cops handed paper bags from apparent drug dealers in plain daylight. I know at least 2 moderately experienced cops who patrol the ghetto in Elizabeth with numerous fancy cars, nice summer homes and boats down the shore. Neither came from a wealthy family and one’s wife is stay-at-home while the other is a receptionist.
If it’s a weekday during the school year, during school hours, and you see entire families, including their school-age children, just hanging out on the porch, you’re in the ghetto.
If it’s the first few days of the month, and you’re at the grocery store, and the women in front of you are paying for 2 carts full of snacks and junk food with 2 different WIC cards, you’re in the ghetto.
If every morning, there’s new broken glass on the sidewalk, you’re in the ghetto.
If there’s 6 year old kids playing in the middle of the street, unsupervised, at 1:30 AM, you’re in the ghetto.
If a large percentage of the vehicles have $3000 wheels on $500 cars, you’re in the ghetto.
If there’s any sort of public festival, event, or celebration, and the news anchors make sure to emphasize that there were no shootings or stabbings that THIS YEARS event, that event was in the ghetto.
That’s a ghetto holdover. We have a bunch of them in my neighborhood still.
My wife mentioned a few more to me. If there are nothing but carryouts with no sitdown places in sight, you may be in the ghetto.
If the local Chinese carryout also sells pizza, subs, and fried fish, you may be in the ghetto.
I don’t know that Petworth ever really was the ghetto, when we first moved in there were still rough patches, but it’s always been these pockets of trouble that are now down to just a few places. It used to be that there’d be a shooting about 3 blocks away and everyone on our block would say, “yeah, but they’re crazy down there.” Hmm, maybe that is a little ghetto.
If you’re local Chinese carryout also sells pizza, subs and fried fish, you might just be in DC. Seriously, I have to drive pretty far to find one that doesn’t around us.
Yeah, what’s up with that? I can understand not having table service to cut down on cost, but in my favorite ghetto, no one eats at the restaurant, even if there are tables and chairs there. The chairs are sat in while one waits for the carryout to be prepared.
The strange ones for me are the places with the bulletproof glass dividers which still have somewhere to sit. I’ve never seen anyone at those places either, and the idea of sitting there to eat never even crosses my mind. I just remembered that our local Popeyes has this set up.
[QUOTE=madmonk28]
If you’re local Chinese carryout also sells pizza, subs and fried fish, you might just be in DC. Seriously, I have to drive pretty far to find one that doesn’t around us.
[/QUOTE]
There was a place that we would get takeout from that didn’t, but you’re right, all of the delivery places that deliver to me do. I wonder if places west of the park do?
Almost forgot one…
If there are several non-homeless men hanging out at the local convenience store all day, you might be in the ghetto.
This is in Illinois, and you can see for yourself at http://www.idfpr.com.