Ghetto Tourism
Just saw this from TheWorldsBestEver-
"LA’S MAP TO (GANG)STARS HOME
The next time you’re in L.A., forgo the map to the stars homes and instead embark on the Compton tour."
Curiosity? Exploitation? Bleeding heart Liberalism? Buying a Ghetto Pass?
I've heard about these Ghetto Tours going on all over the place, such as the favelas in Brasil etc. In some ways I'm admittedly intrigued by the whole thing. Who doesn't want a special pass to explore 'forbidden' places? It's like getting into the club where you gotta know somebody to be somebody. Whenever I visit a new city I almost immediately seek out the non-tourist areas for better or worse, whether wandering to boring suburbs of Madrid or being grossly out of place and stared at in an Istanbul ghetto or even getting mean mugged deep, deep into Bushwick. Perhaps there's a bit of a designation between tourist and explorer. But really, what makes taking these ghetto tours all that different from paying thousands of dollars to 'volunteer' in some third world country? To really give them the benefit of the doubt, at least they have the curiosity instead of trying to ignore it all together(?).
Now if you want a real OG Ghetto tourist who put his money where his mouth is you gotta check out Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh. While studying at the University of Chicago he got sick of the scholarly, ivory tower approach to sociology and just rolled up into the Robert Taylor Houses of Chicago and ended up living there for 6 years.
"LA’S MAP TO (GANG)STARS HOME
The next time you’re in L.A., forgo the map to the stars homes and instead embark on the Compton tour."
Curiosity? Exploitation? Bleeding heart Liberalism? Buying a Ghetto Pass?
I've heard about these Ghetto Tours going on all over the place, such as the favelas in Brasil etc. In some ways I'm admittedly intrigued by the whole thing. Who doesn't want a special pass to explore 'forbidden' places? It's like getting into the club where you gotta know somebody to be somebody. Whenever I visit a new city I almost immediately seek out the non-tourist areas for better or worse, whether wandering to boring suburbs of Madrid or being grossly out of place and stared at in an Istanbul ghetto or even getting mean mugged deep, deep into Bushwick. Perhaps there's a bit of a designation between tourist and explorer. But really, what makes taking these ghetto tours all that different from paying thousands of dollars to 'volunteer' in some third world country? To really give them the benefit of the doubt, at least they have the curiosity instead of trying to ignore it all together(?).
Now if you want a real OG Ghetto tourist who put his money where his mouth is you gotta check out Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh. While studying at the University of Chicago he got sick of the scholarly, ivory tower approach to sociology and just rolled up into the Robert Taylor Houses of Chicago and ended up living there for 6 years.
posted by thos diggy | 2:32 PM
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