The state of mind, sometimes occurring in a
person raised in poverty, who has been mentally and emotionally effected by it to the extent that they carry an impoverished mind
set with them wherever they go and
set themselves against others inappropriately AND feels that, as a result of their personal suffering and struggle for survival, ( the assumption bring that their own struggle has been greater than anyone else's without regard for that
person's experience or capacity) that the rules and ethics of ordinary life and
empathy and consideration for others do not apply to them.
The resulting behaviors are those where one is always seeking one's own advantage and using excessive and militant tactics even in situations where it isn't necessary or appropriate and against
people they should be able to identify as harmless or vulnerable.
Among the privileged it is referred to as a "Dog
eat dog" attitude or "every
man for himself" but "Ghetto" also carries a grifter twist of angry and gratuitous cruelty
but it's really the same result without the "justification" of growing up in
real poverty.
A seemingly inescapable state of mental, emotional, and spiritual
impoverishment.
When I asked for my
car back after she borrowed it for three weeks and she angrily broke into my
house to "return" the keys but left our
father's ashes in a box on the passenger seat, I realized my sister was "ghetto".