You ever get the feeling that you are being watched? Well, depending on where you live, it could be more than just a feeling.
A New York company had the “genius” idea to offer, of all things, a “ghetto tour.” Real Bronx Tours took tourists through a unique experience to see a real-live ghetto, up close and personal. The following is an excerpt of the description from its website:
“When we think about the Bronx we see images of the ’70s and ’80s when this borough was notorious for drugs, gangs, crime and murders … Real Bronx Tours will take you on a three-hour journey into this diverse and mysterious borough called the Bronx. Sites on this tour will include: Yankee Stadium, Mott Haven Historic District, Bronx Zoo, Bronx Museum, South Bronx, Arthur Avenue (Little Italy), Grand Concourse and a ride through a real New York City ‘ghetto.'”
It’s not enough that we have created a culture obsessed with reality TV shows, which allow viewers to follow, in voyeuristic glee, the lives of regular folks just trying to hold it down and keep things together. Now we are going to step it up a notch and actually organize tours to see the “native po’ folks” in their natural habitat.
The good people of the Bronx were rightfully outraged over the controversial tour. The Bronx Borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., urged the company to stop profiting from a tour that characterized the Bronx “as a haven for poverty and crime, while mocking everything from our landmarks to the less-fortunate members of our community who are availing themselves of food-assistance programs.” The tours have since stopped running.
The concept of a “ghetto tour” reminds me of a show in the ’70s that came on Sunday nights called Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. I watched it religiously. The star of the show, Marlin Perkins, would narrate the show every week in the most monotone voice. His faithful sidekick and general safari man servant, Jim Fowler, was always doing the grunt work, such as trying to deliver grizzly cubs while simultaneously being mauled by the irate mother.
While I was fascinated by the show when I was younger, it turns me off now when I apply the concept to humanity. Dehumanization is a psychological process of demonizing an individual or group by making them seem less than human, which allows the perpetrator to treat them inhumanely.
I’ve experienced it a little closer to home than New York.
I have spent the majority of my time in Charlotte living on the east side, specifically off Central Avenue. During my almost-20-year tenure, I and other east-side residents I have spoken with have occasionally been asked by some folks, in a hushed tone, “Do you feel safe?” The question is code for, “Do you feel safe around all those brown people?”
I share the example of the Ghetto Tour and my experience on Charlotte’s east side because, somehow, we are now demonizing folks for being less fortunate and actually treating them like another species to be photographed and gawked at like a herd of wildebeest.
Imagine it: There I am, minding my own business, coming out of my neighborhood Family Dollar on Eastway carrying my requisite bleach, tube socks and crackers, when suddenly a van full of European tourists, and maybe even some curious locals, enters the parking lot.
Tour Guide: We are now entering one of the many strip malls on the east side. Please remember to keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times. You can also register today for our sister company, West Side tours, where we will take you take you through the dark and mysterious wonder of Beatties Ford.
Passenger: How do you know which neighborhoods are safe?
Tour Guide: Questionable neighborhoods will be marked with discernible signifiers, such as check-cashing establishments, many liquor stores, and a costumed Statue of Liberty waving at day workers during tax season.
Tour Guide: If you look to your right, just emerging from the Family Dollar, you can see Brownus Manicus, a wonderful specimen of the male native of this area.
Would I douse the bus of Lookie Lous with my container of discount bleach? Would I charge the bus like an enraged rhino defending his territory? Or perhaps would I simply give the universal sign of protest, hand raised and middle finger extended, so when more evolved beings review the inevitable photographs that follow, archived by the curious tourist, they will indeed know that the natives were restless.
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This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2013.
Awesome article. You always make me laugh.
Seriously a ghetto tour! Thats just degrading and outright wrong, theres nothing exciting about living in the ghetto or trying to make it out. If they really wanted an experience in the ghetto they should have dropped them off in the worst part and left. It more and likely would have ended that whole situation of ever having a tourist attraction in the ghetto. They could have showed historic buildings and landmarks in that area but to call it a ghetto tour and put the people that lived there on display like some jungle safari excursion is just flat out wrong and ignorant.
@Alease Michelle McClenningham… Thank you Diva…smile. Please keep reading and sharing!
@Jmiller84 I know right! I like the idea of giving them an authentic experience and dropping them off in the hood and letting them fend for themselves…lol Then we will see how much repeat business they will get…lol Thank you for reading and sharing your views on this topic!
Isn’t it amazing how they keep finding ways to profit from our existence? From one oppressive movement/era to another.
“Brownus Manicus” was hilarious!
@Melyndag I know it really sounds crazy! Thank you for reading and sharing your views on this topic!
I watched, ‘The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975’, this weekend and your article reminds me of the Harlem tours they showed in the documentary!
@Gustavo Soto Hey man I need to check out “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” And thank you for reading and sharing!
Did they author spoke with the tour operators? Perhaps interviewed some of the tourists and asked them about their experience? What was their motivation? What did they gain from that tour through the Bronx?
This is a poor article that reflects more the deep rooted insecurities of the author rather than help readers understand society and its dynamics.
I live in the Ballantyne area in a community with perfectly manicured lawns; if a bus pulls over filled with people (rich, poor, white, brown, asian) wanting to see life in the suburbs I may wave -intead of showing them the finger. Or I may ignore them, they are living their life and so I am. Why should it be different in the Bronx?
One thought I have to add is that the middle finger is by no means the universal sign of protest; that is the “V” done with the index and heart fingers.
In summary this article tells us nothing about the motivations or purpose of tour operators and tourists; doesn’t mention how this experience enriched those who participate in it; and assums that the Bronx only has “brown” people.
Zero research, poorly written and with nothing to take away from it -other than the deep seated insecurities of the author (but this is just a guess, like this entire column, a big guess).
@Jennifer G If you followed the link in the article you would get a sense of the level of insensitivity of the tours which was expressed in an open letter to the company, “as a haven for poverty and crime, while mocking everything from our landmarks to the less fortunate members of our community who are availing themselves of food assistance programs.”
I hardly see how making light of folks needing assistance at food banks could enrich anyone’s experience.
We also have wonderfully manicured lawns on the East side as well but maybe pointing that out comes from my insecurity.
If you cannot see how insulting a “ghetto tour” is then maybe your take on the subject speaks more to your being sheltered than any insecurities on my part.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts.
I guess you haven’t read Langston Hughes.
@Not Mac Davis Are you referring to the poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, columnist and prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance? You mean that Langston Hughes? In what context are you referencing Mr. Hughes?