"You see, I was born in the slums, that was before the ghetto. The ghetto was kind of refined; the slums was right there on the ground"

This quote by Della Reese provides a poignant reflection on the advancement of city poverty and the differences in between "shanty towns" and "ghettos". Reese, an accomplished musician and starlet, draws from her personal history to offer insight into the socio-economic conditions she experienced.

When she says, "I was born in the run-down neighborhoods, that was before the ghetto", Reese is making a temporal distinction in between 2 phases of city poverty. The term "slums" refers to areas identified by subpar real estate, overcrowding, and insufficient access to vital services. These areas emerged in lots of industrial cities throughout the early 20th century, reflecting the rapid urbanization and increase of populations looking for work. For Reese, being born in the slums indicates an upbringing in an environment marked by financial difficulty however culturally rich communities that frequently formed the heart of urban life.

Reese juxtaposes this with "the ghetto", which she describes as "type of fine-tuned". This statement might appear inconsistent initially, but it reflects how "ghetto" concerned designate particular city areas mainly occupied by minority groups, especially African Americans, throughout the mid-20th century. Ghettos were frequently the result of systemic bigotry, redlining, and partition policies, isolating these neighborhoods and intensifying financial difficulties. When Reese explains ghettos as "kind of refined", she might be indicating a more structured or possibly more contemporary type of poverty, where the difficulties stood out in their institutionalization and the ways they shaped community identity.

By stating "the slums was right there on the ground", Reese stimulates a sense of immediacy and rawness, recommending that the struggle in the shanty towns was direct and palpable, without the overlay of governmental or systemic intricacies that identified later on urban hardship landscapes. It's an evocative way of highlighting both the everlasting battle of marginalized communities and the altering nature of city hardship with time, reviewing how various phases of metropolitan advancement and policy impact human lives and social structures.