The true history of the term "ghetto" is not how Earl Holt III would lead you to believe ("University should work to further integrate races," July 12).

The term originated in Europe during the Middle Ages in reference to a segregated Jewish community.

Holt's blissful ignorance of the accurate history of the term "ghetto" has led him to believe that only Americans of color call the ghetto their home, therefore, making use of any terms related to the ghetto inappropriate and off limits for whites.

Holt would most likely regard the Jewish as white, so why can't these white students that Holt blindly placed as white suburbanites know something about being "ghetto?"

I know the chance that some students were raised in the ghetto is still possible. But Holt has made a blind assumption about whites while at the same time claiming that his pale-skinned peers make inappropriate assumptions about the ghetto.

Holt seems to be an educated African American who happens to attend a prestigious American university.

After all, Holt is a published author and is receiving a fantastic education. Because he is an African American does not give him the right to claim the use of the term "ghetto."

I am not trying to say that only whites should be able to use the term since it originated as a term in reference to whites.

I am merely pointing out the hypocrisy, separatist attitude and blissful ignorance of Holt that led him to write his editorial.