Dear Gloria, I think you can find in the urban sociology / anthropology literature helpful resources. Regarding first half of twentieth century, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, by St. Claire Drake and Horace Cayton is not "ghetto" oriented but important. Ulf Hannerz's (1969) Soulside: inquiries into ghetto culture and community has a focus on ghetto families' diversity and constrasting life-orientations. Suhdir Venkatesh's (2000) American Project: the rise and fall of a modern ghetto depicts everyday problem management witihin the ghetto by different powers and authorities, both internal and external (can also see also Venkatesh's Gang leader for a day: a rogue sociologist takes to the streets, published in 2008, as well as his contributions to gang theory and economic sociology). For a review, Chaddha, Anmol & Wilson, William Julius (2008) 'Reconsidering the “Ghetto' City & Community 7(4). Important are also Nikki Jones' work (https://betweengoodandghetto.com/ on African-American Girls; of easier access: “‘It’s Not Where You Live, It’s How You Live’: How Young Women Negotiate Conflict and

Violence in the Inner City.” 2004. ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. September 2004, Volume 595, and, last but surely not least, Loïc Wacquant's extensive body of work (road-map and texts are here: http://loicwacquant.net/), Best wishes, João Pedro

Based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it is easy to see how priorities could differ from one community to the next, if their basic need fulfillments are vastly different.

Anecdotal experience;

Growing up in a trailer park in Alaska, and going to school on the other side of town, the side with nice houses and the library within walking distance, it was clear from a young age that these were two very different populations and I was somehow caught between them. What I observed as I grew up was that people from my neighborhood often drove nice cars, wore nice clothes, ate out often and generally enjoyed the finer things of life, although that often meant going without the essentials (like gas, one particularly cold winter) and education. The other way to fund this lifestyle was through crime, as a lack of education generally meant viable jobs were unavailable. 

I grew up in a couple different ghettos in Anchorage, two trailer parks and an apartment community type ghetto. My experience with employment is that all available jobs were long hours OR not enough hours, often smelly places like fast food restaurants and the pay was never enough. Even while working, we all had to live some type of life of crime. I knew so many people that routinely committed welfare fraud to attempt to escape the employment prison. There was also those that would deal drugs from a young age well into adulthood who never had the need to try to live better.  The priority remained to appear as rich as possible, while ignoring the realistic requirements to achieve legal financial independence. Also, the lack of employment for youth (as adults got to work even the crappy jobs) meant that kids often went unsupervised for long hours and would almost always find negative ways to entertain themselves, leading to even more crime activity. This activity was actually a boon to social status, as when everyone is a criminal, obviously the coolest person is going to be the one with the most criminal experience, much like in the richer neighborhoods they maybe looked up to their successful relatives or something. What I'm saying is, there wasn't a wealth of positive influences in any of these neighborhoods.

When I would visit my friends house in the richer side of town, I would marvel at her pantry full of expensive, organic snacks. Heck, I would visit for the snacks. Food with real ingredients in it, I sensed that it was somehow laughable, I would tell my mom how expensive all their food was and we found it amusing, wasting so much money on organic food. Well, I am and have been morbidly obese since age 17 or so. My youngest sibling, my brother, has been morbidly obese since he was 10. My mother was also obese, she eventually died of complications from gastric bypass surgery combined with drug and alcohol addiction interfering with her medications. Looking back, it is obvious to me that her priorities were not in line with the other mother's, whom had healthy children.

From my experience, the priorities are very, very different between one population who has enough to survive, and one whom inherently does not. I witnessed this to be true first hand for many, many years. If you were curious, I got the heck out of there as soon as I could, never looked back. Bye, Alaska!

Thanks, Savannah.  Your thoughts come alive in the vivid details you have shown us.  I feel as if I were there with you.  It is a clear case of separate worlds.

Much appreciated!

Gloria