What issues of representation are activated in Whight's portrayal of the chicago ghetto in the 1930s?

I'm not precisely sure what you mean by "issues of representation," but I'll try and take a stab at it. Bigger's family lives in a rat-infested nightmare that is degrading and barely livable. Besides being a very terrible situation, it seems to represent the idea that Bigger's skin color has identified him and his family as someone or something that is below human.