We are all familiar with the catch phrase, “Sex sells.” Apparently David Chang has a better idea-stereotypes sell. That is the premise behind his board game “Ghettopoly,” first in a line of similar new products.
Black leaders are furious about the game, which has cards like “You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50.” Clergymen are calling for a boycott of the company, Urban Outfitters, which sells the game in their clothing stores.
“Hustle” and “Ghetto Stash” categories produce cards with directions like, “You’re a little short on loot, so you decided to stick up a bank. Collect $75.” Properties include Westside Liquor, Harlem, The Bronx and Long Beach City, and squares include Smitty’s XXX Peep Show, Weinstein’s Gold and Platinum and Tyron’s Gun Shop.
The Web site for the game, www.ghettopoly.com, advertises the game as follows: “Buying stolen properties, pimpin’ hoes, building crack houses and projects, paying protection fees and getting carjacked are some of the elements of the game. Not dope enough? … If you don’t have the money that you owe to the loan shark you might just land yourself in da Emergency Room.”
The complete set includes game board, 40 crack houses, 17 projects, pink slip cards, seven game pieces (pimp, hoe, 40 ounce bottle, machine gun, marijuana leaf, basketball and crack) and counterfeit money.
The board includes figures labeled “Malcum X” and “Martin Luthor King Jr.”-misspelled on purpose-noted the Rev. Glenn Wilson, pastor of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. This further makes fun of important figures in history that helped in the fight for civil rights.
Where is Chang’s decency? Though Monopoly is generally billed as a more adult game, many children enjoy playing it with each other and their families.
Children will see this game and it will only reinforce the stereotypes. The original game can be used to teach money management and risk. Nothing good can be gained by playing this game.
Some would say this game is just for fun, as Chang claims. However, this is not just poking harmless fun at a culture.
By playing this game and laughing at the cheap shots Chang takes at some aspects of ghetto culture, we are accepting the stereotypic views of this man and lowering our children’s ability to objectively form their own opinions of other people.
Chang said, “It draws on stereotypes not as a means to degrade, but as a medium to bring together in laughter. If we can’t laugh at ourselves … we’ll continue to live in blame and bitterness.”
I can tolerate social commentary, but this is a game that has a high probability of coming into contact with children rather than adult audiences.
In the struggle against stereotyping, it’s difficult to let stereotypes go when they are constantly thrown in our face by things such as Ghettopoly.
Jana Hatcher is a junior political science and psychology major. She can be reached at [email protected].