New Board Game: Ghettopoly
 

Click on the link below... I am not sure this is appropriate for "family time"

http://www.ghettopoly.com

Re: New Board Game: Ghettopoly
 

OH. MY. DAYUMS.
:eek: :eek: :eek:

WHY! WHY! WHY!!!! :mad: :mad:

Why do people think reinforcing negative stereotypes is so much fun? Why why why why why why???

For ages 13 to adult?:eek: :eek: :eek:

Did you see the $50 reward for turning the neighborhood into CHs. :mad: That's sick!:mad:

This cannot be real, can it?


...if so, can you say manufacturer boycott? or we could take it ole school and get out the marching boots and placards; saddle up, yall. Let's ride.

Ok, this is crazy.:eek: WTH

Ghettopoly (sp??) the game!!!???
 

Good Morning everybody. I hope that everyone is blessed!!!! This morning on the local news I saw where an Asian man developed a "Monopoly" type game based on the ghetto. THis game is being sold in the Philadelphia area. The game pieces are...a 40 oz. bottle, a crack vial, and a ball and chain. The object of this game is to buy crack houses and to lose all your money. It makes me sick!!!!! The NAACP is going to get involved and I hear (from a few of my fellow college students) that Parker Bros., who makes the original Monopoly game is suing this jerk. What is this world coming to when people feel the need to profit from some ish like that. Holla back!!!!

they have a website!!!!
 

the web address is www.ghettopoly.com

I saw this on the news last night. The reporter said that the store from which she was reporting hasn't sold a single game. I hope that trend continues.

The store in Philly that is said to be selling these games is called "Urban Outfitters". The NAACP & the UBSS (Unified Black Students Society) on my campus are planning to take a ride to Philly and get things cracking!!!!!

Urban outfitters here had the game also, but quickly removed it from the shelves.

http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/pict...ghettopoly.jpg

Black Clergy Protest Ghettopoly

Cheap Trick Avenue instead of Boardwalk? Hernando's Chop Shop instead of Reading Railroad?

Black leaders are outraged over a new board game called "Ghettopoly" that has "playas" acting like pimps and game cards reading, "You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50."

Black clergymen say the game, the brainchild of a Pennsylvania man, should be banned, and have called for a boycott of Urban Outfitters unless the company stops selling Ghettopoly in its chain of clothing stores.

Urban Outfitters has not publicly commented on the issue, and did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

"If we are silent on this issue there is more of this type to come," the Rev. Robert P. Shine Sr., president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity, said at a sidewalk rally Wednesday in front Urban Outfitters' corporate headquarters in Philadelphia.

Shine displayed the game board, with properties including Westside Liquor, Harlem, The Bronx, and Long Beach City, and squares labeled Smitty's XXX Peep Show, Weinstein's Gold and Platinum, and Tyron's Gun Shop.

Players draw "Hustle" and "Ghetto Stash" cards with directions like, "You're a little short on loot, so you decided to stick up a bank. Collect $75," and "Steal $$$ if you pass Let$ Roll."

The creator of Ghettopoly, David Chang, did not immediately answer e-mails or phone calls seeking comment about the game.

On his Web site, Chang is unapologetic, and promises that more games -- Hoodopoly, Hiphopopoly, Thugopoly and Redneckopoly -- are coming soon.

"It draws on stereotypes not as a means to degrade, but as a medium to bring together in laughter," Chang maintains, adding, "If we can't laugh at ourselves ... we'll continue to live in blame and bitterness."

But the Ghettopoly board depicts figures labeled "Malcum X" and "Martin Luthor King Jr." -- intentionally misspelled -- noted Rev. Glenn Wilson, pastor of Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church.

"This is beyond making fun, to use the caricature of Dr. King in this regard," Wilson said. "There's no way that game could be taken in any way other than that this man had racist intent in marketing it."

The Philadelphia black clergy and Men United for a Better Philadelphia were just the latest to protest the game. In Chicago, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church, called for a boycott of Urban Outfitters. In Florida, the St. Petersburg and Hillsborough County chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urged the company to stop carrying the game.

"I was outraged. We called Outfitters, we wrote them a letter, we held a press conference, but we've had no response," Pfleger said Wednesday.


**The site is blocked at work and I keep forgetting to check the site when I get home.**

Check out Chit Chat
 

Why are the fits about to hit the shan?
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40645&highlight=ghettop oly

Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

I knew it would hit the fan before the 20th post and the CC regulars did not disappoint this ILK MEMBER. :rolleyes:

CHILE!!! It never ceases to amaze me! *SMH*

http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitch...s-mitch05.html


'Ghettopoly' is what happens when hip-hop is celebrated

October 5, 2003

BY MARY MITCHELL SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement






By the time I called Urban Outfitters on Rush Street to find out if they had any more "Ghettopoly" games on their shelves, they had sold out.

"I'll have to put you on the waiting list," the clerk told me.

"How long is the list?"

"It's a two-week wait."

I tried another Urban Outfitters, this one at 2352 N. Clark.

"We've got a pretty long waiting list," the clerk said.

Either the clerks were lying, or consumers rushed down to Urban Outfitters to purchase the controversial board game the morning after WLS-Channel 7's Charles Thomas reported that the retailer was selling "Ghettopoly" at its chain stores.

The game is a takeoff on Monopoly. But as Thomas reported, instead of a top hat, cane and mustache, the Ghettopoly guy is a "thuggish, bandana-wearing black man with bug eyes, peering over dark glasses. He clenches a marijuana cigarette, holding an Uzi in one hand and a bottle of malt liquor in the other."

Game cards include ghetto stash and hustle cards, a loan shark tray, 40 crack houses, 17 projects, pink slip cards and seven game pieces (Pimp, Hoe, 40 oz, Machine Gun, Marijuana Leaf, Basket Ball and Crack) and counterfeit money.

The fallout from activists in the black community over the board game has been fast and furious.

"It is not only insulting and ignorant, but it's shameful. I'd like to get ahold of the person who is behind it because this is something that should be stopped. . . . It promotes the absolute worst of racism. It's racial pornography. It takes the worst element of race and prejudice and begins to glorify it and raise it up," the Rev. Michael Pfleger told the Chicago Defender.

Getting to the person responsible for "Ghettopoly" won't be easy because the company is apparently running its operation from an Internet site. Phone calls are being handled by an automated voice-mail system. The Web site also advertised other games such as "Hoodopoly" and "Redneckopoly."

Allegedly, the company's owner got his idea for "Ghettopoly" from watching hip-hop videos.

"Well, I'm just not shopping at Urban Outfitters anymore," my saucy 24-year-old daughter told me with fire in her eyes.

"Is this really any worse than the 'Ghetto Prom' images that are being circulated on the Internet?" I asked.

"I knew you'd say that," she snapped. "As far as I'm concerned, that's where the game should have stayed."

Although Ghettopoly.com owner David T. Chang is shielded by the Internet, Urban Outfitters should feel the heat for distributing the offensive game. By the way, the PR specialist for Urban Outfitters did not return repeated phone calls about this subject.

I am more dismayed than angry. Still, this game may turn out to be a good way to show black children how the denigrating, violent and downright nasty hip-hop lyrics they soak up like sponges have tainted the perception of what black Americans are about.

Chang did his homework.

The symbols found in "Ghettopoly" are an accurate reflection of what hip-hop heroes are selling to White America. Ironically, people are outraged about Urban Outfitters' selling a foul board game, but few people of influence seem to care that every record store in America is selling music that glorifies the very stereotypes the game promotes.

How can black people be outraged over a board game when black superstars have gotten rich by promoting those same stereotypes? These performers aren't boycotted. They are worshipped.

There's something else that is sad about all this.

At one point, black people in the media thought they had buried the word ghetto, along with "colored," "Negro," and the "n" word. Many of us made a conscious effort to replace ghetto with "inner city" or "urban center" because we believed ghetto was a bigoted catch-all for black neighborhoods.

That effort was thrown back in our faces as a younger generation paraded ghetto before the world as if being impoverished and stuck in a crime-ridden area was the new status symbol.

Victor Trotter, a reader in Naperville, appears to have a clear understanding of why black people have themselves to blame for the bold marketing of these negative stereotypes:

"It starts with the subject of money," he said in an e-mail. "We pass on an extremely high value of money to our children. They grow up thinking that it is the ONLY thing important. That sets them up to do ANYTHING for money. When the record companies tell a talented artist that they only want music with degrading lyrics . . . they make it. Now the stations are flooded with this poisonous music. The record companies not only rake in huge amounts of money, they get the 'rush' of negatively influencing a whole generation of youth."

The guy who created "Ghetto-poly" is a lot like those record executives.

Only now, real black people aren't needed to play the game.

Mary Mitchell
 

Thank you, 1SD, for posting this. Ms. Mitchell is right on the money when she points out that WE are responsible for some of the ridiculous images that we suffer.

I've said it before, and I will say it again: People didn't get mauled and killed for us to celebrate Fiddy, Bishop Don Majic Juan, Khia, etc. and the lowlife values that they transmit.
:mad: :rolleyes:

This is ridiculous!!
 

Okay, I'm upset! :mad: I saw this game on the news a couple of nights ago and I was infuriated. I wanna know who in the world was up to supporting this ignorance? This is just another way for people to explore the already horrible stereotypes of a 'black community'. I mean, maybe whoever designed this thought it was cute to make fun of those stereotypes and such, but I don't!! I really wanna get with whoever decided to distribute it and ask them what in the world is really goin on?

Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

The fits long hit the shan. But what I find interesting is the newest comment from the drop-squad candidate.
:rolleyes:

Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

LOL @ drop-squad candidate

I had heard of this before the GC threads and I seriously did NOT think some company would be stupid enough to manufacture and market it.

Poor ZetaAce can't lock these threads fast enough....



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Re: Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

Although I basically agree with the Mary Mitchell column posted above and believe that the glorification of hood culture is a very dangerous thing, the comment still shows that one of the unintended consequences of civil rights/integration is a lack of knowledge of one's history and culture.

How the f*** are you going to think crap like that is funny?
:rolleyes:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

That what I was thinking when I read that. WTF? :confused:

I still say that if this game was called Greekopoly and it glorified greek steretypes of being a drunk, slut, hazing, and stuff like that, many of "THEIR" opinions would be soooo different, although some are trying to say otherwise. :rolleyes:

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

Correct. But on the other hand, I don't expect sensitivity about Ghettopoly. I just don't. Perhaps it's my cynicism, but on the other hand, if you aren't (fill in the blank), you have no frame of reference to compare.

I'm just worn out of the ignorance on parade. I swear, I'm no separatist. But I'm just tired of stupidity.

*le sigh*

Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

Who are yall talking about?

I just skimmed the Muslim Barbie doll thread and I am AGHAST at the rampant ignorance that pervades that thread.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

I am just DISGUSTED that a certain person thinks this game is "funny". Sometimes I just wanna say, "Banche please!!!!"

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

Totally agreed. I have actually seen a version of this game (Greekopoly), but I don't know how negative it was (it was just on eBay).

The Muslim Barbie thread made me SO mad last night. There was a guy promoting the internment of the Japanese during WWII as "common sense".

:eek: :confused:
Some people must have some bad parenting, because if I said things like this my parents would slap the poo-poo out of me.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

Okaaay?! I mean, I know if you're not ("fill in the blank", as ST said), there are some things you simply don't quite understand, but DAYUM--you'd have to be pretty dense, or stuck on stoopid to reall think that isht is funny... I MEAN COME ON!!!

ST, I totally hear where you're coming from about "not being a seperist and all but not having time for this type of stuff--this is exactly the reason why I try not to go to that room often...

:rolleyes:

And, how about that dumb-arse man that created the game had spelling and grammatical errors on his website? Hmmm...but you have the nerve to attempt to clown the 'hood...

*SMH*

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Check out Chit Chat
 

What I think this shows is that too many of us, because of civil rights and integration, take stuff for granted. I'm not advocating being a victim. But isht, if you LAUGH at egregious things like this game, it just fuels the fire. You come off like a coon.

On the other hand, my compassionate side is also kicking in because the individual that I'm speaking of obviously has some low self-esteem as well as self-hatred issues.

I think there may be a few people on GC that don't see anything wrong with this game, that would also find nothing wrong with a "Ghetto Fab" party and so on.

I can't speak for anyone else's upbringing but I know that mine had some privilige. Two of those priviliges I still think are important to this day is that my parents sent me to public school in the city of San Francisco, and also that they encouraged me to go to the local Boys and Girls Club than other after school activities. They moved to San Francisco because they both had grown up in places that were rather homogenous(read: whiter than the snow in Alaska), and they knew that we'd have a rich upbringing with a variety of people in our lives. I value all the people and experiences I have as a result of my parents making those choices. I feel that without those I wouldn't have a more realistic view of the world

I have to wonder how many of those same GCers have actually ever known someone, let alone been to the ghetto/hood/projects etc. It is a sobering experience when: you realize your friend has to be home before dark because they don't want to be on the street in case of random violence, and you're snug in your house with that thought never crossing your mind; you're working at a summer camp and one of your campers was born addicted to crack and has been in twice as many foster homes as they have had birthdays. I could go on, but the I really think until there is more education and less ignorance, things like this game will continue. No one should have the struggles of their life stereotypes or made fun of in a GAME.

Good post. But to be educated, people have to be receptive. I don't sense that some of these GCers who see nothing wrong with this game are willing to be educated.

This says SO MUCH!!! :D

Someone suggested 2x4s...

Seriously though, perhaps some people "don't get it" as they have never known anyone that would be affected by this game. I get frustrated "Chile you have a brain...USE IT" sadly people cannot think on demand. I just want people at my farm school middle of nowhere campus to stop saying things are "ghetto" until they have been to one. And don't think I won't call folks out on any "ghetto fab" parties.

:mad:

Again, you're completely on point. Besides racial segregation, you also see class segregation.

I suspect, and I've said this before, many of the same people who think "ghetto" sendups are OK don't really have any meaningful contact with AfAms who may be affected by inner-city miseries. If they have meaningful contact, it's often with suburban AfAms who sometimes are "go along to get along" types at best or self-hating at worst.

Oh LAWWWD. I'm experiencing information overload.:eek: Ghettopoloy is really working my nerves and I can't believe some of the other things I'm reading on GC. There is some ignorance in abundance floating around in those OTHER forums. Has 911 taught us nothing? People are seriously making some wicked moves these days. My heart is weary so I have to SPEAK UP but some of the topics have left me speechless.

You just said something that got me thinking. When I lived in Alaska I was one of the only white people in my social group. We had a pretty good represenation of the boxes one could check on a form, and also of those that couldn't pick one box. The people I knew were AfAm and there was a huge difference in the girl that grew up in Anchorage, and the kids that moved from the South. I related better to the kids from the South.

However I am now living among the fields of wheat, and I know one AfAm person locally (because of GC) and every other person is actually FROM Africa. I work with people from Zimbabwe, Zaire, Kenya, and so on, plus we have a South African guy running around town claiming he is the son of the Ambassador to Australia. Changes the whole frame of reference.

I think there's another factor too. From both personal experience and observance, suburban AfAms tend to be desensitized to a lot of racism and ignorance compared to inner-city AfAms. I don't think it is always nor often from a root of self hatred or a desire to get along. IMO, SAs are exposed to racism and ignorance more than any group of AfAms. If you did not grow up in an AfAm community, you did not have a safe haven away from it all, except for the home. You had to deal w/ that type of BS 24-7. As a result, I believe at that point either two things happen: you develop a thick skin/numbness or you become completely consumed with anger.

Thanks for sharing the information about desensitization. For a while, I was in the state that you describe above until I decided that I was going to change it. :)
I grew up in an inner-ring suburb of San Diego, but I stopped going to school in my neighborhood in 1971 (yeah, I'm old :p )because there was no mentally gifted minor program there. From 1976 to 1982, I was bused out to PW junior high and high schools.

sooooo true. I grew up in the rural south. Now, say what you will but I've read studies that say the rural South actually has some of the most diverse schools nowadays... because the districts are so large they draw in many different types of people. At my high school we had African Americans, whites, Latinos/as from all areas of Central and South America, as well as many people from Korean and Hmong background. So I was lucky enough to have many different types of friends and know people of ALL backgrounds who were successful. In fact, a lot of times the good ole boy white guy redneck types were LESS successful than minority students. I had minority teachers and role models too. (My first elementary school when I lived in the city was 80% AfAm.)

Now I go to a predominantly white, Southern college of elite spoiled suburban kids. Most of them have never interacted with anyone different from them. The things that will come out of their mouths floor me!

This summer I worked in a homeless shelter in Washington, DC. The thing that *really* annoys me is that there are plenty of homeless, mentally handicapped, and/or drug-addicted people in urban areas that are NOT African American. This summer I worked with many types of people--a formerly middle-class white novelist, a former African American prison guard, mentally ill women of ALL descents (Mexican, Chinese, AfAm, white, African, etc), drug-addicted women of ALL descents... Most of the women I worked with were inspiring and had a true commitment to bettering their lives. Yet, I wouldn't begin to say that I know or have experienced the inner-city urban life of the poor. Anyone who claims to know another person's life experience is committing the gravest form of disrespect. The first thing we learned in our training was NEVER to say "I understand what you're going through/saying" to a woman. It was only "I can hear you.. that must be tough."

Too many people think they can generalize their own experiences to everyone. That's the subtle and worst form of most kinds of racism and prejudice of all kinds.