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GHETTOPOLY IS HISTORY!!!!
(Oct. 16, 2003) EURweb.com
*It looks like the message has gotten through loud and clear. Retailers who were selling the rouge Ghettopoly board game are dumping it.
The Associated Press is reporting that The Urban Outfitters chain said it would no longer sell the game that drew fire from ministers, civil rights groups and even presidential candidate Al Sharpton. Additionally, Yahoo! and eBay have notified developer David Chang tat they have halted online sales.
"I will use all legal resources to see that this will never happen again to anyone else," Chang said on the Ghettopoly Web site. He didn't return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment Wednesday.
Yahoo! cited its policy of refusing to host stores that sell "illegal, obscene, vulgar, offensive, dangerous or otherwise inappropriate" materials.
For those that don't know, Ghettopoly mimics Monopoly, except that game pieces include a machine gun, marijuana leaf, crack rock and a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor. Properties are crack houses and housing projects instead of houses and hotels. Players draw "Hustle" and "Ghetto Stash" cards reading "Police Shakedown!!! Pay $150" or "Carjacked!!! Pay $80."
In his address Sunday at Ebeneezer AME Church in the Washington, DC area, Al Sharpton attacked the game, saying its "glorification of thuggery, drug dealing and misogyny as being synonymous with our culture ... goes way over the line."
"Due to customer concerns." That's what Richard A. Hayne, Urban Outfitters' president and chief executive officer,
gave as the reason why the 50-store chain would no longer sell Ghettopoly.
And you knew that Kweisi Mfume and the NAACP had to get their licks in as well. This controversy is tailor made for the civil rights organization. The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent Chang a letter saying it was "disturbing that you would choose to promote and capitalize off such negative aspects of society that cause great harm to individuals and to the African-American community at large."
"Consumers should not shop where racist materials such as Ghettopoly are sold," Mfume said. (We're sure that line resonated with the folks at Urban Outfitters, Yahoo!, eBay and any other retailer selling -- or even thinking about -- selling the game.)
Chang, a Taiwanese American, has said the stereotypes in the game weren't intended to degrade but to "bring
people together." But the NAACP was joined by other groups in condemning the game, including the Organization of Chinese Americans.
"David Chang, the creator of the game, was reported saying that Ghettopoly is only a game, but in fact it is a
flashpoint for increased racial tensions among communities of color," OCA President Raymond Wong said.
Hasbro Inc., the Pawtucket, R.I.-based owner of Parker Brothers, which makes the board game Monopoly, also called Ghettopoly "highly offensive." Frank Bifulco, president of Hasbro's US Games, said Hasbro would sue Chang if he didn't stop selling the game.
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