New Board Game: Ghettopoly

[Steeltrap]

IMO, corporate America's weight was needed to accomplish this.

Is The Game Over For Ghettopoly?
By Angela D. Johnson

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* 2003 DiversityInc.com
October 16, 2003

Citing a violation of its merchant service agreement, Yahoo! has pulled the plug on Ghettopoly's Yahoo! Store. Listings for the product have also been removed from eBay.

"That news to me is good news," said Wayne Charness, SVP of Hasbro, marketer of the original Monopoly concept. While Charness says Hasbro did not request that Yahoo! shut down the Ghettopoly site, the company has sent a cease and desist
order to David Chang, the game's creator.

Hasbro contends that Ghettopoly violates its intellectual property rights and is prepared to take legal action if sales continue. In Ghettopoly, traditional Monopoly house and hotel properties are replaced with crack houses and project developments. The money is counterfeit and the banker is a loan shark. Instead of "Get out of jail free" cards, "Ghetto Stash" cards have messages such as "You got your whole neighborhood addicted to crack: Collect $50 from each playa." The game also pokes fun at civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who are referred to as Malcum X and Martin Luthor King.

Yahoo!'s merchant service agreement states that the company "reserves the right to refuse to host or continue to host any Store which it believes, in its sole discretion … offers for sale goods or services … that are illegal, obscene, vulgar, offensive, dangerous, or otherwise inappropriate."

Illegal or dangerous? Probably not. But many have found Ghettopoly offensive. Earlier this month, civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, Anti-Defamation League and the National Action Network launched protests against Urban Outfitters, the only bricks-and-mortar retailer known to carry the game. Shortly after, the store pulled the products from its shelves.

Discussion of Ghettopoly has reached local nightly news casts as well as blogs and message boards online. While some are thoroughly appalled by the game, others think what the game represents is no different than the images that are presented in rap videos.

For those who were troubled by the game, Yahoo! and eBay, two companies supporting the sale of the game online, replaced Urban Outfitters as a target of protest. eBay removed Ghettopoly product listings from its site on Monday.

Jennifer Caukin, senior manager, communications, at eBay said Ghettopoly "was not consistent with the spirit of our community."

Caukin was unsure as to whether the decision to remove the item was a response to complaints from users; however, she said, "It's not unusual where we would get feedback from our users letting us know about items they feel are offensive."

In the past, eBay has discontinued the sale of potentially offensive items such as Nazi paraphernalia or Black Americana items containing the word "n*****" in the description. Earlier this year, eBay changed its policy to only allow the term when it is in the official title of the product being sold.

For now, sale of the game online has been halted; however Chang, through a message on the Ghettopoly Web site, has promised to fulfill outstanding orders. According to the site, the game is currently sold out, but Chang anticipates completing more than 10,000 unfilled requests on or around Dec. 10.

Neither Chang nor Yahoo! responded to requests for an interview. However, Chang has posted what he claims is the message he received from Yahoo. It reads in part: "It's been brought to Yahoo!'s attention that your Yahoo! Store has violated the terms of the Yahoo! Terms of Service and/or the Yahoo! Store Merchant Service Agreement … As of this notice, your Store Ghettopoly has been placed into 'not open' status, which will allow you to finish any pending business. You may not accept new orders or republish your Store."

But for some, the game is not over. According to New York Newsday, activists including New York City Council member John Liu and Council Deputy Majority Leader Bill Perkins are asking for a formal apology from Chang and for proceeds from the sale of the game, which retails for $29.95, to be donated to charities
serving minority communities.

"White people should be denouncing this and corporate America should be denouncing this," Perkins was quoted as saying in Newsday. "This is not just the responsibility of the victims but all of us should make sure this game is not on
the market." Some words of wisdom for the less-enlightened among us over in CC....

[Steeltrap]

I love this column:

Gregory Kane: Ghettopoly's Missing Characters
10/15/2003 09:38 PM EDT


By GREGORY KANE
BlackAmericaWeb.com

David Chang, the self-proclaimed witty fellow who thought up the game Ghettopoly, seems to have forgotten a few things that should have gone into his flagrant rip-off of the classic board game Monopoly.

Ghettopoly made the news last week when some blacks condemned the stereotyping in the "game." Chang included in his version what he obviously feels are the salient elements of black life: crack cocaine, a pimp, a "ho," a 40-ounce of malt liquor, a machine gun, a marijuana leaf and a basketball. (Those are the pieces for this "game.") Chang proclaimed himself innocent of any racist motives and said it was all in good fun. Several black leaders called for the game to be yanked from store shelves.

That would let Chang off too easy. We should insist that if he's going to peddle Ghettopoly, then at least tell the truth about all those who play a role in ghetto life and include them in the game. Here are just a few of the folks Chang left out who should be included as pieces in Ghettopoly.

1. Stupid cops and stupid judges: Surely Chang remembers the case of Alberta Spruill, the Harlem woman who died of a heart attack this past May. Spruill's heart attack was induced when cops, acting on highly unreliable information supplied by a confidential informant, broke down her door and hurled a concussion grenade into her apartment. New York's finest were
looking for guns, drugs and a suspect. There were no guns or drugs. The suspect they were after was locked away in jail at the time of the raid. Activist Rev. Al Sharpton and lawyer Johnnie Cochran raised holy hell, and rightly so. But their anger focused on police. The real culprit here is the stupid judge who signed the warrant with no more probable cause than the word of a confidential informant. That brings us to the next group of folks
missing from Ghettopoly.

2. The confidential informants themselves: Police probably couldn't do their jobs without them, but confidential informants are, in the words of one Maryland police chief, people who, for the most part, should be in jail themselves. They're an integral part of ghetto life, as are:

3. The cop on the take and,
4. The trigger-happy cop (Chang should do a Google search for Amadou Diallo) and the psychotic cop (do a Lexis-Nexis search for Abner Louima, Mr. Chang).

5. No genuine game of Ghettopoly would be complete without: whites who drive into the ghetto to buy drugs. How could Chang ignore these folks, without whom the drug trade couldn't possibly survive? Ghetto residents see these slumming, spaced-out Caucasians all the time. Their dollars help fuel those drug turf wars and violence that Chang seems to think are oh-so-funny. But druggies aren't the only whites who visit the ghetto. No
Ghettopoly game would be complete without:
6. White johns who leave their wives in the suburbs to venture into the inner city searching for black prostitutes.

7. And how could Chang leave his own ethnic group out of Ghettopoly? Asians own most of the small stores in the ghetto. An authentic board game about inner city life would feature a storeowner like the one who fatally shot Los Angeles area teen-ager Latarsha Harlins in the back of the head after a dispute over a bottle of juice. Perhaps adding those Asian store owners who
let drug dealers sling from inside their stores, or who knowingly sell tobacco products - including cigars from which blunts are made - to minors, would be a nice touch.

Some black ghetto residents have stereotyped Asian storeowners as rude, aloof, bigoted price gougers. Since one good stereotype deserves another, Chang shouldn't hesitate about including Asian stereotypes in Ghettopoly. But I suspect at this point Chang's sense of humor - so well developed
where blacks are concerned - will perhaps start to desert him.

Maybe then he'll get the point: black ghetto residents who've seen their children caught in the crossfire of the drug wars, who are held hostage in their homes by drug dealers, or who've witnessed the rash of gang slayings like the ones that have shocked Los Angeles don't see the humor in it all.

Funny man Chang should get the message: Ghettopoly is a bad idea whose time should never have come.

Gregory Kane is an award-winning columnist for the Baltimore Sun. In 1997 he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on slavery in the Sudan. That work won him the 1997 Overseas Press Club Award.

BlackAmericaWeb.com Staff


Copyright ?2001-2003 BlackAmericaWeb.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Steeltrap]

This was actually originally in CC, but still worth looking at. From the New York Times:

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October 17, 2003
OP-ED COLUMNIST
An Ugly Game
By BOB HERBERT

hettopoly is a board game, based on Monopoly, and it has a lot of people fired up.

Marches and protests by people denouncing the game as racist have distributors running for cover. Yahoo and eBay have blocked the sale of the game on their sites, and the Urban Outfitters chain has stopped selling it in stores.

People are outraged — outraged! — that a game would portray inner-city blacks as pimps and hustlers and ho's.

Kweisi Mfume, president of the N.A.A.C.P., has threatened to boycott sellers of Ghettopoly, which he described as "demeaning, repugnant and reprehensible, to say the least."

For the record: Ghettopoly is without question an ugly game that promotes disgusting racial stereotypes. It presents blacks as murderous, thieving, dope-dealing, carjacking degenerates. Instead of the familiar Monopoly pieces, like top hats and thimbles, Ghettopoly players get to move around the board as pimps, machine guns and rocks of crack cocaine.

So I'm not feeling sorry for David Chang, the game's beleaguered 28-year-old creator. What I'd like to know is why all this outrage is springing up over a board game when so little is heard in the way of protest about the outlandishly self-destructive behavior that gives rise to a game like Ghettopoly, and which is burying any chance of a viable future for extraordinary numbers of young black men and women, and their children.

How can you march against a game and not march against the real-life slaughter on the streets and in the homes of inner cities across America? Violent crime, ignorance and disease are carving the very heart out of America's black population.

The president of the Los Angeles Council of Churches, the Rev. Leonard Jackson, told me last spring about the long line of funerals he's had to conduct for young black men and women, and boys and girls. He seemed on the verge of tears. "The young people have more of a chance of dying here in South Central than in a military combat zone," he said.

Instead of using their influence to help stop the slaughter, certain truly twisted elements of the hip-hop culture encourage it, celebrating it in songs that not only glorify murderous violence, but also degrade black people to a degree that should leave any sensible person stupefied.

"We dangerous," says one song. "Bitches pay a fee just to hang with us."

Trust me, we've got some problems that are bigger than Ghettopoly. We've got insane young men who take their heavy armament into the street and shoot up the neighborhood, and then go back inside to listen to music that celebrates the act of shooting up the neighborhood. That is not a sign of a healthy culture.

It's not that there's been no protest. Marc Morial, the new president of the Urban League, said in a speech last summer that "too many of our young black males believe that manhood is defined by the ability to injure or damage another man, rather than helping another man."

The Urban League, the N.A.A.C.P. and many other groups and individuals are trying to address some of the myriad problems facing black America.

But the efforts have been too few and too timid. And they haven't been accompanied by the bold, honest, creative and self-critical thinking that is an absolutely necessary precursor to action that would be effective.

Ghettopoly is a stupid and offensive game. But its reach is nowhere near as vast or as dangerous as the "Lord of the Flies" street culture that is seducing one generation after another of black children, and producing freakish entertainers like Nelly and 50 Cent.

We learned last month that Nelly, a male rapper from St. Louis, was marketing a new drink called Pimp Juice — aimed, I suppose, at ni**** and ho's. The drink was a follow-up to Nelly's hit song of the same name, a song with such immortal lines as "You ain't from Russia, so bitch why you Russian?"

50 Cent has the top album of the year, and one of the hit songs is "P.I.M.P." He brags in the song that he'll have his ho "stripping in the street." Of one of his women, he says, "The last n****she was with put stitches in her head."

That's not entertainment. That's a symptom.



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top

[NinjaPoodle]

The game is available again

This from the official website:
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Important message!!!
After a few false starts we are finally back online and taking orders again. More then just an updated look, our new site uses state of the art technology that allows us to keep you up to date on the latest Ghettopoly news and developments.


It has recently came to our attention that there are certain sites and/or stores selling unauthorized and potentially bootleg copies of Ghettopoly.

Due to the overwhelming demand for Ghettopoly we have not yet begun to sell to any wholesalers, and we have no intentions of doing so in the near future.

Those sites are also claiming to guarantee shipping by Christmas. Based on our experience, we feel that there is a very high chance that it will not happen, since they have to first purchase the games from us, and then reship it to you. If it does, please let us know, we would like to know how they are able to do that.

If you have recently seen or purchased any such games please contact us immediately. Make sure to include your information and the seller’s information in your message so we can do an investigation on the matter.

You may also qualify for a reward if we successfully catch and prosecute the offending parties. "


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I hope the bootleggers put him out of business.
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Also..for you Haters (that would include me)

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From the creator of the game David Chang
A Message To The Haters
Ask yourself; Is Jay Leno a racist because he made a comment about Asian people eating dogs? How about Snoop Dog, on his TV show on MTV, is he a racist too?
What do you think when Rappers rap about "Chinky eyes" or "eyes slanted like", should they be called racist also. Or how about the broken English Asians who are portrayed in Black Movies, are the people who laugh, all racist?


Should we also ban every single comedian who cracks jokes about Asians?

For those of you who say, "why don't you make Chinkopoly ?" The word Chink is a Racist word, Ghetto is not. The last time I checked, there may be one Asian rapper on MTV, even then you would probably ask me who he is.

Simply, there would not be enough interest in the American market place, because being an Asian in this Country is not consider too "Hip". Did you ever see an Asian action figure? And those that say "OH OH, he used the word Ghetto" that must mean he thinks all African Americans are just the images than that are in the game.

There are all ethnic groups portrayed in Ghettopoly. Including Asians, Irish, Jewish, Hispanics, Whites, and Italians, just like any "Ghetto".

It's a shame that when the news media decided to turn something into a story, they only speak of the black properties that's in the game. They always fail to mention cards and properties that are of other ethnicity. Remember, the game is called Ghettopoly not Blackopoly. The word black is not even mentioned anywhere in the game PERIOD.

I hope from this message some of you should know that I am not a racist person, but someone who decided to make a game that we all can enjoy and relate to. And what is so wrong with a game that not made by your everyday corporations.

When I play with a traditional board game with my friends, it simply does not appeal to me much. To your dismay, Hip Hop Culture is what I gravitate towards, so naturally when I decided to make a game, I want to give it an urban edge.

Stereotypes are everywhere, when you flip to MTV or BET you do not often see the same images and lyrics, rappers rapping about sipping on 40's, pimping hoes, smoking the chronics, slinging crack rocks, wicked jump shots.

So with that said, I think before you pass judgment on my game, you should just see it for what it is. It is just a game. It's not so different from what's already out there in the entertainment media in America.

So if this game should be banned than there are tons of other forms of entertainments that also need to be banned. Just because you don't find this game funny and original, it does not give you the right to call me a racist or worst yet, try to ban it. However you do have every right not to buy it.

I also think that some of you, not all, who wrote and called me all those nasty names are simply mad because you didn't think of Ghettopoly first. I am sorry that my last name is of Asian decent, maybe if my last name was different, some of you might not be so harsh.

David Chang


P.S. For those of you who is concern in regards to my legal issues with the OPOLY people, please do a search for opoly in Ebay or any search engine you like. I think it will answer most of your questions.

For more interesting reading, please visit http://www.antimonopoly.com/the_full_story.html and http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa121997.htm


David Chang and Ghettopoly: Proponents of Free Speech