"Ghettopoly" Makes Real Life a Minstrel Show

I have spent a great portion of my life either living in the ghetto, visiting the ghetto or associating with relatives who continue to struggle there every day.

Photo credit: ghettopoly.com

I came home to a hallway reeking of urine, or to hustlers quickly trying to hide their stash from the innocent eyes of children, or to crackheads scurrying about the playground looking for a rock, and their alcoholic friends dragging their feet to one of three corner stores in the neighborhood that sold liquor.

Many people living that life would gladly give anything to escape. We cannot continue to allow glorified stereotypes associated with 'hood life to be a source of status and praise, and here's why: Ghettopoly.

"Ghettopoly" is a board game created by Taiwanese immigrant David T. Chang.

It makes a mockery of a life that has hurt all blacks in the diaspora, because whether or not we are involved in it, we are linked to that life in terms of racial stereotyping. The game especially hurts blacks who do experience that life because it makes fun of something that to them is not fun and is very real.

In a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article by reporter Wyatt Buchanan, Chang is quoted as saying, "If we can'can't laugh at ourselves, then we'll continue to live in blame and bitterness."

Ghettopoly game cards

What he doesn't understand is that he's not laughing at himself, he's laughing at us. He seems to try to soften the blow by including stereotypes of Latinos, Jews, the Irish and Asians, and by planning to release "Redneckopoly."

But a press release says he is also planning "Hoodopoly," "Thugopoly" and "HipHopoly." With such titles, one cannot be sure that he isn't specifically talking about black people. Besides, where is Asianopoly?

Despite what Chang says, his games are turning real life for many blacks into a modern-day minstrel show, starring our community. The creation of such an ignorant and racist piece of garbage signals the dire need for blacks of the diaspora to put an end to the deification of ghetto life and the perpetuation of the negative stereotypes tagged to us.

The legacy of the black race is richer and much greater than the sadly ignorant Chang, and many others know, and that is what we should be perpetuating.

To those who will dare to ask, "would it be different if someone black created the game?" I say yes. My momma can cuss me out and say whatever she wants to me, but anyone else attempting to do so is just jumping up to get beat down.

Reshena Lanham, who grew up in Washington, D.C., is a student at Howard University who writes for The Hilltop.

Posted Oct. 15, 2003