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'Ghettopoly' game causes outrage
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| tennessee_raver |
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- 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.
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| You aint Ninja |
| What the , don't see anything wrong with the game. |
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| Mebot |
| i call being the pimp wand gamepiece! |
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| QuickStep |
I'm soo buying this.
We are going to do a pime 'n ho night for this game. I also want to be the crack rock! |
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| Floorfiller |
| you know...all the guy has to do is make an asian version and then everyone can shut the hell up about it being racist...besides...in downtown philly...those things are all true :p |
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| butterfly |
| i totally agree that it is "wrong" and all that but it sure is funny as . |
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| mizzuno |
a game is wrong yet rap lyrics can reflect the same attitude and be ok..somewhat hypocritical if you ask me....
Mizz |
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| mr. poopyhead |
| quote: | Originally posted by mizzuno
a game is wrong yet rap lyrics can reflect the same attitude and be ok..somewhat hypocritical if you ask me....
Mizz |
well according to this article, its black clergy men who are opposed to the game, so i don't see it as being hipocrisy... it would only be hipocrisy if 50 cent or some other ghetto-thug rapper condemned the game, cause they're the ones perpetuating black stereotypes in the media.... |
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| Swamper |
| I don't mind the game - only the part of disrespecting the names of actual people |
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| Floorfiller |
| quote: | Originally posted by mr. poopyhead
well according to this article, its black clergy men who are opposed to the game, so i don't see it as being hipocrisy... it would only be hipocrisy if 50 cent or some other ghetto-thug rapper condemned the game, cause they're the ones perpetuating black stereotypes in the media.... |
yeah... rappers probably would want a copy hahaha |
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| mr. poopyhead |
| quote: | Originally posted by Swamper
I don't mind the game - only the part of disrespecting the names of actual people |
seriously... those guys actually tried to make life better for black people. and now you have a bunch of rappers telling kids that their highest goal in life should be to join a gang and deal crack... live the "thug life"...
"i'm keepin it real! real DUMB" - chris rock |
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| hadi burpee |
| i wonder if they have that game at the urban outfitters in pasadena, gotta run over and get it before they get them pulled |
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