So the game ‘Ghettopoly’ has been pulled from most retailer shelves. Dag, I’m disappointed because I never got to see or play the game. I mean, come on. A game about crack heads and ho’s. 40 ounces but no mule. Pimps. Machine guns.
Didn’t you want to play?
And even though I suck at Monopoly (no patience) I would have collected all the crack houses, dime bags, and discarded needles before my fellow Americans could say ‘negro please’.
“When I say hey, you say ho”
“Hey”
“Ho”
“Hey”
“Ho”
“When I say hey you gotta go”
“Hey”
“Go”
“Out the do’”
To be honest my first reaction to the game … not much. No kidding. A ghetto game based on monopoly? I’m thinking ‘You know you’re in a black church when …”. Or maybe “playing some dozens”. I smiled. Black folks think of everything.
Pimps and ho’s? Machine guns? 40 ounces? From a Taiwanese-American? That didn’t cross my ‘two steps behind’ behind. (note: Me not getting this is not the same as Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson missing Rush’s social commentary. Like children watching violent video games – their senses were desensitized to what was really going on. My problem was not desensitization but occasional dim sensibility, coupled with too often an initial rose-colored outlook.)
But I know better. Eventually. And knew this was not right when heard the whole deal.
Ghetto.
I HATE THAT WORD cuz I never hear it used in a positive context and can’t remember the last time I heard it out of a black person’s mouth (excluding those in the creative arts). It was replaced a long time ago by ‘hood.
Ghetto.
A word frequently spoken by my white co-workers (generally male) to connote – “a place I’m not comfortable working in”. Then you hear the pause (waiting to hear your response). Then their sigh of relief, cuz I’ve gotten tired of giving one (response).
They think I feel their pain. I know I’m tired. (That’s why that study (see health page) said blacks suffer from more hypertension. It’s the the stress of dealing with racism. Responding all the time.)
Pimps. Ho’s. Drugs. Crime.
My problem – the fact that any area where two or more black folks are gathered is lumped under the heading ghetto. Because let’s put it out there. Few whites feel comfortable being totally surrounded by people of color. Any color. Unless the color is female. (We live in their world, not vice versa. And if you descended from slave owners and/or enjoy the remnants of slavery wouldn’t you have a little concern the slave descendants and/or those not benefiting might be a little pissed? And if a little pissed might take that pissiness out on the pissors?)
So who really has the power?
When the work area says low income, blue collar – it’s ghetto.
Hard working, middle class – it’s ghetto.
If it’s not Beverly Hills or Country Club Lane – it’s ghetto.
And I resent that. Mr. Chang.
There are some areas in some cities you cannot pay me to go to, through, near, or nearby. Because they’re dangerous. Has nothing to do with color. Has to do with live-li-hood. My life. Alive. Their hood. Which reminds me, I also don’t like white folks using the word hood or inner-city. Same reasons.
So Mr. Chang invents a game called Ghettopoly and then gets pissed when the uproar begins and retailers respond by removing it from their shelves and web sites.
Sorry. Hell, no I’m not. There was no redeeming value in that game. He knew that. I don’t know him and I know that.
The game was tacky.
The game was insulting.
The game was something I’m surprised was not created before now.
Because in the pecking order of life white folks are on top, Asians come second, Hispanics third, Blacks last. No I didn’t forget about the American Indian, but simply put and truthfully stated, they’re never considered a factor in 99% of American discussions. (note: Because American Indians now have a lot of casino cash, this may change. They contributed an awful lot of money to the recent California recall election.)
And when you’re on the bottom, those above get pleasure and bank kicking and keeping those below.
And the sad part, Ghetopoly is not the first kick or the last bank.
When we get kicked the requisite responses from the requisite triumverate of ‘Black leaders’ comes forth. Translation – Jackson, Sharpton, & the NAACP.
We call our pissiness into the Tom Joyner and Doug Banks and Steve Harvey radio shows.
Then those being threatened decide whether the threat has enough green value and if it does, the community gets what they want.
What we don’t usually get it someone saying “You know this was wrong. We never should have done this. We’re as much a part of the continuation of the problem as … (Chang, Rush, the sellers of slave memorabilia). We looked at the dollar signs and … that’s all we saw. And we were hoping you wouldn’t notice. Or at least not make too much of a fuss until we made a lot of money.”
Was any of that in the Yahoo or Ebay press releases?
But if we’re going to cast blame we cannot exclude ourselves. Yes, we made a fuss. Yes, we make a fuss. Yes, we can’t end racist behavior by ourselves. What more can we do?
How about a little “I’m mad as hell and not taking it anymore.”
We got the defense down, now let’s try some offense. I know defense wins games. But a mediocre offense + a great defense wins championships, i.e. Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Baltimore Ravens.
Let’s see. Hmm. (Believe it or not I’m really thinking here. I don’t always know where I’m going to go when I start to write.) Hmm.
When I was little and annoyed my sister too much eventually she’d get me back. It didn’t eliminate my behavior, but the more she gave back, the less I behaved. She wanted me to see how it felt. To get it.
So let Chang keep Ghettopoly on the market, but as reparations he has to donate the profits to diversity programs, Boys and Girls Clubs, groups devoted to eliminating intolerance. AND, yes there’s an and, he has to distribute, no matter the public pressure to pull, a few more games.
How about …
Hispanic Fly: The goal? To see how many Hispanics you can get across the border without being blown up by the border patrol. Then once across, how many family members you can move into a garage to live. Extra points to the player who can guess how many oranges and bananas Hispanics sell at LA intersections in a day. Playing pieces would include wetbacks and gang members, and female pieces would be dressed in layers and layers of tafetta.
Jew Down: The goal? To see how many businesses you can buy with the least amount of money, and the number of other ethnicities you can avoid hiring while saying Mazaltov. Playing pieces would have piercing eyes and hooked noses. For extra points, convince the rest of the world you didn’t kill Jesus Christ.
Jap Chap: The goal? To say “thank you very much” more than any other player in the least amount of time with a mouth full of rice and while squinting your eyes. Extra points if you can correctly determine from a group of Asians, who’s Japanese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, and on and on and on.
How about Heil Hitler: Blond hair blue eyed players try to convince the world that Hitler didn’t win the war without acknowledging there was a war because to do so condemns their parents and grandparents. Extra credit for guessing if you put a Jew in one oven at 1 o’clock at 350 degrees and another in an oven 15 minutes later at 400 degrees, who dies first.
Then there’s the Terrorist Twist. Everyone who looks Middle Eastern is put behind bars. Your mission – make them all guilty by association. Extra credit if you can sneak someone on board a plane without being triple checked in security. Ten bonus points if they have box cutters.
And last, but certainly not least, White is Right. A game where ego and arrogance is a must have. The goal, to get away with as much as you can but brainwash the rest of the players into thinking that’s okay because you didn’t invent the game, your great great great grandparents did. So how can you be blamed? Playing pieces were hoods because, well no reason, but it’s not to hide their identity. Extra points for every ‘equal rights’ law you can repeal by convincing it’s not an equal law, it’s a special law, and no one is more special than another.
Okay, I think I have entirely lost my mind and gone too far with this commentary. Translation – even those who know there’s brainwashing still can’t catch every reaction. And I’m feeling some trepidation that to make a point I’ve pushed the envelope open flat.
I hate stereotypes. And like ghetto and ‘hood and the inner city, they’re not used to make positive affirmations. So to create these games … even allow my mind to go there, makes me sick. We should all be sick right now. And if one game makes you sick, they all should.
But I’m angry. And I’m including myself in the blame for that anger.
Yes I’m tired of reacting. We all are.
Yes, we have to pick and choose our battles. But this does not translate into giving in. Doing just enough to feel you shouldn’t have guilt cuz at least you did something.
THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!
IT OBVIOUSLY DOESN’T WORK. Otherwise it would not have dawned on Chang to create Ghettopoly.
Ask not what everybody else can do for you, ask what you’ve done for yourself.
Maybe this particular offense is over, but another will occur.
So let’s step up the offense.
Let somebody else go on defense… for a change.
