I think that I'm going to have to get me some copies of this game! Would make great Christmas presents! 
PHILADELPHIA (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 neighbourhood addicted to crack. Collect $50." Black clergymen said 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 Wednesday.
"If we are silent on this issue there is more of this type to come," Rev. Robert Shine, 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 labelled Smitty's XXX Peep Show, Weinstein's Gold and Platinum and Tyrone'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 website, Chang is unapologetic and promises 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 labelled "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 are just the latest to protest the game. In Chicago, 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.
© The Canadian Press, 2003
posted October 09, 2003 08:50
posted October 09, 2003 10:28
posted October 09, 2003 13:02
