It is no secret that mainstream America has been capitalizing on urban areas. Take a look at the hip-hop industry of today and any movie starring an all-black or all-Hispanic cast.
Interscope rapper 50 Cent has magnified his misfortune of being shot nine times and the record company is capitalizing on this. It is no secret that the majority of movies with minority actors are about living in the streets, being in gangs, selling and using drugs and other things that are associated with the ghetto; for example, “Baby Boy,” “Menace II Society,” “Boyz in the Hood.”
All of these things send the wrong message to people of other races who do not know anything more about black people. The outrage is that now, other minorities are making money and capitalizing off of the stereotypes of blacks.
David T. Chang, an Asian-American, has created Ghettopoly, a board game that is a stereotypical spoof of Monopoly. The game board is set up similar to Monopoly, but instead of railroads, there are liquor stores and the houses and hotels are replaced by the projects and crack houses.
The game comes complete with seven game pieces (pimp, ho, 40 ounce, marijuana, crack, a machine gun and a basketball), loan shark tray, pink slip and ghetto stash and hustle cards, counterfeit money and dice.
The game is beyond offensive and should be banned. Ghettopoly is being sold in Urban Outfitters stores nationwide and in most cases is selling out. It is funny that some reporters use the term selling out because those are my sentiments exactly.
If we accept this game we might as well go back to black face and Sambo. This game takes a step back 100 years and we might as well be sitting on a tree stump barefoot, eating watermelon with red lipstick covering half of our faces to make it look like lips.
It is not bad enough that we demean ourselves by writing these screenplays filled with sex, drugs and violence, an Asian-American feels bold enough to stereotype an entire race and feels free enough to do over and over. Hoodopoly, Hiphopoly, Thugopoly and Redneckopoly will soon follow this game.
I don’t think I would be as offended if the games included “Karate-opoly” because then the object of the games would be to poke fun at a variety of cultures and not just those that pertain to one specific racial group. The truth of the matter is, the majority of these “-opoly” games are geared toward blacks and contain racist stereotypes.
The only way we can get other people from making fun of us is if we stop making fun of ourselves and stop being the stereotypes. It is up to us to be the way we want people to see us.
- Tiffany S. Jones