GHETTOPOLY

Rense: 'Ghettopoly' Is What Happens When Hip-Hop Is Celebrated

"How can black people be outraged over a board game when black superstars have gotten rich by promoting those same stereotypes? These performers aren't boycotted. They are worshipped."


By the time I called Urban Outfitters on Rush Street to find out if they had any more "Ghettopoly" games on their shelves, they had sold out.

"I'll have to put you on the waiting list," the clerk told me.

"How long is the list?"

"It's a two-week wait."

I tried another Urban Outfitters, this one at 2352 N. Clark.

"We've got a pretty long waiting list," the clerk said.

Either the clerks were lying, or consumers rushed down to Urban Outfitters to purchase the controversial board game the morning after WLS-Channel 7's Charles Thomas reported that the retailer was selling "Ghettopoly" at its chain stores.

The game is a takeoff on Monopoly. But as Thomas reported, instead of a top hat, cane and mustache, the Ghettopoly guy is a "thuggish, bandana-wearing black man with bug eyes, peering over dark glasses. He clenches a marijuana cigarette, holding an Uzi in one hand and a bottle of malt liquor in the other."

Game cards include ghetto stash and hustle cards, a loan shark tray, 40 crack houses, 17 projects, pink slip cards and seven game pieces (Pimp, Hoe, 40 oz, Machine Gun, Marijuana Leaf, Basket Ball and Crack) and counterfeit money.

The fallout from activists in the black community over the board game has been fast and furious.

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