Monday, September 25, 2006

Life as a BlackMan- the board game*



from wikipedia's entry:

Life as a BlackMan is a board game designed and marketed by Underground Games, Inc., a black-owned game company chaired by C.E.O. Chuck Sawyer. Unlike the Game of Life, which simulates life for upper-middle class whites, the intent of Life as a BlackMan is to depict life's struggle to get ahead from the perspective of oppressed minorities in the United States. The game is promoted as a way to teach tolerance. However, critics of the game charge that Life as a BlackMan, like Ghettopoly, only reinforces negative stereotypes of black Americans.

Object of the Game:
Players begin the game as an eighteen-year-old black male high school graduate who is ready to enter the world and build a career. After starting the game, players must make their way through a number of treacherous districts, each with its own hazards and diversions....

...Building a pile of cash and getting rich is not the goal of this game. The one and only object of the game is to stop going around in endless circles, find a good career, and attain Freedom. The first person to reach Freedom wins.
company website: blackmangame.com (I really like their flash intro.)

*"we are, most of us,pawns in life. Our only consolation is-- the game cannot be played without us." -Georg Lukács(1885-1971)**

**No, not George Lucas.