Blacks & Whites (1970)

Warning: This game explores issues of racial inequality and it is useful to read the context of the game design before playing. Some may find the method of exploration of these issues offensive. In Blacks & Whites players experience life in the ghetto. Live on Welfare. Try to buy a place in a white suburb. Your challenge: To keep the land-hungry majority type from winning the game cheaply and quickly. Players were divided into Whites and Blacks and had to make economic progress while competing with each other. Based on "Monopoly", the idea was to demonstrate how the odds were stacked against black people in society by having different rules for each race in the game. The difference between this and all the other roll-and-move go-around-the board-buying-property games is that before the game, each player assumes the role of either a Black or White person. Whites start out as the majority with $1,000,000.00 to spend and are able to buy property anywhere. Blacks start out as the minority with only $10,000.00 to spend; are unable to buy certain properties; have to draw from a separate Chance deck; are banned from purchasing property in the 'Surburban Zone'; and collect less money for completing a lap around the gameboard. Blacks are limited to certain areas of the board until they had accumulated at least $100,000.00. Players are encouraged to change the rules when anyone lands on the People's Park space.