Beloved Board Game Monopoly Is Racist, Claims Author
Cancel culture is coming for a beloved American board game, Monopoly.
In an article from The Atlantic titled, “The Prices on Your Monopoly Board Hold a Dark Secret,” author Mary Pilon claims that the best-selling game is racist.
“The property values of the popular game reflect a legacy of racism and inequality,” Pilon says. She tells of a realtor named Jesse Raiford who “affixed prices to the properties on his board to reflect the actual real-estate hierarchy at the time. And in Atlantic City, as in so much of the rest of the United States, that hierarchy reflects a bitter legacy of racism and residential segregation.”
Pilon wrote that Cyril and Ruth Harvey, some of Raiford’s friends, “played a key role in popularizing the game.” They lived on expensive walled neighbors like Pennsylvania Avenue, a “racial covenant” that “excluded Black citizens.”
The Harveys were alleged to employ a Black maid named Clara Watson, the article notes. She lived on Baltic Avenue, which was a low-income Black neighborhood. On the Monopoly board, it is priced at $60, which is the cheapest.
Pilon also pointed to Monopoly variants that hinted at racially-separated areas such as a Black business community centered on Kentucky Avenue and a Chinese American area called Oriental Avenue.
In 2019, a new Monopoly variant appeared called “Ms. Monopoly.” It was created to pander to feminists.
According to CNN, the game had mostly the same rules, except that male players would make 30% fewer Monopoly bucks than female players.
The game company Hasbro said in a statement that the game remake was “a fun new take on the game that creates a world where women have an advantage often enjoyed by men.”
