‘Blacks & Whites’ (1970)
In 1970, Psychology Today published a board game where players choose to either be “Black” or a “White,” and their choice handily determines who wins the game.
According to the instructions, the game tries to emphasize, “the absurdities of living in different worlds while playing on the same board.”
The whites, who comprised the majority of players, started with $1 million and can buy property anywhere on the board. Their Black counterparts are the minority, start the game with only $10,000 and can’t buy many properties.
The property clusters had outrageous names such as “inner ghetto” and “outer ghetto” to “lower integrated” and “upper integrated,” and “newer estates” and “older estates.”
The “Blacks” and “Whites” each draw from their own set of “opportunity cards.” A typical Black card: “Government begins urban-renewal project. You lose both Harlem and Watts. Collect full price less 10% from Treasury.”