Fighting Systemic Racism Creatively with Perry Clemons of Inequalityopoly

Perry Clemons (He/His) is an African-American third-grade teacher from Harlem, N.Y. He has created a board game called Inequality-opoly: The Board Game of Structural Racism and Sexism in America. Inequality-opoly is a custom property trading game that transforms recent national studies into a perspective-taking experience. In this game like, in the real world, certain players based on their perceived identity enjoy privileges while others face obstacles to building wealth.

The mission of Inequality-opoly is to spread awareness and advance discourse about the effects of Structural Racism and Sexism in America. The objective of Inequality-opoly is to battle with or benefit from Structural Racism and/or Sexism to become the wealthiest player and partnership by buying, renting, developing property, and (most importantly) making deals. Whichever player or partnership has the most wealth at the end of the game wins.

The idea for Inequality-opoly came when Perry attended diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings. During these trainings, Perry noticed the difficulties the facilitators faced in demonstrating the effect of racial and gender discrimination in a way that is engaging and personalized to all the people in the room. As an educator for over a decade, he knows the best way to teach or reinforce something is to make it a game. He thought that gamifying diversity training would make for deeper understanding and richer discussions. After 3 years of research, development, and playtesting, Inequality-opoly is now for sale thanks to a successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaign at www.inequalityopoly.com