Race, Role Playing, and Simulation Games in the Civil Rights Era: Ghetto, Blacks & Whites, and El Barrio
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| Title: | Race, Role Playing, and Simulation Games in the Civil Rights Era: Ghetto, Blacks & Whites, and El Barrio |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Chris A. Rasmussen |
| Source: | American Journal of Play. 2025 17(1):11-46. |
| Availability: | The Strong. One Manhattan Square, Rochester, NY 14607. Tel: 585-263-2700; e-mail: info@thestrong.org; Web site: https://www.museumofplay.org/journalofplay/ |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 36 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Evaluative |
| Descriptors: | Educational Games, Racism, Racial Segregation, Poverty, Civil Rights, Role Playing, Simulation, Game Based Learning, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Educational History, United States History, Ghettos, Program Effectiveness |
| ISSN: | 1938-0399 1938-0402 |
| Abstract: | The author discusses how social scientists and psychologists in the late 1960s and early 1970s devised the board games Ghetto, Blacks & Whites, and El Barrio to teach students in college and high school about racism, racial segregation, and poverty in American society. But, he also argues, these games assumed that poor Black and Latino Americans bore some individual responsibility for their poverty and could, with great effort, escape the ghetto or the barrio. Rasmussen concludes that these games simultaneously encouraged players to become more aware of racial inequality and replicated ideas about race and segregation prevalent among social scientists and game designers at the time, ideas that are considered questionable or even discounted today. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1464766 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | The author discusses how social scientists and psychologists in the late 1960s and early 1970s devised the board games Ghetto, Blacks & Whites, and El Barrio to teach students in college and high school about racism, racial segregation, and poverty in American society. But, he also argues, these games assumed that poor Black and Latino Americans bore some individual responsibility for their poverty and could, with great effort, escape the ghetto or the barrio. Rasmussen concludes that these games simultaneously encouraged players to become more aware of racial inequality and replicated ideas about race and segregation prevalent among social scientists and game designers at the time, ideas that are considered questionable or even discounted today. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1938-0399 1938-0402 |
