Historical Inequities - Addressing America's Racial Wealth Divide

Historical Inequities - Addressing America's Racial Wealth Divide

Playing ‘Rigged Monopoly’ to Explore the Legacy of Inequality

Focus Questions: How can society address economic inequities created during slavery and that continued to the present following the federal abandonment of Reconstruction policies?

CA Content Standards:

Slavery:

8.7.1 Describe the development of the agrarian economy in the South, identify the locations of the cotton-producing states, and discuss the significance of cotton and the cotton gin.

8.11.3. Understand the effects of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the restrictions placed on the rights and opportunities of freedmen, including racial segregation and “Jim Crow” laws.

Alternative: Civil Rights / US Poverty:

11.10.2 Examine and analyze the key events, policies, and court cases in the evolution of civil rights, including Dred Scott v.Sandford, Plessy v.Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, and California Proposition 209.

11.11.6 Analyze the persistence of poverty and how different analyses of this issue influence

welfare reform, health insurance reform, and other social policies

Historical Thinking Framework: The Big Six – “The Ethical Dimension”:

Guidepost 4: A fair assessment of the ethical implications of history can inform us of our responsibilities to remember and respond to the contributions, sacrifices, and injustices of the past.

Student Understandings:

●  Students will appreciate some of the roots of the current wealth imbalance between white and black Americans based on an understanding of the economic impact of slavery and the federal abandonment of Reconstruction.

●  Students will develop an appreciation of the “ethical implications of history”, including the concept of reparations as a contemporary solution to the inequities fostered by slavery.

●  Students will understand how different stakes in and relationships to an experience influence ethical judgements and responses.

●  Students will explore basic economic concepts such as real property, wealth and income by playing the game Monopoly.

Student will be able to:

●  Propose a response to a simulated historical inequity taking into account historical perspective and presentism.

●  Write a reflection on the process based on a contemporary understanding of the historical context.

●  Track and graph the growth of wealth among the players and compare the differing outcomes based on presence or lack of power of each of the represented groups [extension activity].

Teaching Thesis:

Discrimination and economic exploitation leave a legacy of poverty and disadvantage. Addressing this historic inequity requires more than a simple cessation of the exploitation. The accumulated economic imbalance must be addressed, invoking serious questions of ethical responsibility and redress.

The extraction of wealth over long periods of time, as in the case of the enslavement of African people in the Americas, creates a legacy that lasts generations. This wealth in the hands of white Americans multiplies to produce more wealth and economic power. Simply correcting the basis of the over-exploitation does not address this legacy, as the economic imbalance continues to be perpetuated moving forward.

A related challenge is that the political power to redress historic imbalances usually rests with the privileged class – the beneficiaries of the exploitation. Any attempts at reparations will invoke stake-holders material interests. Appealing to ethical principles becomes a central theme during this process.

Sequence: This activity can be incorporated into an economic course or as part of the study of the Civil Rights movement. Economic issues are explored as well as attempts to rectify historical imbalances such as Affirmative Action and reparations. The suggested readings can be incorporated as the teacher sees fit.

Time and Materials:

2-3 class periods; At least one copy of the Monopoly game every 6 students; Copies of the Supplemental Rules and Student Handout; Candy bars for ‘purchase’

Reading: Excerpts from:

●  Baptist, E. E. (2014). The half has never been told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism. New York, NY: Basic Books.

●  Coates, T. (2014, June). The case for reparations. The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

●  McKernan et.al. (2015). Nine charts about wealth inequity in the America. Nonprofit Quarterly. Urban Institute. website: http://bit.do/WealthGap-NPQ

●  Seixas, P (n.d.). Historical thinking concepts. The Historical Thinking Project. website: http://historicalthinking.ca/historical-thinking-concepts

Procedure:

Day 1:

Tell your students they're about to do something fun – play a board game that many of them know but they are going to play by revised rules. They are going to learn the official rules of Monopoly – and learn about the real-world economic principles the game represents. Walk your students through the rules of the game, explaining how they relate to real-life economic concepts:

●  Rent is what you pay when you live on or use someone else's property.

●  Income is a source of cash flow (like the $200 you get for passing "Go" or the money you collect in rent).

●  Liabilities are costs you have to pay – like rent and tax.

●  Real property consists of land and buildings on that land. Assets are what you own (cash, property)

●  Wealth is a measure of your assets minus your liabilities.

The original game: Divide your class into Monopoly "teams." There should be three teams for every Monopoly board in the classroom. There can be 1-2 players on each team [at least 2 for the extension activities]

Allow the teams to play the game for at least six turns.

The more real world: Begin the next session by reminding students that Monopoly is just a model of the economic world. Reality is always more complex and has greater stakes. The students will start a new game of Monopoly. This time, however, you will introduce new rules that reflect a more complex reality and provide motivational ‘stakes’ (the ability to purchase candy bars after the game with their ending Monopoly earnings).

Setup: Prepare three envelopes, one labeled for each team. Insert:

Hats: $1,500 cash, the Get Out of Jail Free & Pennsylvania Avenue Cards. (2x500; 3x100; 2x50; 3x20;3x10; 2x5)

Shoes: $750 cash and the St. Charles Place property Cards. (1x500;1x100; 2x50; 1x20; 2x10; 2x5)

Wheelbarrows: $200 cash. (1x100; 1x50; 1x20; 2x10; 2x5)

Each team should choose one of three tokens to represent it: the Wheelbarrow, the Hat, or the Shoe. After each team has chosen its token, announce the ‘stakes’ read and pass out copies of your "supplemental rules" for Monopoly:

Track Wealth: Teams use the chart (or Google Sheets) to record changes in their total wealth after each turn.

Stakes: After the game, students can purchase different candy bars with their ending Monopoly money.

Revised Rules:

Rules for Hats: You are allowed to play Monopoly by the regular rules. Every time the Wheelbarrow rolls the dice, you receive $10 x the dice roll. (i.e. you receive $40 on a roll of 4). Every time you receive money from the Wheelbarrow, you must give 10% of it to the Shoe. Read the others’ rules!

Rules for Wheelbarrows: You start the game with $200. For the first five turns you are allowed to have no more than $200 at a time. Any additional money must be given to the Hat. You are not allowed to buy any property for the first five turns. In the sixth and seventh turn, you are allowed to buy property, but only on the properties between the "Go" square and the "Jail" square.

Rules for Shoes: You start the game with $750 and play by the normal rules. Every time the Car collects from the Wheelbarrow for any reason, 1/10th of the collected income is given to the Shoe. In the case of collected property, 1/10 of the board purchase price is given in cash to the Shoe.

Play for played seven – ten rounds. At the end, be sure to record each player’s location on the board, list of properties & other holdings (e.g. ‘Get out of Jail’ card) and cash so the same game can resume the following day.

Day 2:

Equality for all: Announce that you have received many complaints and realize that the rules are unfair. Tell the class that in the interest of equality, everyone now plays by the normal rules. Continue the same game and record results for an additional 6-8 rounds.

Stop the class and ask students to record and compare their wealth. [Option: Create a simple graph showing wealth at the start, after the first session, and after playing by the ‘fair’ rules.] Discuss what students see. Ask how long it will take for the Wheelbarrows to catch up? Why is it hard for the Wheelbarrows even though they all have the same rules? Is the situation now fair? Why or why not?

Rectification: Break the class into groups by token (Hats meet together, Shoes meet together, etc.). Ask each group to develop a proposal to alter the games in progress to make them more fair. As in life, starting over is not an option. Share out the various proposals from each discussion. Record arguments and supporting evidence/justifications. Students then return to their original groups to debate and decide (vote?) how to proceed to rectify the imbalance. The set of players in each game may select their own resolutions, so there will be multiple approaches as the class moves forward. Play six more rounds and record results.

Wrap-up & Writing Prompt:

As a class, discuss how the different groups addressed the inequities and the results following the adoption of the rectification plan. Did it feel fair afterwards? Did it correct the wealth imbalance?

For homework, ask your students to write a short reflection in response to the following prompt:

Should reparations serve as a way to address economic inequities created during slavery and that continued following the federal abandonment of Reconstruction policies? Why or why not?

Encourage students to think about how their status in the game (Hat, Shoe or Wheelbarrow) affects their answer.

Devin Hess www.edtechsplore.com Link to electronic version: bit.do/Monopoly

Adapted by Devin Hess from Teaching Tolerance – Southern Poverty Law Center’s The Real Monopoly–America’s Racial Wealth Divide