GAME'S RACE, SEX STEREOTYPES DRAW A STORM OF CRITICISM

The holiday marketing of a novelty board game containing stereotypical caricatures of blacks, broken English and a description of the District Building as the "Big Watermelon" drew sharp criticism yesterday from Washington political and community leaders.

The Monopoly-like game, called Home Rulette, focuses on the District government, elected officials and black institutions, but also takes aim at the homeless, homosexuals and women.

The game, which sells for $29.95, is distributed by the Sensitivity Institute, which has a post office address in Arlington but no telephone directory listing. The game's manufacturers could not be reached for comment.

Among the material included in the game is a description of 14th Street NW as "the entertainment and cultural mecca for D.C.'s home folks. If you are into drugs or you want to get kinky, this is the place." There also are references to "Dupe Circle, "Fruit Loop," "Dyke Drive" and "Fag Fairway."

Several Washington leaders expressed anger that the game is being sold in Washington stores.

"It goes beyond the bounds of legitimate satire and in some respects plays on negative racial stereotypes," said David A. Clarke (D), D.C. Council chairman.

Council member Wilhelmina J. Rolark (D-Ward 8) said: "It shows how far we are going back . . . . I'm appalled at this. I really am."

It could not be determined yesterday how many retailers are selling the game. It was pulled from the shelves of the Card and Party Shop in the Georgetown Park Mall on Tuesday after complaints, according to the store owner's son, Tim Freese.

Freese said the store sold three of the dozen games that were bought from a salesman about three weeks ago. Freese said the salesman told him that he sold "30 or 40" Home Rulette games at victory parties on presidential election night.

"Shoot, that's the Georgetown customer," said Freese, who said he thought the game was amusing political satire. "I figured if they were selling them at parties, I'd be able to sell them here."

At Georgetown Tee's on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, where the game has been stocked for about two months, store manager Nasser Afraz said yesterday that nobody had complained.

"They just read it and start laughing," Afraz said. "Sometimes they buy it and sometimes they say they're going to come back and buy it."

On the game board, the NAACP is described as the "National Association for the Advancement of Certain People" and the NEA is the "National Excretory Association." An illustration of a white man boiling in a large pot, as two African warriors stand on each side, has the caption "South African Embassy."

Homeless advocate Mitch Snyder is referred to in the game as "Pitch Snyder -- poverty entrepreneur that uses winos, the shiftless and crazies as tools to build political power and create a welfare fifedom {sic} ."

The last page of the game instruction manual includes a disclaimer: "Yes, we hate most everybody . . . . "

After seeing the game yesterday, Clarke said: "I would hope that no self-respecting merchant in the city would seek to make a profit out of this nonsense, including those in Georgetown. I find it incredible that it would be distributed by something that would call itself the Sensitivity Institute."

Betti Whaley, president of the Washington Urban League, said the game sounded atrocious. "It reinforces stereotypes and creates some, which is even worse," she said.

The Rev. Willie Wilson, pastor of the Union Temple Baptist Church, said the game "is certainly in keeping with the temper of the times. It's become quite fashionable for people to say and do derogatory things."

A reference to the church, "Union Pimple Baptist Church Bash Chinks Project," makes a parody of demonstrations organized at Wilson's church against a Chinese American carryout owner after he allegedly pulled a gun on a black patron.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.