Banned anti-welfare board game re-released to feature ‘Obozo the Marxist clown’
A board game that was banned in the 1980s will be re-released as “Obozo’s America: Why Bother Working for a Living?” The game features insulting stereotypes about welfare recipients as well as a depiction of a “Marxist Clown… juggling Hope and Change balls.” The board game’s creator, Bob Johnson, says in a statement that the game “was forced off the retail market in the 1980s by government officials working with the NAACP, NOW, and other welfare ‘rights’ groups.”
According to a press release announcing the rerelease of the game:
“„“Obozo’s America” is essentially the same as “Public Assistance” with these new features: the “Welfare Promenade” is now “Obozo’s Welfare Promenade;” each of the 50 Welfare Benefit cards and each of the 50 Working Person’s Burden cards begins with “Obozo Says;” and, an image of Obozo the Marxist Clown, juggling Hope and Change balls, appears in each of the corners.
“„Players begin on Obozo’s Welfare Promenade with an initial welfare grant of $1,000, then maneuver along the Promenade, getting cash for producing out-of-wedlock children, for drawing extensive welfare benefits, and for their success in four “Saturday Night” crimes (Prostitution, Armed Robbery, Gambling, and Drugs). Players can also get a job for their live-in on the “Government Cakewalk,” and if they are caught in crime, experience the “Jail Jaunt” – one roll of the dice and they’re back at the welfare office collecting all benefits. [Emphasis mine]
“„Players try to avoid landing on one of the dreaded “Get a Job” blocks which forces them off Obozo’s Welfare Promenade into the Working Person’s Rut. Hey, somebody has to pay for all the welfare, crime, and government!
Besides depicting welfare recipients as prostitutes, violent thieves, gamblers and drug addicts, the game’s website features an image of the president as “Obozo the Marxist Clown.”
In the right-wing publication American Thinker, Johnson writes:
“„First, ACORN is the NAACP, NOW, ACLU, and other “welfare rights advocates” all rolled into one, funded by you and me to facilitate the expansion of the welfare empire and its socialist/Marxist agenda. Obama was, and still is, an advocate for ACORN. That means he is an advocate for the suppression of free speech and free press. The only “civil right” Obama honors is the “right” of some to fare well at the involuntary expense of the productive members of society.
“„Second, the American Public Human Services Association, or APHSA (formerly the APWA) runs a half-a-trillion-dollar welfare empire. Had you ever heard of this fourth branch of government and its elitist parasites before? They, or an affiliated group, will run Obama “Care.”
“„Third, like the APHSA, the Obama administration is determined to maintain its power through propaganda, agitation, and projection. The false “racist” attack worked against us and our game in 1980, and it still works today.
“„Fourth, the welfare game board graphically portrays Obama’s destructive vision for American society. The hundred-dollar bill in the game pictures Karl Marx with the motto “Equality Taxation Poverty.” Is that not Obama’s unspoken goal?
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida is currently fighting a new law in Florida that requires welfare recipients to take a drug test before receiving benefits. Howard Simon, the executive director of the ACLU of Florida, has called the law a propagation of offensive stereotypes about welfare recipients. “The law is not just unconstitutional and illegal, it’s a public policy that rests on ugly stereotypes,” Simon said.
The ACLU’s client in the lawsuit is a welfare recipient — as well as a Navy veteran, a student at the University of Central Florida and a single father.
