7th grade student creates racist boardgame for school project

In March of this year, this racist board game was created by a 7th grade student from Andover Middle School as a project about historical figures. The board game was actually put on display at a school open house. A parent took action and reported the school to the Witchita branch NAACP.

Among the game captions: "You forget to clean your white robe so you can't go to the lynching. You are punished. Move back two spaces."

According to the Witchita Eagle,

Brett White, the principal, said he talked with the teacher about her “changing the world for the better” unit, which included students reading “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry,” a novel about an African-American family experiencing oppression and racism in Mississippi during the 1930s.

The student was not trying to be offensive with the game, White said.

He said the student showed him fact cards, which were also a part of the game, that included questions about when the Klan was formed and why it used burning crosses.

“This was really heavy in his mind,” White said of the student. “He wanted the game to depict what he learned about in his research.”

I still feel unclear about the whole situation. I think that even if the boardgame was an attempt to display the horrors of the KKK, the game comes off as condoning racism.

It amazes me that the child's teacher felt confident displaying the game and did not think that someone might take issue. I think it is important to teach children of the evils of racism, however, I do not think this particular teacher guided her students well.