Disparity Trap

Disparity Trap: The Socially Conscious Board Game is a game where player can learn how race as a system impacts those of us who live within the United States. Disparity Trap can bring conversations about race to effective levels whether played at home with friends and family, in professional settings, or in junior high through college-level classrooms. The game play is like many of its kind, where your individual goal is to accrue as much wealth as possible. But where it differs is that you can play competitvely or cooperatively where you work with your fellow players to dismantle the Disparity Traps seeking to keep everyone in poverty. Within this game you also step into someone else’s shoes; to experience the disparities within an identity different from your own. Throughout the game, the dice roll correlates your identity in the game to real life statistics. So like life, the dice are in your “hands,” but the odds are not. In the competitive version, the first play around the board wins. In the cooperative version, all players must make it to Tier 3 and obtain 3 or more wealth tiles. If, however, any 2 players are separated by more than 1 tier, the game is lost. A print-n-play workbook is available for educators and cards have QR codes for more learning opportunities. A simplified version of the rules was released in 2024. —description from the designer