Monday, September 29, 2008
Life Scruple™ of the Day!
Posted by Lindy West on Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 11:04 AM
From the classic '80s boardgame Scruples™ (which I found while cleaning out my apartment this weekend) here's your tough ethical dilemma of the day. Prepare to furrow those brows!
"Your teenage daughter is dating a young man of another race. Do you try to break them up?"
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Pros? Cons? Get Scruplin'™, people!
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1
Yes (duh). Your teenage daughter will then have the upper hand when it comes to how racially unbiased she is. She's already a woman, can't she just leave it at that?!
2
holy shit, that game was made in 1986! what the fuck?! it seems the real ethical dilemma is whether to throw the game away or not. does one controversial card spoil an entire board game? i think it sort of does...
6
Why isn't my teenage daughter dating a TEENAGE boy? So maybe it's semantics. The racial question is the red herring, it's really a question of the age difference.
And that being the case, I'd advise her against dating an older man.
But being as my father is from bi-racial parents, and I am from bi-racial parents, and my daughter is from bi-racial parents, I'd be a hypocrite to try to break them up.
7
If you try to break them up, she will automatically defy you and cling to him. Just be nice. Let her work through the pros and cons herself and support her decisions. Otherwise you could lose her.
8
wow. 1986.
And the obvious answer is no if you want your daughter to be fulfilled sexually. And you want your grandkids to be good athletes.
9
If 'man' means 18 or older, and teenage means younger than 18, yes. Race isn't an issue, it's the other ra_e word that is.
10
Please post more of these. I remember my parents playing this game at parties when I was a kid, but I wasn't allowed to watch.
11
#8 you know, black people and people of other races were allowed to play this game too.
the question from the game in no way assumes that the player is white, and that the young man of the different race is black.
15
If my future daughters know anything about their dad, it'll be not to bring an attractive black man anywhere near me, because I'll do my damnedest to seduce him.
16
@ 11: yes, there are no specific references, but c'mon. this is obvioulsly pointed @ white men. The underlying questions here is, "Do you want your lilly white princess getting her face fucked by mandingo?"
btw, Chris Rock has a great rap about this type of stuff in his latest stand up special...
17
While it's true that since the race of the players could be anything, it doesn't DEFINITELY mean that there is racist intent behind the questions, I'm going to go ahead and do a little stereotyping myself by pointing out that I don't think there could have possibly been a more stereotypically-80s-yuppie -- and therefore stereotypically white -- game than Scruples.
Just saying.
18
funny how you all assume that its a evil-white-racist-person question that is obviously aimed at putting down the poor-black-man.
IME, the vast majority of white parents I know would answer no to this question in this day and age. The vast majority of non-white parents I know would answer FUCK YES to this question and feel no shame in doing so.
but yeah, of course, they can't be racist can they?
19
Lindy,
Gosh, do I remember that game. One time I was playing with a bunch of close friends and a couple had a bitter argument over the response of one of the questions. One also had to be good at lying. It was an incomfortable game to play.
21
My mom still brings up the time we played Scruples at Xmas one year and her whole family was against her answer to one of those questions (not that one). It started a huge fight. The betrayal is still fresh decades later. That game is pure evil.
22
Depends what race. If he's black, Asian or Hispanic, he can stay. If he's a Republican, tell that hoodlum to get lost.
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