Transform how your students understand systemic inequality with this powerful, immersive board game experience.
Bring complex social and economic concepts to life in your classroom! Inequality-opoly creates meaningful conversations about privilege, opportunity gaps, and systemic barriers through engaging, hands-on gameplay.
Makes abstract concepts tangible - Students experience firsthand how systemic structures impact individual outcomes
Promotes critical thinking through real-world scenarios and decision-making
Sparks authentic discussions about race, class, gender and their economic impacts
Bridges theory and practice by connecting historical patterns to contemporary issues
Comprehensive 20-page rulebook
16 pages of thought-provoking Life Event Cards
8 diverse Identity Cards with varying privileges and challenges
22 Property Cards revealing neighborhood inequalities
Printable 4-page game board
Step-by-step assembly guide
Players assume one of eight different identity positions (Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latinx, or White Man/Woman) and experience how these perceived identities encounter different probabilities and outcomes around:
Racial and gender pay gaps
Criminal justice system interactions
Mortgage approval and housing discrimination
Entrepreneurship opportunities
Healthcare access inequities
Generational wealth transfer
Voting rights
Employment barriers
High school and college courses in economics, sociology, history, government, and social justice education. Ideal for units on wealth distribution, housing inequality, criminal justice reform, and financial literacy.
"To spread awareness and advance discourse about how racism and sexism affect the accumulation and sustaining of wealth in America."
"My students finally understand institutional barriers in ways textbooks never achieved. The conversations that emerged were transformative." - High School Social Studies Teacher
Give your students the tools to understand—and challenge—systemic inequality.
The Inequality-opoly rulebook provides complete instructions for this educational board game that simulates how structural racism and sexism impact wealth accumulation in America. Through identity-based gameplay, students experience firsthand how systemic advantages and barriers affect different demographic groups.
The rulebook includes:
Clear setup instructions and game mechanics
Detailed explanations of identity cards that assign different probabilities and outcomes
Rules for property acquisition, partnerships, and wealth building
Guidelines for special game spaces (Police Interaction, Pink Tax, Entrepreneurship)
Life Event cards that simulate real-world scenarios and their disparate impacts
Comprehensive tables showing differential outcomes based on perceived identity
This 20-page guide transforms complex sociological concepts into an engaging, hands-on learning experience that prompts meaningful discussions about privilege, opportunity gaps, and systemic inequality in the American economic system.
The game board represents a journey through life, highlighting social disparities and systemic challenges through strategic gameplay.
Start & Payday: All players begin at Start. When passing Payday while employed, collect your salary (line 3 on ID card). Landing directly on Payday earns double salary. Unemployed players collect unemployment benefits instead.
Life Event Spaces: Drawing these cards presents real-life scenarios. Yellow cards affect only the drawer, while green cards impact all players.
Property Spaces: Must be purchased immediately when landed upon. Properties reveal critical social metrics including school funding, unemployment rates, crime statistics, and air quality—all factors that significantly influence housing inequality.
Utilities: White players pay 5× dice roll to Jackpot; all others pay 10× roll.
Police Interaction: Players roll according to their ID card (line 5) to determine if they enter the Prison Industrial Complex (P.I.C.). Consequences include:
Immediate unemployment
Paying bail to Jackpot (line 6)
Potential loss of voting rights
Increased difficulty obtaining mortgages and employment
Commissary: Landing here requires a payment of 10× dice roll to Jackpot, representing money sent to inmates for essentials.
Pink Tax: Reflects gender-based price discrimination—men pay 5× roll while women pay 10× roll to Jackpot.
Entrepreneurship: Roll according to line 7 on ID card. Even numbers earn profit from the bank; odd numbers result in losses paid to Jackpot.
If a player lands on a Life Event space, they draw the corresponding card, read it aloud to the group, and follow its instructions. Yellow cards impact only the player who drew the card, while green cards affect everyone in the game. These Life Events simulate real situations people encounter and demonstrate how one's perceived identity can either ease or complicate navigating these circumstances.
When a player lands on an available property space, they must purchase it before ending their turn. Each property card contains critical data on school funding, unemployment statistics, crime rates, and air quality measurements. These factors significantly influence housing inequality across America, illustrating the real-world barriers many communities face in accessing quality housing.
Before the game begins, each player randomly picks a perceived identity card representing getting born. Specific lines in the ID card will be constantly referred to throughout the course of the game to show each player what they have to roll in order to avoid or partake in certain events.
The spectrum of likelihood is represented by the probability of rolling certain numbers with two dice. The probabilities demonstrate the continuum of possibility from Very Unlikely (roll <3) to Very Likely (roll <12). The spectrums of likelihood used in the game do not show the precise or absolute probabilities, rather the relative probabilities in relation to other identity groups based on studies.
Inequality-opoly uses three status markers to track your journey. Green Employment chips boost your salary when passing Payday, with more chips representing higher income potential. Red Criminal History chips create cumulative barriers to employment, housing, and advancement. The Blue Voting Rights chip represents democratic participation, which can be permanently lost if incarcerated. These physical markers visually demonstrate how privilege and barriers accumulate throughout life.
These chips represent your income streams and employment status throughout the game. Each green chip you collect increases your salary when passing Payday spaces. As you advance professionally, you'll earn more chips, representing promotions and additional revenue sources. Be strategic about maintaining your employment - various Life Event cards and game spaces can cause you to lose these valuable chips, directly impacting your earning potential.
Red chips track your criminal record, with each chip representing one conviction. Having these chips creates cascading systemic barriers throughout gameplay. Each additional red chip further reduces your probability of:
Obtaining employment
Receiving salary raises
Getting mortgages approved
Avoiding return to the Prison Industrial Complex
The red chips visually demonstrate how criminal history creates compounding disadvantages that persist long after serving time, affecting financial stability and social mobility.
This single blue chip represents your power to participate in democracy. Each player begins with one voting rights chip, but it can be permanently lost if you enter the Prison Industrial Complex. Once lost, your voting rights cannot be restored for the remainder of the game, simulating voter disenfranchisement policies that persist in many states. Without your blue chip, you'll experience how civic participation barriers further reinforce cycles of inequality.
Diversity in Gaming: Part 1
Diversity in Gaming: Part 2
Podcast
Inequality-opoly can be easily enjoyed by printing this package on cardstock (color recommended) and assembling the game pieces yourself. Simply print the board, cards, and game pieces, then cut along the marked lines for an affordable DIY experience. Detailed printing instructions are attached to help you assemble a professional-looking game. For added convenience, consider our expansion set that allows you to transform your existing Monopoly game into Inequality-opoly using specially designed overlay components—perfect for educators with limited resources or families looking to repurpose classic board games for powerful learning experiences.
