“Let’s ask ourselves why in this country in 2020, why the financial gap between poor Blacks and the rest of the world is at such a distance that people feel their only hope and only opportunity to get some of the things that we flaunt and flash in front of them all the time is to walk through a broken glass window and get it,” she said. Jones continued: “Why are people that poor? Why are people that broke? Why are people that food insecure, clothing insecure that they feel their only shot is walking through a broken glass window and getting it?”
To make matters more simple and understandable, Jones then used the board game Monopoly to explain why African Americans cannot just “pull themselves up by their boot straps and get it on their own.” She used the game to reflect on the country’s history of slavery and oppression of Black people. She began by saying that Black folk were brought to the U.S. for economic growth, including textile and agriculture work, a fact often erased in conversation.
“Now, if I right now decided that I wanted to play Monopoly with you and for 400 rounds of playing Monopoly I didn’t allow you to have any money, I didn’t allow you to have anything on the board—anything—and then we played another 50 rounds of Monopoly and everything that you gained and you earned while playing those rounds was taken from you.”
She made connections to historically thriving African American communities such as Tulsa and Rosewood, which were destroyed by white mobs.
AGR Free Press 