For many people in Massachusetts and across the country, the pandemic has meant a lot of family time, with nights out on the town being replaced by family game nights in.
"We were playing card games like Uno and Go Fish and whatnot," said Worcester native Dominique Price.
Price says while those games were fun, there was something missing.
"It was around like the Black Lives Matter movement, and I'm like, 'Dang, we don't have nothing, a game,' like my little cousins don't know anything Black culture-related," said Price. "So like what if I — they love games, so why not create a game about it?"
So Price got to work with his little cousins, some index cards and a lot of creativity. And as he invited us to see first-hand, that's how BlackedOut Game was born.
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"The game is simple," he said. "It comes with a little dice like this, and there's six categories."
Categories include rapid fire, Black history, slang, and truth or dance.
Price says it's meant hours of laughing and bonding for his family, but it's also a long-overdue celebration of Black culture and a lesson in Black history he says schools just aren't teaching kids.
"I feel like Black history, obviously, is monumental, especially to America, and they never really point it out, minus the slavery and Martin Luther King," Price said. "We never really got deep into our history."
And now, he hopes people of all races can gather round the table in Worcester and beyond to have BlackedOut Game nights together.
"Honestly, I just want people just to have fun, get together with your family and friends, learn about Black culture, learn about Black history, and forget about color," Price said. "There's no color, we're all human beings at the end of the day."
Price says he hopes BlackedOut Game will spark conversations about Black history and Black culture that are needed now more than ever.
