Injustice! The Income Gap Attacks

The large income gap and our history of economic discrimination against those facing poverty creates many discrepancies within the current American legal system. Often times, those with wealth and racial privilege are able to dodge consequences and difficulties faced by those that are impoverished and racially underprivileged. Income inequality is especially relevant today as the wage gap is only increasing, and there are many recent cases of politicians, celebrities, and fortune 500 tycoons avoiding legal consequences through the use of money and status. Conversely, those experiencing poverty in the legal system must often rely on limited legal support from the government, and if they are unable to make bail they can be held in jail for months limiting their ability to participate in their own defense.

Created to educate, the video game Injustice! works to inform the player of these situations by emphasizing the imbalances of the legal system in a way that is entertaining and easily understandable. If the player chooses the fighter representing a character that is racially and economically underprivileged, they will quickly find that beating the legal system is impossible. If the player chooses the character that has both wealth and privilege, they will have an easier time beating the game and will walk away without consequences. The brightly colored game with 2Dimensional cartoon characters, reminiscent of Nintendo, will ensure that a younger audience will be drawn to the aesthetic, but will ultimately walk away saying, “It’s not fair!”  

1 Sarah Lustbader, the Right to an Attorney is Not enough: Steps to Rid the Criminal Justice System of its Poverty Tax, (Fordham Urban Law Journal 44, no. 5, 2017), 1407.