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December 17, 2007
Forest City Ratner Satirized With Mystery Online Hoax
Racist Imagery Used in Short-Lived Web Site
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Raanan Geberer
A hoax e-mail purporting to be from Forest City Ratner was making the rounds of the city’s media Monday morning, announcing a new “online park system to serve the young adults of the neighborhoods of Gowanus, Crown Heights and Park Slope.”
The e-mail, which appears to satirize the “conversion of 6 acres of park space” in the Atlantic Yards footprint to “needed office space,” also referenced a Web site, www.atlanticyardspark.com. The site was registered to “Alan Smithee,” which, according to Wikipedia, is a common pseudonym for film directors who want their work to be anonymous. In any case, the site was off the Web by early Monday afternoon.
The bogus “online park system” consists of three mock video games, which are described in what can only be called racist terms. For example, one game, “CrackDown,” allows player “to avoid the local drug dealers, their clients and prostitutes while walking to the neighborhood bodega.” Another, “Our Welfare,” teaches young girls “how to deal with their pregnancies and negotiate the welfare and child services system in New York they will be involved in.”
A Ratner spokesman claims that the site had no connection to Forest City, DDDB spokesperson Dan Goldstein got a look after the site had been sent to several journalists, Jim Vogel notes that the hoaxster has way too much time on his hands, City Councilwoman Letitia James exclaimed "that's terrible" after being told of some of the ethnic stereotypes, and a local attorney explains, "This is a First Amendment issue – people can say this is a parody."
NoLandGrab: In all honesty, the parody site couldn't have been more offensive if Imus had written it himself.
We checked it out and, because we deemed the content to be controversial, snapped several screen shots of the site before the site disappeared.
Posted by lumi at December 17, 2007 6:57 PM