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Scrabble Association Bans Racial, Ethnic Slurs From Its Official Word List:
The word "slur" has a number of meanings in English, but the one that has concerned Scrabble aficionados and Hasbro, which owns the U.S. and Canadian trademark for the popular board game, means "a derogatory or insulting term applied to particular group of people."
On Wednesday, the North American Scrabble Players Association [(NASPA)] announced that derogatory language would be removed from the game's official word list.
The decision follows an online poll conducted by NASPA that elicited impassioned responses, the organization's CEO, John Chew, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Some members threatened to leave the association if a single word were removed; others threatened to leave the association if any offensive words remained," he said. "There were a lot of good and bad arguments on both sides."
NASPA's word list is used in competitive tournaments, which is different than the Merriam-Webster Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. Hasbro says it has worked to eliminate offensive words from the dictionary with every new printing of it.
[...] "One of our members asked what we were doing to reduce racial tensions in the U.S. and Canada," [Chew] said. "And then someone else asked 'what if we take the "N" word out of the lexicon, would that at least be a good start?' "
A discussion and the online poll ensued and NASPA's advisory board ultimately voted to remove 236 words from the list, Chew said. Words that are potentially offensive but are not considered slurs — such as those for parts of the body — remain, he said.
Scrabble bans racial and ethnic slurs from the board game
Hasbro, the board game giant that owns Scrabble, is banning the use of racial and ethnic slurs from its official word list. The crossword game will no longer allow derogatory language to be used while playing.
"Hasbro Gaming is rooted in community and bringing people together, and we are committed to providing an experience that is inclusive and enjoyable for all," the company wrote in a release on Wednesday. "For that reason, Hasbro is changing the official rules of its Scrabble game to make clear that slurs are not permissible in any form of the game."
[...] The crossword game uses the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Players Dictionary as its official word list in North America. Hasbro said that it first started removing offensive words in 1994 and continues to regularly review the full list.
[...] The North American Scrabble Players Association, which uses a slightly different word list for its competitive tournaments, also agreed to ban the use of racial and ethnic slurs after a poll was taken by the association's members.
The association's CEO John Chew said in a statement on Wednesday that Scrabble brings together a wide range of people and the association needs to do more to be inclusive.
"As people have said across the spectrum of responses, removing slurs is the very least that we can do to make our association more inclusive," Chew said. "I will be reaching out to the community for suggestions in coming months, and look forward to working with everyone to make our community a larger and happier one."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Booga1 on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:10AM (21 children)
Excluding words people find offensive from Scrabble is not going to meaningfully improve anything.
It's a feel-good measure that says, "We need to put ourselves in the news with some free advertising. This token gesture ought to do it." Sure enough, news outlets took the bait and here's the free ad.
Besides, if you want a comprehensive word list you should use one of those "unabridged" dictionaries that are about eight inches thick. That'll teach your opponents some new words!
(Score: 4, Informative) by zoward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:16AM (1 child)
At one point my wife and I used to get together with a couple that were obsessed with Scrabble. While we consistently lost to them, I learned more words from those play sessions than at any other time in my life.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @05:11PM
Ones like this?
subordinate
subsidiary
menial
peon
bottom-rung
entry-level
nether
second-banana
second-fiddle
subjacent
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @11:23AM
That's what she said.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @12:34PM (3 children)
What's more, where precisely does this end? If slurs are being removed, what about words for things that are just for disgusting or that make people uncomfortable for other reasons?
These are just words, if people are this sensitive, then they clearly don't have any actual problems.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @04:02PM
This already happened years ago. I'm surprised it isn't being brought up in this Scrabble discussion more, but Scrabble expunged over 200 words from the standard word list in 1994 after an amateur player complained that the word "jew" was included on the official word list. (Note that Scrabble doesn't allow proper nouns: "Jew" (with a capital) would be disallowed by that rule, but "jew" (with a lowercase, a verb meaning "to cheat out of") wouldn't be.)
After much debate, the 200+ words were tacitly removed from most common Scrabble dictionaries, but were still included on the official word list only for tournament play. (Apparently "professional" Scrabble players are able to avoid being offended more than the average player.)
The list of expunged words was all over the map, including profanity like FUCK and CUNT, as well as offensive slurs like KIKE, HONKY, and WETBACK. Obscure slurs like ABO (for "aboriginal") and SKIMO (for "eskimo") were also included. But the the list veered into the weird: not only were words like FART and TURD thrown out, but also words like BADASS, PISS, FATSO, LIBBER, and even words like PAPIST and JESUIT. ("Papist" is a rather obsolete derogatory word for Catholics, but almost no one would realize that. The word "jesuit" -- again with lowercase -- can be used as an adjective that's vaguely derogatory against someone making complicated arguments in a way similar to a classic member of the Jesuit order. It seems they imported some rather conservative Catholic censors from the 18th century to come up with the list.)
The debate about "the list" came to a head when ESPN decided to televise the finals of a Scrabble tournament in 2004 [slate.com], leading to a fun debate about "you can't spell that on television." Top Scrabble players used to making occasional reference to the banned list in tournaments were rather incensed, and one play of LEZ (a banned word) caused a 10-minute delay as judged debated the validity of the play (even though ESPN was mostly concerned about the appearance of words like FUCK and CUNT, not vague terms that might be perceived by only a small group of people as somewhat offensive).
The most ironic thing of all: on the banned Scrabble list is the word REDSKINS, a word that appears on ESPN all the time....
(And this wasn't the first time this sort of thing happened on television -- even before the advent of "the list," the finals in 1990 included a play of DARKIES on the board, but the image was altered to be DARKENS when it was displayed on Good Morning America.)
So yeah, this editing of Scrabble words is greater than before, but it's nothing new.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @12:27AM (1 child)
It ends when the United States is turned into a "socialist" state which is really Marxist with a more marketable name, and people who displease the elite by saying or thinking the wrong things can be imprisoned, tortured, and possibly executed for WrongThink. Plus, with fMRI technology they might even infer WrongThink without you saying anything, and punish you that way.
Sadly there are a lot of people on this site who seem to be absolutely in favor of this outcome and have contempt for freedom of speech (oh, they're for it alright, so long as it's the speech they approve of!). They will retain this opinion until they find themselves being "reeducated" at gunpoint.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @10:35AM
Well, obviously you are a prime candidate, since your comment is so full of wrong thinking and right wing paranoia. Relax! We are your fellow Americans! We are just here to help! We are not going to tell you what to think, we are just going to show you how!
(Socialist=marketable Marxism? Hey! Boomer!)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday July 12 2020, @01:15PM (6 children)
It's called virtue signalling [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:48PM (4 children)
So by your logic I should be allowed to walk into churches and start cussing everyone out while exercising my free speech to promote the church of the flying spaghetti monster?
When did your freedoms become more important than someone else's?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @07:25PM (1 child)
Of course you could say that, but they could also have you banned from the premises for doing so as Churches are private property.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @09:09PM
Getting warmer . . .
(Score: 4, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday July 13 2020, @11:25AM
... invoke a straw man fallacy.
Indeed, you should; but you'll look the fool for so doing.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by AssCork on Monday July 13 2020, @01:40PM
This is exactly how free speech works.
You can do exactly that, but on private property you will be asked to leave or face a trespassing charge.
But nothing* stops you from standing on the sidewalk outside the church holding signs, passing out flyers, and chanting "PASTAFARIANS UNITE!"
*=Not applicable in CA, NY, MD, DC, VA, OR
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday July 12 2020, @08:10PM
It's called virtue signalling.
Which is just another advertising campaign...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:38PM
Amazing how network TV censors the fuck out of everything and you independent free thinking tough guys never bitched as much as when a board game company removed words from their official list.
You think they want some headline about racism in a scrabble tourney? The fuck is wrong with you snow cone reagents?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Sunday July 12 2020, @06:46PM (5 children)
You could say they created a blacklist. Don't worry, it's up on bittorrent. There will be tournaments on the Darknet, oh wait, can we still say darknet? Let's call it the "obscure" net.
Well, let's see if changing the language makes a dent in real institutional racism. Kinda doubt it. A new "code" will emerge from the slavers
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Booga1 on Sunday July 12 2020, @07:54PM (1 child)
It always does. The problem isn't the word. It never is. It's the intentions behind it. People with mental deficiencies were called many things over the years. Just look at the evolution of the word "retard." That's an offensive slur according to some folks.
They were:
- Stupid
- Idiots
- Imbecile
- Morons
- Retards
But then people got upset with how those words were thrown around as an insult. So there was a push to treat people better by trying to curb the language used to describe people with various mental deficiencies.
They tried:
- Slow
- Special needs
- Mentally handicapped
- Mentally challenged
Every attempt to erase a word as an insult or slur was replaced with the equivalent based on the new, softer term. These are social issues, not language issues. Changing the language won't solve anything.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday July 13 2020, @11:29AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 13 2020, @11:28AM
Latin obscurus "dark, dusky, shady,"
Nope, banned, racist.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Funny) by AssCork on Monday July 13 2020, @01:42PM
files a formal petition to change the name of darknet to Onion Network.
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @02:22PM
Dungeonet