SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 4, Informative) by darkfeline on Sunday July 12 2020, @10:29PM (4 children)
The recent wave of censorship is very concerning to me. It is Newspeak, removing words to restrict people from talking or thinking about "problematic" topics.
The grand irony in all of this is that the entire BLM farce is rich white people taking advantage of blacks to spark outrage. The actual blacks supposedly affected do not benefit at all or care about censoring words like nigger from fucking Scrabble. They care about reducing black on black violence, poverty reduction initiatives, better education (not racial discrimination to get unqualified blacks into the highest ranked colleges, but funding local school districts better).
I've heard the sentiment a couple of times, anecdotally all from black Americans:
"The white liberal is the worst enemy to America, and the worst enemy to the black man."
"The liberal elements of whites are those who have perfected the art of selling themselves to the Negro as a friend of the Negro. Getting sympathy of the Negro, getting the allegiance of the Negro, and getting the mind of the Negro. Then the Negro sides with the white liberal, and the white liberal use the Negro against the white conservative. So that anything that the Negro does is never for his own good, never for his own advancement, never for his own progress, he’s only a pawn in the hands of the white liberal. The worst enemy that the Negro have is this white man that runs around here drooling at the mouth professing to love Negros, and calling himself a liberal, and it is following these white liberals that has perpetuated problems that Negros have. If the Negro wasn’t taken, tricked, or deceived by the white liberal then Negros would get together and solve our own problems. I only cite these things to show you that in America the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems. Our problems will never be solved by the white man. The only way that our problem will be solved is when the black man wakes up, clean himself up, stand on his own feet and stop begging the white man, and take immediate steps to do for ourselves the things that we have been waiting on the white man to do for us."
Recent statements made by Biden makes this all the more vivid.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 13 2020, @07:42AM (2 children)
That could be shortened quite a lot. The progressive/liberal agenda is to keep Darkie on the plantation. Or, paraphrased, the only good darkie is the darkie that I'm profiting off of.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @10:41AM (1 child)
Violation of Scrabble rules!
Prohibited terms used:
Last two implied by character of poster. Fines recommended. Forfeiture if non-compliant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @12:36PM
Alex Trebek: I'd like to ask our contestants once again, please refrain from using ethnic slurs. That said, let's take a look at the scores. Sean Connery has set a new Jeopardy record with -$230,000.
Sean Connery: You think you're pretty smart, don't you Trebek. What, with your dago mustache and your greasy hair?
Alex Trebek: Look, what did I just say about ethnic slurs?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @03:39PM
Close with most of what you said, but not this. They are worried about State (especially police) on Black violence.
Black-on-black violence is an issue, but not really. If you look at crime rates, you could make the argument that white-on-white violence is an even bigger problem. Trying to portray this as a "why do blacks keep hurting each other" is distracting. (And true but mis-representative, which makes it especially pernicious.)