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martyb [soylentnews.org] writes:

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 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 [icontact-archive.com] 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."

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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 [cnet.com]

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 [cnet.com] 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 [hasbro.com] 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 [merriam.com] as its official word list in North America. Hasbro said that it first started removing offensive words [cnet.com] in 1994 and continues to regularly review the full list.

[...] The North American Scrabble Players Association [scrabbleplayers.org], which uses a slightly different word list for its competitive tournaments, also agreed to ban the use of racial and ethnic slurs [icontact-archive.com] after a poll was taken by the association's members.

The association's CEO John Chew said in a statement [icontact-archive.com] 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."

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