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Scrabble players look to bar racist or homophobic slurs including the n-word from its official list of words

Saya

Saya

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Oct 25, 2017
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www.reuters.com

No more 'N-word': Scrabble players look to bar racist or homophobic slurs

The world of tournament Scrabble is split over whether to remove racial and anti-LGBT+ slurs from official dictionaries, as governing bodies debate the rules in light of the global Black Lives Matter protests.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The world of tournament Scrabble is split over whether to remove racial and anti-LGBT+ slurs from official dictionaries, as governing bodies debate the rules in light of the global Black Lives Matter protests.

A decision on removing the "N-word" as well as homophobic and transphobic terms including "bumboy" from the North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA) list of accepted words is due this week, its chief executive John Chew said on Monday.
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"We are told when we get for the first time to a Scrabble club or tournament that words have no meaning on a Scrabble board. Most people accept that without question," said Chew, who is Canadian.

"Some people find they cannot accept ... the 'N-word' being treated as though it has no meaning," he said. "Those people end up not being part of our community, which is the fundamental problem we're trying to address."

Chew said he was concerned that people were put off joining because of offensive language in the organisation's dictionary.

A poll open to both NASPA's roughly 2,000 members and the general public received about 1,000 responses, with members split over removing the N-word and the public in favour of doing so, Chew said.
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"It's just a word. Playing it on the board doesn't mean that the person is being offensive," said Nigerian player Wellington Jighere, the 2015 world champion, who is currently ranked eight in the world.
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MinusTydus

MinusTydus

The Fallen
Jul 28, 2018
8,198
That was an accepted word in Scrabble to begin with?

Like, that was IN the Scrabble Dictionary and no one thought, "Um, guys..."

What the fuck
 
Lord Fanny

Lord Fanny

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Apr 25, 2020
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"We are told when we get for the first time to a Scrabble club or tournament that words have no meaning on a Scrabble board. Most people accept that without question," said Chew, who is Canadian.

"Some people find they cannot accept ... the 'N-word' being treated as though it has no meaning," he said. "Those people end up not being part of our community, which is the fundamental problem we're trying to address."
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Wow, these people really are like straight Peggy Hills. These words have no meaning on the Scrabble board lmao, my god.
 
ryan13ts

ryan13ts

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Oct 28, 2017
2,102
Yeah, I'm completely dumbfounded that this was even on a list of "official" words to begin with. Just finally getting around to axing it, eh?

I can only imagine many edgy shitheels have thrown it out with a smirk on their punchable face.
 
Dust

Dust

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Oct 25, 2017
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I refuse to believe n-word was accepted in Scrabble, there is no way.
 
Croc Man

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User Banned (2 Weeks): Concern trolling, inflammatory language.
This sounds a nightmare to enforce as so many slurs have duel meanings.
For example "Faggot" can be a tasty meat dish.
 
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fontguy

fontguy

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Oct 8, 2018
16,154
But how are our kids going to learn and confront our nation's history without slurs in Scrabble???
 
collige

collige

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Oct 31, 2017
12,772
MinusTydus said:
That was an accepted word in Scrabble to begin with?

Like, that was IN the Scrabble Dictionary and no one thought, "Um, guys..."

What the fuck
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I think they just used a tweaked version of one of the mainstream dictionairies, it would be silly of them to come up with their own list independently from scratch.
 
Baji Boxer

Baji Boxer

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Oct 27, 2017
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I wonder how strict they'll be with slurs that double as non-slurs. It's not like you can put them in context of a sentence or pronunciation. The n-word is also the spelling of an actual country, and the f-slur is slang for cigarettes (is this still common in the U.K.?).

Edit: Yes, I'm a dumbass :-P I was forgetting the 2nd 'g' in the n-word. I know Niger has one g.
 
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Lump

Lump

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collige said:
I think they just used a tweaked version of one of the mainstream dictionairies, it would be silly of them to come up with their own list independently from scratch.
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I imagine it's easier just to take an existing dictionary and ban acronyms and certain words.

Slurs should obviously be banned. Also, bullshit words like Qi should be banned, but I know that's more subjective.
 

Deleted member 19844

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User banned (2 months): Downplaying the harmful nature of slurs
Nah, not in favor of this. I agree with the "words have no meaning on the Scrabble board" mentality.
 

SasaBassa

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,078
This is absurd and wrong enough to be a Curb plotline. What's wrong with people/Scrabble? Jesus, to be this dense.
 
Jebusman

Jebusman

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Oct 27, 2017
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Baji Boxer said:
I wonder how strict they'll be with slurs that double as non-slurs. It's not like you can put them in context of a sentence or pronunciation. The n-word is also the spelling of an actual country, and the f-slur is slang for cigarettes (is this still common in the U.K.?).
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Do you mean Niger? What country is spelt like that with two Gs in English?
 
Pet

Pet

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Oct 25, 2017
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Baji Boxer said:
I wonder how strict they'll be with slurs that double as non-slurs. It's not like you can put them in context of a sentence or pronunciation. The n-word is also the spelling of an actual country, and the f-slur is slang for cigarettes (is this still common in the U.K.?).
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Literally in OP:

It's just a word. Playing it on the board doesn't mean that the person is being offensive," said Nigerian player Wellington Jighere, the 2015 world champion, who is currently ranked eight in the world.
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lenovox1

lenovox1

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Oct 26, 2017
8,995
TreadTalks said:
Nah, not in favor of this. I agree with the "words have no meaning on the Scrabble board" mentality.
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I cannot stress enough how the n-word has an extremely specific, oppressive, and violent history and usage. In and of itself, it is a violent and incendiary statement.

And the fact that it can make others feel unsafe and unwelcome is more than enough reason to limit its use in a competitive setting, and that thought includes slurs far beyond the N-word.
 
collige

collige

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Oct 31, 2017
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MinusTydus said:
Yeah, I just looked in the Official Scrabble Dictionary Sixth Edition, thankfully it is not there.
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Lump said:
I imagine it's easier just to take an existing dictionary and ban acronyms and certain words.

Slurs should obviously be banned. Also, bullshit words like Qi should be banned, but I know that's more subjective.
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So I just did some reading and it turns out that the situation is way more complicated than it has any right to be. The Official Scrabble Dictionary is managed by Miriam-Webster, but isn't actually used for tournaments in spite of its name. Tournaments use the NASPA world list instead, which doesn't include definitions and was apparently created as a direct response to the backlash from last time they tried to ban offensive words from the Players Dictionary.

Given that, I don't really see an issue with keeping the words in as the chairman correctly points out that this is probably going to be more of a performative change:
"These are terrible words and you don't want people coming in to be exposed to them if necessary," said WESPA chairman Chris Lipe.

But some felt simply changing the dictionary would not address the real issues, he said.

"There are real issues about diversity and representation within the Scrabble community and they mainly have to do with issues in society," said Lipe, who is American. "Removing words from the word list doesn't actually address any of those issues."
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I would imagine that anyone who is enough of a tryhard to go to an IRL Scrabble tournament would be more upset by actual discrimination from other people. If it was me, I would be far more offended by someone leaning into "so well spoken" territory even a little bit. I suppose this does leave the door open for someone to make a suboptimal play by purposefully playing a slur though, but they'd be actively hurting their play to do that.

I'm not sure how this applies to digital versions of the game though, I would hope that any online version you can play uses a more censored vocabulary.

Indy in the Fridge said:
Also, proper nouns aren't allowed in Scrabble if I'm not mistaken. So the argument that 'Niger' can't be used is moot.
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Wikipedia says that the official list includes registered trademarks, so I wouldn't be surprised if it also included country names too. I can't check because the full list is behind a paywall.
 
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Lord Fanny

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Baji Boxer said:
I wonder how strict they'll be with slurs that double as non-slurs. It's not like you can put them in context of a sentence or pronunciation. The n-word is also the spelling of an actual country, and the f-slur is slang for cigarettes (is this still common in the U.K.?).
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There is no way you went your entire life thinking Niger is spelled with two Gs lol
 
Timeaisis

Timeaisis

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I'd be very interested to see how many times scrabble players actually use this word and others they are thinking of banning. Also, what other words are not in the scrabble dictionary? Surely, it doesn't contain every word in the english language.

AdmiralSnackbar said:
This could easily be the plot to an episode of King of the Hill.
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Except instead of Scrabble it's Boggle and Peggy could win the tournament if she just played that one word. She does and Hank has to deal with the fallout.
 

mrmoose

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Nov 13, 2017
21,190
They keep a list of official words, how did slurs make it in there in the first place?
 
Baji Boxer

Baji Boxer

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Lord Fanny said:
There is no way you went your entire life thinking Niger is spelled with two Gs lol
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I didn't. It's the other word I temporarily forgot how to spell lol. I do know how Niger is spelled, and where it is. Though someone above was right in that I never took a geography class. The geography I learned was only European specific as part of another class. It was an elective in highschool, and that's pretty much it.
 
Punchline

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ClockworkOwl

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User banned (permanent): Downplaying the harmful nature of slurs
Obviously the n word and other slurs should be banned, but I wouldn't hold it against anyone who uses it in a tournament when money is on the line.
 
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