Scrabble deems slurs too offensive for words

The North American Scrabble Players Association has advocated the removal of 238 slurs from its official play list including the n-word.

Scrabble still allows offensive words to be played.

Black Lives Matter is changing sport. Superstars take the knee at kick off, while the slogan adorns kits of all kinds, but in one competition it may have a more direct impact on the game itself.

Scrabble players are questioning whether racial slurs are simply too offensive to play.

Traditionally, the meanings of words used in the game do not matter – players go for the highest-scoring option – but some think that certain words are no longer appropriate. “There’s vigorous debate across the Scrabble community,” said Chris Lipe, chairman of the World English Scrabble Players Association, which governs tournaments in Britain and much of the English-speaking world.

Many are against a ban. Ebi Sosseh, a BAME player from Bournemouth, said that it would be a “trivial gesture”.

The chief executive of the North American Scrabble Players Association has advocated the removal of 238 slurs from its official play list. These include the n-word, as well as offensive terms for homosexuals, and words such as “wrinklies” for the elderly. The list also includes terms that have been used in a derogatory way in the past, such as Jesuit and papist. “When we play a slur, we are declaring that our desire to score points in a word game is of more value to us than the slur’s broader function as a way to oppress a group of people,” said John Chew. “I don’t think that this is the time for us to be contributing divisively to the world’s problems.”

Any changes in Britain would be based on usage notes in Collins dictionaries and could lead to words vanishing from the ultimate authority on eligible terms, Official Scrabble Words.

Mr Lipe said that his association had no plans to make changes at this time but was still discussing “this important and thorny issue”.

Mr Sosseh said he didn’t take offence when slurs were played. “I used to be initially uncomfortable when words like ‘wog’ used to be played against me. That subsided very quickly when I rationalised that we were engaged with a game of words,” he explained. He said that he would prefer the focus to be on teaching, not censoring.

Gyles Brandreth, the broadcaster and former Conservative MP, who founded the UK National Scrabble Championships in 1971, opposes expunging words, even if he himself would never use them. “I’m against censoring dictionaries,” he said, “but there are so many hundreds of thousands of wonderful words in the language I’d encourage everyone to play Scrabble without offending anyone.”

The Times