7/8/2020
By Ivan Pereira
Words of hate and bias won’t appear on any Scrabble board in official tournaments going forward.
Hasbro, which owns the rights to the board game, and North American Scrabble Players Association announced that it will ban slurs and other offensive epitaphs from official North American tournaments.
The NASPA’s permitted word list is different from the official Scrabble Merriam-Webster dictionary, which has removed offensive words throughout the years, according to John Chew, the association’s CEO, and in recent weeks, he received calls from players to remove words such as the n-word and c-word from official play.
“I thought to myself, ‘Why haven’t we done this already?'” Chew told ABC News.
Chew, who joined the association in 2009, said the topic has come up in the past, as the association uses different dictionaries than the official Scrabble dictionary for play. The association decided not to remove some slurs from adult competition because there was a debate about removing words such as poo and fart, which could be offensive to certain players.
Chew, however, said some words should never be used in the game.
“The key difference is a word like fart and poo are just words that people say to make others feel slightly uncomfortable … but then there are words like the n-word that are used to specifically demean people,” he said.
Chew said players for the most part don’t use slurs in competitive play, but nonetheless, those words should be reviewed and stricken from official play. The association is looking at 236 “offensive words” to remove from official play and it will consult Merriam-Webster throughout the process. Chew assured that the n-word and c-word will be removed from the permitted list when it is finalized in the coming weeks.
Julie Duffy, a Hasbro spokeswoman, said in a statement that in addition to working with NASPA on tournament rules, the company will update Scrabble’s official rules “to make clear that slurs are not permissible in any form of the game.”
“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,” she said in a statement.
Chew said most of NASPA’s players have approved the plan to remove the slurs. Generally, he said, they are all open to making the competitions as fair, and open to players of all backgrounds.
“Although people say this is a tiny step to be taking … I figure changing our lexicon changes the core of who we are as word game players,” he said.
