Scrabble community discusses banning racial slurs from the game amid Black Lives Matter protests

Scrabble community discusses banning racial slurs from the game as part of crackdown on hate speech that could also condemn words like ‘wrinklies’ to the scrapheap

  • Offensive terms can still be used to score points in Scrabble contests in Britain
  • But the World English Scrabble Players Association will discuss the ‘thorny’ issue
  • It comes after the association’s American counterpart planned to ban 238 slurs 

Racial slurs could be banned as playable moves in official Scrabble competitions amid anti-racism protests by the Black Lives Matter movement.

Offensive terms including the ‘n-word’, insults against the elderly, such as ‘wrinklies’, and derogatory phrases used to attack the LGBT community can still be used to score points in the popular game, which sees opponents place letter tiles onto the board in order to spell out words.

But following worldwide anti-racism protests in the wake of the death of American George Floyd, officials who govern Scrabble tournaments in Britain are reportedly discussing whether to ban offensive terms from their competitions.

Though bosses at the World English Scrabble Players Association say there are no current plans to stop competitors from spelling out racial slurs to score points, they are discussing the ‘important and thorny’ issue.

Chairman of the association, Chris Lipe, told The Times: ‘There’s vigorous debate across the Scrabble community.’

Offensive terms including the ‘n-word’, insults against the elderly and derogatory phrases used to attack members of the LGBT community can still be used to score points in Scrabble

The talks come as the North American Scrabbles Players Association’s chief executive backed calls to remove more than 230 slurs from its playlist.

In Scrabble, a game which is sold in 121 countries and is available in 29 languages, players attempt to score the highest point total by taking turns to spell out words using a selection of letter tiles they have picked at random.

Traditionally, the meaning of words does not matter, instead the focus is on whether the word is correct according to a Collins English Dictionary.

However the Official Scrabble Words – otherwise known as the Scrabble Dictionary – is the ultimate authority of eligible words, but includes homophobic slurs such as the ‘q-word’ and racist terms such as the ‘w-word’.

One BAME player, Ebi Sosseh, from Bournemouth, told the Times that offensive words had been used against him, but said changing the rules would be ‘trivial’.

He said: ‘I used to be initially uncomfortable when words like ‘w**’ used to be played against me. 

‘That subsided very quickly when I rationalised that we were engaged with a game of words.’ 

The Official Scrabble Words (pictured) - otherwise known as the Scrabble Dictionary - is the ultimate authority of eligible words

The Official Scrabble Words (pictured) – otherwise known as the Scrabble Dictionary – is the ultimate authority of eligible words

Mr Sosseh added that he wanted to focus on education rather than censoring.

Others though have backed the idea, stressing the importance of remembering that the words are used to oppress people over the need to score points.

The debate comes amid anti-racism protests by the Black Lives Matter movement, following the death of George Floyd in May.

Mr Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes while arresting him.

In Britain, Black Lives Matter supporters tore down a statue of 17th century slave-trader Edward Colston during protests in Bristol last month.

Anti-racism protesters also backed the ‘Rhodes Must Fall Campaign’, to bring down a statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University’s Oriel College. The statue will now be removed.

Twitter’s engineering department announced last week it was dropping the words ‘master’, ‘slave’ and ‘blacklist’, widely used in computer programming, in favour of more inclusive terms.

Last month French cosmetics giant L’Oreal said it will remove words such as ‘whitening’, ‘lightening’ and ‘fair’ from its skin care products amid worldwide Black Lives Matter protests.

And in Sevenoaks, in Kent, a 400-year-old pub named ‘The Black Boy’ will change its name to ‘The Restoration’ amid the anti-racism protests.

The pub name ‘The Black Boy’, like ‘The Restoration’, is said to be a nod to King James II, who was said to be nicknamed ‘Black Boy’ by his mother due to his dark complexion.