WE’RE SCARED OF THE S WORD
Arts group fears racist overtones
It might be synonymous with Halloween but a major arts organisation has banned the word “spooky” from its shows.
Despite everything from supermarkets to VisitScotland planning to use it in the lead-up to October 31, National Theatre Scotland ( NTS) has dropped it after spooky was flagged up as a racist slur.
It was last used by NTS in 2016 for A Christmas Carol at the Old Kirk in Kirkcaldy, which it described as a “spooky location”.
But the charity’s commitment to fight racism, brought in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, has identified offensive words… including spooky.
A theatre source said: “No one has complained about it but there were worries they could in thee future. There’s been a lot off training and meetings since the BLM movement and how NTS should change.
“It might seem mad but NTS is committed to fighting racism so need to be extra carefulreful in the language it uses. It’s always beeneen a really white organisation but it is trying to change that and become more diverse.
“There might not be many people who know that ’spooky’ can also be used as racist but, even if it’s one person who is offended, it’s one person too many.”
The controversy around the word re-emerged in the US in the last decade.
The Dutch word “spook” translates as ghost and has been used in English since the 19th century. It is also used to describe a spy.
But in World War II it took on a more sinister meaning. US mi l itary of f icers began using it as a derogatory term to describe black pilots.
In 2000 Philip Roth wrote a book called The Human Stain, which told the story of an academic forced to quit after calling two black
stustudents ‘spooks’. And in 2010 supermarket chachain Target apologised afteafter selling black soldier actiaction f igures called “SpooSpook Drop Parachuters”. Glasgow-based NTS, largely funded by the Scottish Government, has campaigned on racial equality since 2020. The organisation publishes details about ethnicity, gender and disability status of its board and staff. But latest figures show over 91 per cent of its board and 87 per cent of its core staff are white. Recent NTS productions include Hannah Lavery’s Lament For Sheku Bayoh, which deals with issues about the death of the 31- year- old and is performed by a cast of black Scottish women.
NTS said: “The company will now always interrogate language choices on all materials to try to ensure that no offence or hurt is caused by inappropriate language or by words that have historical ly oppressive connotations.”