Scrabble accused of `virtue signalling'

Scrabble players have been banned from using derogatory racial terms in the official rules, causing complaints from fans who have accused the game makers of “virtue signalling.”

Mattel, which owns the rights to the board game outside North America, has removed 400 offensive terms from its official list of playable words.

Although Mattel has refused to publish the list, the game's official word checker reveals that the banned words include racial slurs against those of Black, Pakistani and Irish origin.

However, David Webb, a British Scrabble grandmaster, has accused Mattel of pandering to “wokeness.”

Webb told The Times: “Mattel are not responding to any demands or conflicts from within the Scrabble world, which is international, inclusive and friendly. Therefore its actions are seen by many as virtue signalling, making a token gesture or `woke.'”

The ruling, which follows a similar move by the American rights owner Hasbro, affects competition-level Scrabble, which is played by thousands of people at international tournaments. Mattel's decision has also prompted three prominent members of the World English-language Scrabble Players Association (Wespa) to resign in protest, arguing that playing a word was not insulting in itself.

Darryl Francis, a British author who has helped compile official Scrabble word lists for more than 40 years, said he had quit Wespa because Mattel's decision had been forced on players.

“Words listed in dictionaries and Scrabble lists are not slurs,” he said. “They only become slurs when used with a derogatory purpose or intent, or used with a particular tone and in a particular context.

“Words in our familiar Scrabble word lists should not be removed because of a PR purpose disguised as promoting some kind of social betterment.”

Mattel said that its intervention, which is the first time it has sought to remove words, was a political decision in response to the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Ray Adler, the global head of games, said: “Can you imagine any other game where you can score points and win by using a racial epithet? It's long overdue.”