I was playing scrabble and had the chance to score HUGE points with a word that was racist....?

Question

I was pretty sure it would be in the scrabble dictionary (it was, okay, the word was "squaw"). But I didn't play it. Would this have been socially acceptable to do? My group was all white.

Answer 1

Scrabble is a game that is played by people, and it depends on the people around the board. If you are playing with a group that is sensitive about political correctness, then you did the right thing. If the group is more serious about the game, you chickened out.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

Answer 2

Most Scrabble games are played around a kitchen table or such. They're informal games. There's nothing much at stake other than a tiny bit of pride. Maybe the people are playing using local 'house' rules instead of official rules. So in such cases it's situational, depends on your comfort level you have with your opponents. SQUAW is fairly inoffensive compared to other words one might categorize as racist or objectionable in some way. Certainly no one would accuse you of deliberately saving up Q, W, S until you had A and U and could get some sort of kick from playing this word...for what, its negligible shock value?
I'd say it's okay in 90% of informal situations. The 10% would be if you're playing First Nations people, or under circumstances where any hint of racism even on the game board would be more awkward than usual.
In more formal play...at an NSA club or tournament...it's not even blinked at. You play it, no questions asked. And look for the OLDSQUAW extension later, if possible, or the SQUAWK- hooks and extensions.

One extreme exception: if you are a world champion caliber player playing on a televised ESPN final of a big money event, SQUAW would probably be on the list of 'unplayable for TV' words each finalist is told to avoid using.
Yay censorship...

Answer 3

According to me, it is perfectly alright to play any word you want. I run a Scrabble site - http://www.scrabulous.com - and a few users have asked this before. Like for example playing the F word or C word.

The thing is, as long as it's in the dictionary, just go ahead and play it if you don't have a better word. What is offensive to some might not be offensive to others. For example, the word 'Idiot' might be offensive to someone who is extra sensitive, so will you not play that?

I think there is no harm in playing any word as long as you don't intentionally use it to pass a message of hatred or abuse.

Answer 4

I asked my close g/f who is Amrican Indian
about the use of the word Squaw. She said
it was a word they used, and it is what
they are called. It was ok to use it.

I'm a BIG " GUNSMOKE " fan. Indian Women
on the show don't say " Squaw " like it's a bad word.

So you could have used it for that.

Thanks for caring. :-)

Answer 5

You need to win be any means necessary. LOL

Answer 6

cot dammit. play to win!

Answer 7

why on earth wouldnt you???