Somehow, Scrabble Has Gone Woke, At Least According To Fox News Pundits

The latest brand to be accused of "going woke" by some conservative pundits is, bizarrely enough, Scrabble, the iconic board game that is traditionally about making words on a board with a given set of letters.

However, unlike previous brands that have been accused of "going woke" for perceived "sins," such as adding an optional, environmentally friendly power setting (Xbox), hiring an executive focused on diversity (Chick-Fil-A) and adding vegetarian options to a menu (Cracker Barrel), Scrabble's "woke sin" has nothing to do with ongoing culture wars. Instead, the company essentially created a "for fun" version of the game.

Earlier this week, Mattel introduced "Scrabble Together," a version of the classic game that focuses less on competitive play and more on working together to create words with tiles.

In this version of the game, players can draw cards that will offer challenges and prompts, such as "play a word with two vowels" or "play a word vertically." There is still a way to "win," which is to complete 20 challenges. In traditional Scrabble, letters have point values and players attempt to maximize their points by playing certain letters and words on the board's multiplier tiles.

Mattel executives stated they came up with the idea to attract players who might be intimidated by the regular version of Scrabble. This version of the game will appear on the flip side of a traditional Scrabble board, allowing purchasers to play either version.

However, this optional spin on the game represented yet another concession to "wokeness," according to a recent Fox News segment on The Five that claimed "Scrabble is dumbing itself down for the Woke."

According to the panel, introducing a less-competitive version of Scrabble is a way to cater to the snowflakes of Gen Z. The idea that zoomers would not play the regular version of Scrabble due to Gen Z being "less competitive" has been discussed in coverage of the story, but Mattel has not said that they created "Scrabble Together" to cater to Gen Z.

Furthermore, Jeanine Pirro voices disgruntlement that Scrabble has removed racist and LGBTQ slurs from its list of official rules but also added "new words" that the "woke generation would be comfortable with" (she does not say what the removed slurs or "new words" are). During this discussion, there was a brief disagreement among the panel about whether slurs should be allowed in the game.

While some on social media have echoed what was said on Fox News, the idea that Scrabble has "gone woke" has mostly been met with mockery and irony.

The dictionary definition of "woke" means to be aware of social injustices against groups that have historically faced prejudice due to the color of their skin or sexual orientation.

It remains unclear how a casual version of Scrabble pertains to "woke," but the word itself will net a player 11 points before any multipliers are applied.