I’ve been a fairly avid crossword puzzler for a couple of years. Insomnia is a constant visitor and I use the puzzles as a way to occupy and calm my brain until I can go to sleep. They’re also great for stressful situations like a stormy, choppy ferry ride.
I keep a stack of unsolved puzzle books at the ready on a shelf, plowing through a 100 or so every couple of months. Vowel-plentiful words and phrases that were initially unfamiliar to me are now like old friends: nene, olio, atilt, kegler, oda. I know that for a clue that inclues “dry” the word is most likely arid or sere. Area of a church? Apse or nave.
What I didn’t expect to find is white supremacy, but guess what? Like dust bunnies and mansplainers, good ol’ misogyny lives and thrives in quiet corners.
I’ll demonstrate.
I reviewed 5 crossword books, 4 Collector’s Crosswords, and 1 Herald Tribune, all published by Kappa in 2020 or 2021, for a total of 528 crosswords. Here’s my very informal count of 102 problematic clues. That’s about one problematic clue per 5 crosswords.
Confederacy |
49 |
Sexism |
40 |
Conservatism |
3 |
Copaganda |
2 |
Homophobia |
1 |
Racism |
5 |
By Confederacy, I mean I counted clues about Robert E. Lee or the CSA or rebs or “Gone With the Wind.” If there were equally as many clues naming Union generals or Abraham Lincoln or the Emancipation Proclamation or a Spike Lee joint, it might be slightly less problematic. But as you may have guessed, there aren’t.
Equally as numerous are clues referencing “ogling” and “leering.” Normalizing staring creepily at women’s bodies, sure. Let’s make that a common clue.
And of course it wouldn’t be America without additional racism beyond fetishization of the losers of the Civil War so we’ll name white voyagers as “discoverers” of various sites.
You can view the whole list here.
I don’t want to give up crosswords, but I do want crosswords to do better.
Words and ideas matter.
Do better.
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