Racist terminology in chess problems

[JustinHorton]

As regular readers may know, I have recently been taking an interest in chess problems, through the medium of BP Barnes' much-admired selection.



Although I am very much enjoying working through the book, I was startled to find one of the problems described using a term which is sufficiently unpleasant and racist that (though I will link for information) I will not repeat here. Though I was of course aware of the term (albeit it is a long time since I came across it) I hadn't previously been aware it existed in a chess context.

Anyway checking out the publishing informatrion at the front I find that the book was first published in 1976. My edition is from 1983 and though I haven't made a thorough search I can locate an edition from 2009, though obviously I've only seen the cover.

Now given that the term involved has been understood to be immensely offensive since well before the book's initial publication - and of course the book did not devise nor introduce the usage - I wondered, among other things, the following.

1. Did the term continue to be employed in later editions?
2. Has there ever been any disquiet, in the chess problem world, about the use of the term, and any attempt made to introduce different and less unpleasant terminology?

[Paul McKeown]

When Enoch Powell used the term, "picaninny," in his notorious rant in 1968, he used the term to shock, and he was criticised for it (and of course the speech as a whole left him somewhat a pariah in the Conservative party). If it was a taboo word by then, it certainly was when your book was first published in 1976. I can perhaps understand the reluctance at the time to raise objection to its use in problem chess, as the issue of racially charged language was relatively new. However, when Bogus Johnson used the term in a newspaper column in 2002, the term had long passed all bounds of acceptability and he was roundly attacked for it – which, sadly, was probably his calculation.

I would have thought it high time that the worlds of composition and solving found a more acceptable term for the theme.

[John Upham]

Have there been attempts to remove the term "fairy" from the world of chess problems?

[Paul Cooksey]

I don't know if fairy has caused concern. It seems to me unlikely, since it is word that one would not assume to be offensive without some context. The problem book term does not seem open to interpretation.

I assume print runs for chess problem books are very small, so good that Justin has drawn attention to it. Possible https://www.theproblemist.org/bcps.pl will be able to advise if the terminology still in use, and if there is a way to change it.

[John Upham]

I will send a message to Brian Stephenson on this matter.

[John Upham]

I don't know if fairy has caused concern. It seems to me unlikely, since it is word that one would not assume to be offensive without some context.

I recall it being used in pejorative sense in school playgrounds in the 1970s. Maybe it has fallen out of use in that context?

Similarly spastic was used a playground taunt causing The Spastic Society to rename itself in 1994. Fortunately not a chess term.

My inability to play Association Football caused both of the above insults to be directed to myself plus "Four Eyes", Ginger and Swot.

[Paul Cooksey]

My point was context. If someone shouts "fairy" at me in the street I think I am entitled to assume it is a homophobic insult. But the word is also commonly used to mean mythical creatures, so I would not consider it offensive in chess literature. Unlike the problem term, which does not have an acceptable usage in chess literature.

Of course I could be wrong on the specifics of which words are offensive. I'm not Chief of the language police. It is a community standard, so there might even be cases where I disagree with the standard and think it should be changed.

But still, I think we have to try our best to understand which words are ok to use in our community in which context and which ones aren't, and that there is a material difference here.

(I'm wandering offtopic, but I recall playing Association Football with an American at University. He was so shocked by the swearing of a Sunday league football team, he would freeze when given simple tactical instructions like "run you lazy ****" . As I say context and community standards...)

[JustinHorton]

.

My inability to play Association Football caused both of the above insults to be directed to myself plus "Four Eyes", Ginger and Swot.

When racist abuse in football grounds first began to get raised as an issue in, as I recall, the early Eighties, it was common to have old players say that well, they used to get abuse for being Scottish or English or ginger-haired, and I am glad to see that our community has caught up with the level of understanding that might have been exhibited by Jimmy Greaves or Ian St John thirty-five years or so ago.

Unlike the problem term, which does not have an acceptable usage in chess literature.

What puzzles me is that despite being understood to be fantastically unacceptable in common discourse (unless, as Paul McKeown correctly reminds us, you're a Spectator editor and future Prime Minister) the question of whether or not the term should be used seems to have gone virtually undiscussed for decades, and it should trouble us if it were so. (But I don't know if it is so.)

[Tim Spanton]

One problem is trying to work out which words may go from completely acceptable to offensive.
Arguably the best known civil-rights movement in the world is the NAACP, which has resisted calls to rename itself from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

[JustinHorton]

One problem is trying to work out which words may go from completely acceptable to offensive.

At what point was the term we are discussing here acceptable to black people, do you think Tim

[NickFaulks]

At what point was the term we are discussing here acceptable to black people, do you think Tim

According to Wikipedia, "Pickaninny (also picaninny, piccaninny or pickinninie) is a word applied originally by people of the West Indies to their babies"

When we lived in St Maarten we knew a lady from Santa Domingo who referred to her niece ( not a baby ) in this way. That was in 1990, not so long ago.

[Tim Spanton]

At what point was the term we are discussing here acceptable to black people, do you think Tim

According to Wikipedia, "Pickaninny (also picaninny, piccaninny or pickinninie) is a word applied originally by people of the West Indies to their babies"

When we lived in St Maarten we knew a lady from Santa Domingo who referred to her niece ( not a baby ) in this way. That was in 1990, not so long ago.

To expand slightly: this is the start of the wording from a link in Justin's original posting:

Pickaninny (also picaninny, piccaninny or pickinninie) is a word applied originally by people of the West Indies to their babies and more widely referring to small children, as in Melanesian Pidgin. It is a pidgin word form, derived from the Portuguese pequenino ("very small",[1] a diminutive version of the word pequeño, 'small', also used in Spanish, spelled pequeñito).
In contrast to this neutral meaning, the word has been used in North America as a racial slur referring to a dark-skinned child of African descent. In modern sensibility, the term can refer to an archaic depiction or caricature used in a derogatory and racist sense

[JustinHorton]

Do you have anything useful to say about why the chess world apparently can't recognise an incredibly offensive racial slur when it sees one, or do you think it is somehow clever to play games about it?

[J T Melsom]

More on the 'p' word. Note that although it may have familial use within the West Indian community, its use elsewhere has no positive connotations, which is essentially the point.

https://abagond.wordpress.com/2010/08/0 ... tereotype/

[JustinHorton]

Hi David. You raised a question I did not raise and I am not sure you have any business demanding answers. This matter isn't about me and nor is it about you.