Oh, Will Shortz, no. SorryWatch loves the New York Times Crossword. SorryWatch does not love the apology for the use of an ethnic slur in a recent puzzle.
Here’s editor Shortz’s apology:
I’m very sorry for the distraction about BEANER (2D) in today’s fine puzzle by Gary Cee.
Neither Joel nor I had ever heard the slur before — and I don’t know anyone who would use it. Maybe we live in rarefied circles.
In researching this puzzle, we discovered the other meaning of the word as a slur. Later, Jeff Chen over at XwordInfo brought it to our attention as well.
My feeling, rightly or wrongly, is that any benign meaning of a word is fair game for a crossword. This is an issue that comes up occasionally with entries like GO O.K. (which we clued last April as “Proceed all right,” but which as a solid word is a slur), CHINK (benign in the sense as a chink in one’s armor), etc. These are legitimate words.
Perhaps I need to rethink this opinion, if enough solvers are bothered. I want your focus to be on the puzzle rather than being distracted by side issues. But I assure you this viewpoint is expressed with a pure heart.
Meanwhile, for any solver who was offended by 2-Down in today’s puzzle, I apologize.
- We do not say “sorry for the distraction.” That blames others for making a fuss. We apologize for our actions, not the responses to them.
- “Fine puzzle” immediately negates anything resembling an apology. A slur renders the puzzle not-fine, even if the puzzle is as beautifully constructed as a fine apse, nave, or ewer.
- Saying “we never heard it before” is no excuse. Type the word into Google. GUESS WHAT COMES UP. IMMEDIATELY.
4. “Maybe we live in rarefied circles” is a horrifying excuse for ignorance. And rarefied circles are NOT RELEVANT! Even if Sumac and I (who both are moderately rareficationated and knew that the word was a slur, btw) lived in in a cloud palace surrounded by pinky-white Renaissance cherubim holding Tom Hiddleston aloft to breathe Eton-scented rarefied Ancient Greek verse into our very mouths while wearing a Saville Row suit, it would NOT MAKE IT OK TO USE AN ETHNIC SLUR. (But Tom, call me.)
Also, HOW THE HELL DO YOU GUYS NOT KNOW THIS IS AN ETHNIC SLUR? A scant few months ago a barista at Starbucks wrote the word on a customer’s cup! It was all over the news! (Unfortunately here in NYC that news was covered by the proles at the New York Post and not by the top-lofty spats-wearers of the Newspaper of Record.)
5. Fact: The only people who use “beaner” as a baseball term are people who make crosswords. Ask baseball fans. (Ask Snarly, who was the only girl on her Little League team in Rhode Island back in the day. #girlpower) A pitch thrown at a batter’s head is a beanball or a bean. In cricket, it’s a “beamer.” So, still no. If “beaner” were a common baseball term, known by every Boy and Girl of Summer, you MIGHT have an argument. You do not.)
6. And no, it is not the same as “a chink in one’s armor.” That is an actual existing expression that exists. “Go OK” is two different words put together. (Will, if I said, “It’s time for Tashlich, so I’m going to meet my mom, who is also a Jew, down by the Seekonk River so we can toss our metaphorical sins into the water,” I did not just use the slur “JEW DOWN.” You see, Will?)
7. “I want your focus to be on the puzzle rather than being distracted by side issues.” Mmm, who is the “your” here? If you’re (your) Latinx, it’s not a side issue or a distraction. Your privilege is showing. Would you use the same argument for “GYP,” defining it as “racehorse owner” or for “CHRIST KILLER,” defining it as “Roman Governor Pilate”?
8. A “pure heart” is no excuse for a bad decision. My lovely, warm, elderly relatives threw around the term “faygele” (literally “little bird” in Yiddish, but in usage, a gay slur), and sure, they were a product of their time, and sure, they loved my brother both before and after he came out. And yet! It’s not OK to say “faygele”! (Today, some queer Yiddishist Jews are reclaiming the word. That’s their prerogative. It is not OK for straight people, Jewish or not, to use it.)
9. The conclusion of the statement is a “sorry if” masquerading (in the way of crossword fave Erato, Greek goddess of mime) as a “sorry.” Apologize to everyone, not just “any solver who was offended.”
Fortunately, there are many, many words left for the inveterate crossword constructor. Apse! Dodo! Enos! Asta! Smee! Aioli! Enya! Pho! Ouse! Ural! Alee! Ewer! SO MANY WORDS.
We can dump beaner.
Rarefied beans as depicted by acclaimed Caucasian artist Andy Warhol
Atone for errata.
So disappointing that someone as erudite and genial as Will Shortz (can you tell I love puzzles?) would be so clueless (pun unintended, but I like it) when it comes to apologies. He practically hits every square in Bad Apology Bingo!
Will Shortz, a man whose livelihood depends on having a massive vocabulary, doesn’t know the meaning of a common racial slur? I don’t buy it. He needs to do penance. I suggest that he slather himself with aloe, spends a few weeks sweeping up orts, and then makes substantial contributions to the conservation of efts, orcs, and asps.
“Side issue.”
Oh, yes, that evasion is familiar. I imagine him patting the air, “Well, let’s not get distracted. No one meant to be hurtful.” What we SAID is not the problem. What you HEARD is your problem. Got it? Good.
I have never, ever, ever heard of a beaner in baseball… and while I was mostly in the outfield picking tiny flowers, I DID PLAY. A beaner is ONLY a racial slur on the West Coast, and while the Newspaper of Record is printed in the East and largely read there, we plebes over here occasionally pick it up. If you’re meaning for your puzzles to be read nationwide, do a bit more work, sir.
what does one do if one’s name is feygele?
Valid question!
I am a 59 year old woman, and beaner was the very first ethnic slur I ever heard in the wild. I was in middle school and I heard another kid say it about the school groundskeeper; I was so deeply shocked and disturbed that my memory of the moment is crystal clear to this day. The point being, I suppose, that this slur is not a new thing. Apologize better Will!
I am a 61 year old of Chinese descent who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I had never heard of “beaner” as a slur for people of Mexican descent until I read it here today. Maybe because I left California for Boston before I was 17? I dunno, my mom still lives there, I go back every year. And I think of myself as having a good, broad vocabulary.
Perhaps because I am ethnically Asian, I would actually consider “gook” as a puzzle answer to be shocking unless the puzzle inserted a space between the words. “Chink” in the armor and “slant” at an angle are fine.