Crossword Puzzles: The New Nexus of the Culture Wars
Completing a modern-day crossword in publications like USA Today, you might see clues such as “U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher’s jersey number” (ONE); “Joy Harjo works” (POEMS); or “Sandra Oh’s quote, ‘It’s an honor just to be ____’” (ASIAN).
“If I have a choice between a male name and a female name, or a straight person and a LGBTQ+ person, or a white person and someone of color, I pick the latter, every single time.
If you are finding these clues unusually obscure, welcome to the new battlefield of the culture wars. The USA Today crossword is run by Erik Agard — a graduate in African American studies. As a crossword editor, Agard claims in an interview, “My job is to help elevate their puzzle by making sure the idea works, vetoing any answers that are too obscure, revising clues to make them clearer and funner, and so on.” In other words, he’s a cultural gatekeeper — one with a certain agenda.
“We do our best to make sure all kinds of folks can enjoy the puzzles and hopefully see themselves in them,” Agard says.
Even if you don’t subscribe to a woke ideology that all socio-economic conditions can be explained by differences in gender, race, and sexual orientation, diversifying and broadening clues deserves praise. There is even merit in the argument to expand the crossword culture beyond a white male perspective.
But what happens when the clues break the cardinal rule of crossword construction and get too obscure for common knowledge, such as “Toni Morrison novel that explores Black girlhood” (THE BLUEST EYE)? When enough clues are so esoteric, solving the crossword can feel like a mandatory lecture on the woke issue of the day. When a large number of clues are related to transgender and other woke issues, such as those about using “trans tape” (BINDS) and the socially conscious make-up brand E.l.f., might it not come across as preachy? In the case of E.l.f. Beauty Inc., it might even be considered free advertising for a socially conscious brand.
In more extreme cases, we have clues like “___ is not the fruit of labor but the result of organized protected robbery” (WEALTH). The quote is by Frantz Fanon, the Marxist psychiatrist and author who first postulated that colonialism was a form of capitalist racism. Might this be seen as spreading an ideology?
In the same puzzle, clues such as “Neighbor of Lebanon” (PALESTINE) and “‘Alki’ for Washington state” (MOTTO) ignore reality in order to advance Agard’s political agenda. In the case of the first clue, it is implied that Palestine is a country the same as Lebanon. More glaringly false is the second clue. ‘Alki’ is not the official motto of Washington state. It was the motto of Washington when it was a territory, but it has yet to be registered by the state. However, since it is an indigenous phrase, it fits with the socially progressive opinion that ownership of all land belongs to Native Americans.
Similarly, it’s not difficult to surmise that the clue “RAP” hints at rapper Mykki Blanco due to her identification as transgender, despite being relatively unknown within hip-hop culture.
At the same time, “controversial” clues and answers from a conservative perspective, or simply contrary to socially conscious ideology, are rejected. During my brief time attempting to be a crossword constructor back in 2020, I was discouraged from using the clue “Sadie Hawkins dance” because it was heteronormative. The clue “Eminem” was initially vetoed by an editor because his lyrics were viewed as encouraging misogyny.
“The advocates of inclusiveness say crosswords are already divisive because they reflect a patriarchal, white supremacist, heteronormative view, but I think those points are just as contentious as the other political extreme,” argues Justin Kalef, co-administrator of the Crossword Construction Society Facebook group, which was founded to discourage politics in crosswords.
“A good principle to follow, then, is the golden rule: How would left-leaning puzzle solvers feel if (for instance) the puzzles suggested that Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election, or that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax? We therefore should aim for balance in our crosswords, if they are intended for the general public. We should either include culture-wars material from both sides, or from neither side. And we should certainly not make the puzzles another avenue for fighting the culture war,” he said in an e-mail.
In response, Roy Leban, creator of the Facebook page Cruciverb, wrote, “Balance is important. Period. This applies whether the balance [is] political, musical, language, etc. This is not a ‘both sides’ argument. Balance doesn’t mean we write things that support repressive regimes or criminals, or perpetuate lies and smears. BLM is legitimate, whether you agree with it or not. Lies about Haitians are not legitimate.”
Cruciverb’s purpose is to provide a forum for crossword constructors to consult and collaborate without additional agendas — though they strive for diversity in their membership. As for his own preferences as a crossword constructor, Leban added, “If I have a choice between a male name and a female name, or a straight person and a LGBTQ+ person, or a white person and someone of color, I pick the latter, every single time. I will also usually choose the latter over neutral choices. HOWARD is the HBCU, not the duck. FLOOR is an event for Simone Biles, not a part of a house.”
In contrast to these two groups, Agard has founded a Facebook group solely focused on propelling more minorities into the industry. “It’s often said that talent is equally distributed, but opportunities are not. This group’s foundational intent is to rectify that inequity for women, people of color, and folks from other groups underrepresented in the puzzle world,” according to the group’s introduction page.
USA Today boasts that 69 percent of puzzlers are female, non-binary, or gender nonconforming constructors. One puzzle enthusiast has even created and publicly shared a spread sheet of constructor diversity trends. Apparently, there are additional criteria to be met beyond a well-constructed and fun crossword.
“Hiring constructors and selecting puzzles to publish was always intended to be a meritocracy, but that did not prevent implicit biases from affecting what actually happened. An example is that everybody selects entries and writes clues based on their own knowledge (although most of us try to go beyond it). This affects the flavor of the puzzle, and the knowledge base of the editors effects how they perceive that flavor. So editors lean toward constructors who are more like them,” explained Leban in a Facebook group post.
In his post, he also conceded that “the same thing is happening right now with the explicit intent to diversify constructor base. This statement is not intended to be an indictment; it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to remove all implicit bias.”
Erik Agard and his fellow woke crossword constructors shouldn’t be skewered. There’s certainly a benefit to seeing more flexibility, compared to previous decades, in the content of puzzles. The work Agard has done to bring crossword puzzles to a broader audience is, on the surface, a noble goal. The debate is whether politicizing crossword puzzles has gone too far.
Crossword puzzles heavily influence culture and the construction of these puzzles deserves a more heightened level of scrutiny. Unsuspecting public consumers may not be aware that there is a political agenda hidden within this seemingly innocuous hobby.
READ MORE:
Is the New York Times Shaking Off Woke?
The High-Water Mark of Woke Corporate Activism
Is the Transgender Movement Really Backing Down?
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