expurgation

“Censorship and expurgation whether by government or private groups may seem right in the moment, but the future rarely judges them with favor.”

This rhetoric is not simply dehumanizing — it also characterizes its subject as fit only for elimination, expurgation, exile or extermination.

During the 1990s furor, Steven Alexander, who is white and Jewish, was one of many players who wrote letters opposing any expurgation.

The result was a clumsy decision to purge more than 200 words that alienated players both for and against expurgation—and satisfied almost no one.

Instead of expurgation, though, he suggested that Scrabble create a guidebook explaining the history and power of individual words.