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 bra...