3 ms·

Nothing about those terms are racist. What’s next, renaming the color “black”?

Kiro 6y ago
No, but I've heard a lot of people saying we should stop using "dark" and "black" in association with evil, e.g. black magic or dark thoughts. I'm not saying it's the right or wrong thing to do.
- drdeca 6y ago
  I would guess that such associations have long existed, including in places where most people have dark skin, and are not based in the idea of “race”.
moritonal 6y ago
Maybe it's work thinking about why the term "black" denotes not being able to do something.
tchaffee 6y ago
Using black to mean evil or bad in a modern workplace is a microagression and is racist. Microagressions are well studied and the evidence points to it resulting psychological damage [1] [2]. The term "blacklist" started more frequently occurring at the time of mass enslavement and forced deportation of Africans to work in European-held colonies in the Americas. So even the historical context does not support that the term is completely lacking of racist motives. If you are going to dehumanize and enslave an entire continent, it would certainly help your cause if their skin color continues to be associated with "evil". Consider also that the Latin word "niger" had many of the same figurative senses ("gloomy; unlucky; bad, wicked, malicious") as black is often used to mean. We don't need to rename the color black. What we do need to do is to stop using it to mean "bad" or "evil" and using white to mean "good" when there are actually far better and clearer words. Denylist says exactly what it does. Blacklist far less so, unless we are happy with continuing to use the word "black" to mean "evil". I leave it up to the reader to decide how it might psychologically affect someone if their skin color also means evil, and they are reminded of this on a regular basis by words used at work. [1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691619827499?journalCode=ppsa https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/174569161982749... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6148600/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6148600/
tzs 6y ago
That's actually been done, although it was more a case of someone not putting enough thought into their assignment than actually trying to rename a color. Target once sold a children's desk that was available in white or black. One day, that changed to being available in white or African-American. Target was made fun of for a few days on the internet over that, and presumably some employee learned that when a word has multiple meanings and you are only trying to replace one of those meanings, s/word/replacement/g is not the right approach. I'd expect that employee also got kidded about it for years afterwards, like if he's going to play a game of chess with a co-worker on their lunch break getting asked if he wants to play white or African-American, or if he shows up at a Halloween costume party as a pirate getting asked if he's African-American Beard.
- mnm1 6y ago
  Not all black people, even in America, are African Americans. Which makes the term wrong even for people. This is a whole new level of stupidity, however, on par with say renaming the git master branch.

Kiro 6y ago

No, but I've heard a lot of people saying we should stop using "dark" and "black" in association with evil, e.g. black magic or dark thoughts. I'm not saying it's the right or wrong thing to do.

drdeca 6y ago
I would guess that such associations have long existed, including in places where most people have dark skin, and are not based in the idea of “race”.

moritonal 6y ago

Maybe it's work thinking about why the term "black" denotes not being able to do something.

tchaffee 6y ago

Using black to mean evil or bad in a modern workplace is a microagression and is racist. Microagressions are well studied and the evidence points to it resulting psychological damage [1] [2]. The term "blacklist" started more frequently occurring at the time of mass enslavement and forced deportation of Africans to work in European-held colonies in the Americas. So even the historical context does not support that the term is completely lacking of racist motives. If you are going to dehumanize and enslave an entire continent, it would certainly help your cause if their skin color continues to be associated with "evil". Consider also that the Latin word "niger" had many of the same figurative senses ("gloomy; unlucky; bad, wicked, malicious") as black is often used to mean. We don't need to rename the color black. What we do need to do is to stop using it to mean "bad" or "evil" and using white to mean "good" when there are actually far better and clearer words. Denylist says exactly what it does. Blacklist far less so, unless we are happy with continuing to use the word "black" to mean "evil". I leave it up to the reader to decide how it might psychologically affect someone if their skin color also means evil, and they are reminded of this on a regular basis by words used at work. [1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691619827499?journalCode=ppsa https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/174569161982749... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6148600/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6148600/

tzs 6y ago

That's actually been done, although it was more a case of someone not putting enough thought into their assignment than actually trying to rename a color. Target once sold a children's desk that was available in white or black. One day, that changed to being available in white or African-American. Target was made fun of for a few days on the internet over that, and presumably some employee learned that when a word has multiple meanings and you are only trying to replace one of those meanings, s/word/replacement/g is not the right approach. I'd expect that employee also got kidded about it for years afterwards, like if he's going to play a game of chess with a co-worker on their lunch break getting asked if he wants to play white or African-American, or if he shows up at a Halloween costume party as a pirate getting asked if he's African-American Beard.

mnm1 6y ago
Not all black people, even in America, are African Americans. Which makes the term wrong even for people. This is a whole new level of stupidity, however, on par with say renaming the git master branch.