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They are also deprecating the terms “whitelist” and “blacklist”. In my mind I never associated them to skin colour, but I’m not a native English speaker. Does a
by occamrazor 6y ago
They are also deprecating the terms “whitelist” and “blacklist”. In my mind I never associated them to skin colour, but I’m not a native English speaker. Does anybody know the origin of these terms? Is there any semantic link to race?
- moralestapia 6y agoI am also not a native speaker and I had never, EVER, made that association until now that I read about it.
- Macha 6y agoThe origin seems to in England in the 1600s and linked to non-racial uses of black as bad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacklisting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacklisting However, the at least some proponents of phrasology changes have also included any words that portray black or white really regardless of context.
- Normille 6y agoIt's a very very old cultural association, dating back to primitive times where people were literally 'afraid of the dark'. So Day = Light = Good and Night = Dark = Bad. Night-time is associated with mystery, fear, ignorance, demons, devils, 'creatures of the dark' etc and Day-time is associated with rebirth, new life, positivity, understanding etc. Of course none of that resonates with the self-flagellating virtue signallers, whose cultural awareness extends about as far back as last week and who assume every reference to 'Black' must be due to 'whitey' being incorrigibly racist.