SP, no, it didn’t make me racist - but it made me angry. We’ve now reached a stage where little can be said or done without it being misconstrued by those who wish to appear to be politically correct. If anyone needs desensitising it’s those people because they create disharmony and conflict where there is none.
While the term does have roots in slavery,and the banning of blacks from certain places,situations etc...I think it should be kept as a reminder that barring people from anything according to race,faith,whatever, is wrong.
Here's what I found initially,mick. Though on reading it-it may apply more to the period after slavery when Blacks were accepted as citizens,not slaves-but still denied rights.
blacklist
"list of persons who have incurred suspicion," 1610s, from black + list. Specifically of employers' list of workers considered troublesome (usually for union activity) is from 1888. As a verb, from 1718.
I think it's been used so long now-and has connections with the period of the 50's/60's when every one was afraid of 'commies'....that any connection with being anti-Black is long gone.
Yes. The problem here is one of perception. The word 'blacklist' has been around far longer than its antonym 'whitelist' but there's no getting away from the fact that 'white' is being used to denote something positive and good whereas 'black' is being used to denote something negative and bad. If a blacklist and a whitelist were printed out, the only different would be their contents - they'd both still be the same colour! Therefore, there is some justification for calling these words racist.
However, other terms like 'blackboard' aren't racist in the slightest because (at least, when I was at school) the colour of the board on which the teacher wrote with chalk was black.
There are several words where black is used in a negative way, blackball, blacklist, blackguard, blackleg, black arts, black book etc., if some folk speak about a "white list" in a positve manner, can you not see why other folk may take offence?
I agree with MarkRae. It is that 'black' is often used to identify something that is bad or negative. Remember the Westerns when the baddies wore black hats and the good guys wore white???
Not a racist term, but a jolly good way to rile up people who should rally know better.
Please - everyone...re-read the story. The only facts we have is that some has referred to an internal email which states that 'whitelist' is no longer an acceptable term.
This person has extrapolated to assume the same for blacklist.
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