It is an interesting question, and the term "blacklist" has a myriad of meanings depending upon the context. There is a television series called The Black List in which the term means a list of evil people who are above the law... or so they believe. Amazon maintains a blacklist of certain books, though they will deny that they do. I know because my books are all on it. There was the famous blacklist of "commies" from the era of "Tailgunner" Joe McCarthy. In the context you use the term in your question (as applied to a person) it means both to restrict and deny. In the era of McCarthyism, many people had their livelihoods destroyed just because they were accused. There was a Black lady who was accused of something.... I don't remember her name or what she was accused of... but after a while it became obvious that this woman did not have anything close to the ability to have done what she was accused of. That was pretty much the end of McCarthyism. In this thread, though, we are not applying it to people, just data. Are black chess pieces "evil"? No, they are just diametrically opposed to the white pieces. When I pick a product or service, I don't normally look into the race of the author, the owner of the business or the inventor of the product. Most of the people who care for my autistic son at his day program are Black. A book I just picked up called "War Girls" was written by a Black man. I note this because I've had the book for a few days now and just happened to notice the author's picture this morning. I think that if a term like "blacklist" offends you, then you need to grow thicker skin. Years ago I was unloading a bunch of guns from the trunk of my car. It was probably about 2:30 in the morning and a couple of young men were walking down the sidewalk in front of my house. "Whassup nigga?" of one them asked me. His buddy, who happened to be Black, immediately grabbed his head in his hands and bent forward making some kind of remark to his buddy upon realizing that an middle-aged white man had just been called something he might find offensive... and had an arm-load of guns that might or might not be loaded from his viewpoint. I smiled and said "It's OK, I been called worse." ;) On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 05:58:30PM +0530, Vipul Siddharth wrote: > On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 5:55 PM Silvia Sánchez <bhkohane@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > That's really looking for a cat's fifth leg. Blacklist has nothing to do > > with evil, it's just a list of things you don't want to see or use, and > > whitelist is a list of things you want to explicitly allow. > > Let's say we're talking about drivers, and I want to blacklist a specific > > drivers because it's clashing with the default. Does that mean that > > driver is evil? No, it's just means there's a conflict of versions or > > products. > > hey, so serious question: what does blacklist mean? > is it a list to restrict or deny someone? > > > Trying to find good and evil in a technical issue is pointless and I agree > > with others that this is a non-issue discussion. > > The terms are not obfuscatory. They have been used for decades if not > > more, and people understand them without even reaching for a dictionary. > > If it makes you feel better, use another term. I for myself will not. My > > life is complicated enough to worry about terms that haven't and never had > > any foul meaning. > > For the records, I did read the thread. > > > > Best regards, > > Lailah > > > > > > > > On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 at 01:43, Paul Frields <stickster@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > I don't know how to say this any more clearly. Please read back into the > > > thread. The issue is not the use of the word "black." > > > > > > The issue is the use of "blacklist/whitelist" where black and white are > > > representative of evil and good respectively. It serves no useful purpose > > > and is better expressed as allow/deny. Blacklist and whitelist are > > > *themselves* obfuscatory terms. That's why it only makes more sense to stop > > > using them. > > > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 3:20 PM Silvia Sánchez <bhkohane@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > >> Hello all, > > >> > > >> Since when the word "black" is bad? It's a colour. Same as white, blue, > > >> orange and pale pink. > > >> Changing the use of two terms associated with colours doesn't make any > > >> sense and will be confusing for everyone. > > >> I'm absolutely against it. We don't need to obfuscate the meaning of > > >> things or make it hard to understand to non-native English speakers. > > >> Also, did anyone actually got offended by this term? Or is it just a case > > >> of opening the umbrella before it rains? > > >> > > >> Kind regards, > > >> Lailah > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> On Wed, 24 Jun 2020 at 00:06, Richard Shaw <hobbes1069@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > >> > > >> > Ok, so as the writer of the article here are my thoughts... > > >> > > > >> > I'm OK with changing the term if it add clarity, but I'm against > > >> changing > > >> > it just because it contains the name "black". > > >> > > > >> > It's a color. There are black pens, marks, crayons, etc (as far as > > >> > reference to the color). > > >> > > > >> > Blacklisting something (or someone) has a long history of use (at least > > >> in > > >> > English) which has nothing to do with race. > > >> > > > >> > I don't see changing this particular article as a problem, but rather > > >> as a > > >> > stepping stone to a run-away issue for which there is no solution and > > >> I'm > > >> > not in favor of "cleansing" language to appease people who can't help > > >> > themselves from being offended even when there's no reason to be. > > >> > > > >> > Thanks, > > >> > Richard > > >> > _______________________________________________ > > >> > Fedora Magazine mailing list -- magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > >> > To unsubscribe send an email to magazine-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > >> > Fedora Code of Conduct: > > >> > https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ > > >> > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines > > >> > List Archives: > > >> > > > >> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > >> > > > >> _______________________________________________ > > >> Fedora Magazine mailing list -- magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > >> To unsubscribe send an email to magazine-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > >> Fedora Code of Conduct: > > >> https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ > > >> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines > > >> List Archives: > > >> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > >> > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Fedora Magazine mailing list -- magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > To unsubscribe send an email to magazine-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ > > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines > > List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > > -- > Vipul Siddharth > He/His/Him > Fedora | CentOS CI Infrastructure Team > Red Hat > w: vipul.dev > _______________________________________________ > Fedora Magazine mailing list -- magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > To unsubscribe send an email to magazine-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines > List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- Dale A. Raby Buy my books: The Wives of Jacob, Book One, In the Beginning..., The Post-Apocalyptic Blacksmith, 777 Bon Mots for Gunslingers and Other Real Men. Available from most online book sellers. _______________________________________________ Fedora Magazine mailing list -- magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to magazine-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
