- From: Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com>
- Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2020 15:57:59 -0500
- To: W3C DID Working Group <public-did-wg@w3.org>
Hey folks, Heard several mentions of the word "whitelist" and "blacklist" on the call today. I know the folks using it had no ill will, and there is never a good time to bring this up, but putting this out there so that folks can learn about why such language is being increasingly viewed as not having a place in the tech industry (and society in general). Here's a peer reviewed journal article that outlines the origins of those words and their negative effect on society: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328014459_Blacklists_and_whitelists_a_salutary_warning_concerning_the_prevalence_of_racist_language_in_discussions_of_predatory_publishing Please consider these more accurate alternatives in the future: whitelist => allow list blacklist => deny list Not only are these replacements more technically accurate, but they are easier to understand (less colloquial) for non-native English speakers of which we had a fair number of on the call today. -- manu -- Manu Sporny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/ Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc. blog: Veres One Decentralized Identifier Blockchain Launches https://tinyurl.com/veres-one-launches
Received on Monday, 2 November 2020 20:58:13 UTC