Re: Use of "white list" and "black list" in WG documents/dialogue

+1

thank you for caring about the measured use of language, on which spec authors often pride themselves.

On Mon, Nov 2, 2020, at 4:03 PM, Siegman, Tzviya wrote:
> Thanks for bringing this up, Manu. The Inclusiveness and Diversity CG 
> has been exploring approaches to this and other language issues that 
> frequently occur (e.g. master/slave files).
> 
> See https://github.com/w3c/idcg/issues/17 and 
> https://github.com/w3c/idcg/issues/15.  
> 
> Tzviya Siegman
> Information Standards Principal
> Wiley
> 201-748-6884
> tsiegman@wiley.com 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com> 
> Sent: Monday, November 2, 2020 3:58 PM
> To: W3C DID Working Group <public-did-wg@w3.org>
> Subject: Use of "white list" and "black list" in WG documents/dialogue
> 
> ⛔       This is an external email.
> 
> 
> 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 22:01:58 UTC