No offence, I swear! Just a slight toothache and an overactive sense of saracsm here.
But I am a bit lost now. I thought we were trying to avoid colour-terms-that-are-also-race-terms in language. Whitewashing ok, whitelist bad?
But I am a bit lost now. I thought we were trying to avoid colour-terms-that-are-also-race-terms in language. Whitewashing ok, whitelist bad?
Have a great day.
Edit:
I explained my reasoning here:
> Why would you need to? .. it relates to the act of washing white paint over something.
> There's no logical reason for a negative list to be known as a 'blacklist' as far as I can tell?
Ok, here's where I think we are. Correct me if I'm wrong.
"whitewashing" is ok, because its etymology has nothing to do with race. It's just about painting something over with whitewash. Just an analogy.
"whitelist" is bad because... its etymology has nothing to do with race? wait, what?
You can see how I'm thinking "this dude's ideas aren't totally fleshed out"? Honestly seems to me that "whitewash" is in the same etymological bucket as "whitelist", and it would be consistent to move away from both of them.
Let me flesh it out for you.
Some words and phrases associate the concept of black with negativity for no good reason.
Even in 2024 racism is a huge thing.
The way we use language affects the way we think.
If there's no cost to using an alternative term and there's no logical reason to hang onto it .. why not make the change.