[sago]

> all I see is white people being shit on

I figured that would be the feel of the objection.

Maybe I should be grateful as a white person that that's not the world I find myself in. Happy to pick my variable names.

I can't help but feel that the antagonism here is very similar to the antagonism I mentioned about Gendered language. The anger seemed mostly caused by being surprised by being asked to think about something.

[Fogest]

The problem is that you're not thinking about the context of the word and instead are using it in a different context to be offended by it. I'd argue that you are the one who needs to think about it a bit more instead of blindly calling others names and trying to police the grammatically correct words someone uses.

Just because you think and associate something with a negative racial implication when you see a word doesn't mean others are. I personally am able to look at a word and understand the context surrounding the word. I'm able to think about that word and know that calling my git branch a "master" doesn't mean that I am a slave driver and or that I agree with it. I am able to think on my own.

[AnthonyMouse]

> Just because you think and associate something with a negative racial implication when you see a word doesn't mean others are. I personally am able to look at a word and understand the context surrounding the word.

We also only get change requests for the associations that point in one direction.

It's called "in the black" when you're making a profit. Is anyone trying to get accountants to stop calling it that?

Here are some synonyms my thesaurus lists for "white": blanched, bleached, frosted, pasty, achromatic, bloodless, chalky and ghastly. "White noise" is sound without meaning. "White flag" means to surrender. "White label" means you're too cheap for the name brand.

If it's a problem then it's all a problem.

Or, if we're going to change something, we could stop calling people "white" and "black". Where do I submit the pull request for that?

[Fogest]

> If we're going to object, shouldn't we object to all of it?

Unfortunately in todays society people policing words only pretend to care to get their woke bonus points. If it's not a current trending word of the day to hate then it doesn't get any attention.

I find the word policing hilarious because like your example illustrate, there is no logic to the hatred.

In this thread someone is trying to justify not liking the word "blacklist". By that logic "black market" should also be a bad word to use. Yet nobody uses the word "white market", but they do use the word "grey market". So what word here is bad? Is using "black market" bad? Then why would "grey market" be okay? It wouldn't make sense. It means they are for some reason associating black with the race, yet are associating grey with a colour. Logically that doesn't make sense.

Yet if "white market" was a thing I bet there would be trouble. Most scary things in horror movies use darkness to set the mood. A scary creature that is pretty much all black like the Slenderman would not look scary if they were almost all white. To us humans we associate different colours with different things. We also use these words as synonyms for different things.

Like you indicate, white is also used for "negative" things as well.

Overall I just can't follow along with the word policing culture. There is no way someone is going to convince me it is "correct" when it logically and consistently doesn't make sense. My mind can't understand why blackmarket would not be offensive but blacklist would.

[sago]

> The problem is that you're not thinking about the context of the word and instead are using it in a different context to be offended by it.

Please be a bit more careful. Please don't assume you know what or how much I'm thinking.

I think the situation isn't as binary as you seem to be presenting it. The context of the word is a metaphor. The metaphor is commonly used for 'good versus bad'. This being a common metaphor in western language might not be helpful to some people. It's not difficult to be more explicit or to use a different metaphor.

> you are the one who needs to think about ... I am able to think on my own.

:) You know the classic idea: "I know I'm right, therefore you are either less intelligent or haven't thought hard enough!"?

You know how easy that is to think and why our brain gets us to think that way?

[Fogest]

No but that is the problem. It's not really a metaphor if it's a dictionary word that has had it's meaning for centuries. It's a word used to describe something.

What you are doing is using an old historical definition for a word that was used in a different context.

A word I use is meaningless if you exclude the other words around it. You exclude the context in order to feel offended by the word.

And you're using your subconscious racial prejudice to look at a word and feel offended by it. When I look at blacklist I think of the colour black and how the colour is darker. Darkness is commonly a negative thing. Thus if I don't want something I put it on a blacklist. Where as the colour white is the brightest option and is something normally associated with positive.

Do you complain when a movie uses darkness to create a scary atmosphere? Would a Slenderman that is white be as scary as a Slenderman that is black to you? No. Because colour is used to trigger different emotional and psychological responses. But this has nothing to do with race. Nowhere did I need to mention or think about race here.

You're choosing to associate a word with a negative when others who don't have these kinds of racial prejudices are able to look at the words context and instantly understand what it means without ever thinking about a race.

Trust me, your word policing is not going to fix a problem with racism. All it does is reveal how you feel when you see a word.

When I see blacklist I'm not thinking about race. When you see blacklist you are. To me that indicates a racist ideology.

Do you feel using the phrase "black market" is wrong? If so then what about "grey market"? "White market" isn't a word that is used so there is no opposing "positive" colour to "black market". So is the phrase still bad to you?

If somehow black market is okay with you then your logic against blacklist makes no sense. And if black market is not okay with you then it also makes no sense logically because grey market is not based on a race.

Interesting how you associate these words with race yet their origins don't relate to race at all but instead a colour.