No-one’s abolishing mentions of “black” and “white” in the entire human language, just in this particular instance of programming terminologies. When there are more straightforward, less loaded alternatives, yes I’m in favour of them.
If people create DB table/columns or variable names called yellowList for warnings or greenList for financial account debits—even without additional sociopolitical context of racial prejudice—I’d suggest replacing them with more sensible names, too.
But you see, I would forbid using these terms because there’s no such thing as yellowlist or greenlist. Whereas blacklist and whitelist are common, widely, internationally accepted and understood words that are way beyond tech, race, social and politics.
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Let’s abolish the conotation/denotation of green for money, red for prosperity, blue for sadness, yellow for warnings, red for forbidden altogether!
These examples are not "internationally accepted". In fact, if they were, prosperity would be forbidden, wouldn't it?
Colours have different connotations in different cultures already. They don't need to be part of the name for anything else; we don't benefit from the metaphor.
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Why stop at colors such as black or white?
Let’s abolish the conotation/denotation of green for money, red for prosperity, blue for sadness, yellow for warnings, red for forbidden altogether!
We use words to describe things. Why can’t it be colors?
No-one’s abolishing mentions of “black” and “white” in the entire human language, just in this particular instance of programming terminologies. When there are more straightforward, less loaded alternatives, yes I’m in favour of them.
If people create DB table/columns or variable names called
yellowListfor warnings orgreenListfor financial account debits—even without additional sociopolitical context of racial prejudice—I’d suggest replacing them with more sensible names, too.Hey, I would too! So we have something in common!
But you see, I would forbid using these terms because there’s no such thing as yellowlist or greenlist. Whereas blacklist and whitelist are common, widely, internationally accepted and understood words that are way beyond tech, race, social and politics.
These examples are not "internationally accepted". In fact, if they were, prosperity would be forbidden, wouldn't it?
Colours have different connotations in different cultures already. They don't need to be part of the name for anything else; we don't benefit from the metaphor.