<story><title>Tone of Voice Guide</title><url>https://monzo.com/tone-of-voice/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>flixic</author><text>&amp;gt; In our technical work we use ‘allowlist’ and ‘blocklist’ instead of ‘whitelist’ and ‘blacklist.’ That’s because of the origin of these terms, with white being seen as ‘good’ and black being seen as ‘bad.’&lt;p&gt;This is one of these times where I&amp;#x27;m confused about my own thinking, and am seeking advice &amp;quot;what should I think?&amp;quot;. I think &amp;quot;allowlist&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;blocklist&amp;quot; are actually clearer, but I also struggle to accept that white&amp;#x2F;black, or light&amp;#x2F;dark cannot be used as general symbols for good&amp;#x2F;bad.&lt;p&gt;Edit: this reddit question and a lengthy answer talks about the &amp;quot;origins&amp;quot; -- they are not racial, and consistently meant allow&amp;#x2F;block: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;AskHistorians&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;866ynp&amp;#x2F;what_are_the_origins_of_the_words_blacklist_and&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;AskHistorians&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;866ynp&amp;#x2F;what_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>neonate</author><text>This is veering off topic but it&amp;#x27;s too good not to link Mohammed Ali on the words &amp;#x27;black&amp;#x27; and &amp;#x27;white&amp;#x27;:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;vimeo.com&amp;#x2F;139167005&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;vimeo.com&amp;#x2F;139167005&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=ueDbCmG3iu4&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.youtube.com&amp;#x2F;watch?v=ueDbCmG3iu4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;He must have been doing those riffs a lot back then. What a master communicator and performer. He reminds me of Dylan&amp;#x27;s comic side.&lt;p&gt;Coming back to the topic, if you watch that youtube link to the end, it&amp;#x27;s interesting how different his recommendation is from &amp;#x27;allowlist&amp;#x27; and &amp;#x27;blocklist&amp;#x27;. He&amp;#x27;s not suggesting that whiteness and blackness be taken out of words and replaced with awkward, prudish constructs that no one would otherwise use. Instead he wants positive use of &amp;#x27;black&amp;#x27; words: &amp;quot;Rich dirt is black dirt, strong coffee is black coffee&amp;quot;. It&amp;#x27;s a different approach and he expresses it in such a simple and funny way. Of course this was of the moment in the late 60s (black pride).</text></comment>
<story><title>Tone of Voice Guide</title><url>https://monzo.com/tone-of-voice/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>flixic</author><text>&amp;gt; In our technical work we use ‘allowlist’ and ‘blocklist’ instead of ‘whitelist’ and ‘blacklist.’ That’s because of the origin of these terms, with white being seen as ‘good’ and black being seen as ‘bad.’&lt;p&gt;This is one of these times where I&amp;#x27;m confused about my own thinking, and am seeking advice &amp;quot;what should I think?&amp;quot;. I think &amp;quot;allowlist&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;blocklist&amp;quot; are actually clearer, but I also struggle to accept that white&amp;#x2F;black, or light&amp;#x2F;dark cannot be used as general symbols for good&amp;#x2F;bad.&lt;p&gt;Edit: this reddit question and a lengthy answer talks about the &amp;quot;origins&amp;quot; -- they are not racial, and consistently meant allow&amp;#x2F;block: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;AskHistorians&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;866ynp&amp;#x2F;what_are_the_origins_of_the_words_blacklist_and&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.reddit.com&amp;#x2F;r&amp;#x2F;AskHistorians&amp;#x2F;comments&amp;#x2F;866ynp&amp;#x2F;what_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eat_veggies</author><text>Historically, white&amp;#x2F;blacklist did not have racial origins, but history is always happening. The original intent of a word can be erased by its proximity to new taboos and new circumstances, and in this case, white&amp;#x2F;black have been racialized.&lt;p&gt;See also: the disappearance of the words &amp;quot;niggardly&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;feck&amp;quot; from common English usage, or how Thais are uneasy using the word &amp;quot;fuk&amp;quot; (gourd, pumpkin) [0]&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sci-hub.tw&amp;#x2F;10.1093&amp;#x2F;oxfordhb&amp;#x2F;9780198808190.013.10&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;sci-hub.tw&amp;#x2F;10.1093&amp;#x2F;oxfordhb&amp;#x2F;9780198808190.013.10&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>