I actually hate whitelist and blacklist for completely non-woke reasons. I find the terms confusing, and often misleading in operational contexts. I can't tell you the number of situations I've been in when one person's "IP whitelist" was a whitelist to block IPs and another's was to specifically let IPs in. I always insist at $WORK that we use descriptive terms (an IP blocklist, an account allowlist) simply to ensure there are no mistakes and that everyone agrees on what's going on.
That makes sense, but it is not the reason why these terms were removed, and reasoning really does matter. Bad logic can lead to good conclusions, but that doesn't change the fact that it is bad.
In particular, this idea that giving a negative connotation to the color black and darkness in general, and a positive connotation to the color white and lightness in general, implies some kid of racial bias is absurd, ahistorical, and frankly disturbing (since it creates controversy retroactively out of nothing).
I too personally find the terminology itself a bit confusing. I have some cognitive overhead on trying to remember what "whitelist" and "blacklist" actually means. But it's minor. Allow-list and block-list is intuitive. I _would_ be in inclined to update my terminology for the sake of clarity and practicality, but given the current context of the culture war we are currently in, I have consciously decided not to change my language. The language list that is on Stanford's site has infiltrated my employer (a major tech company) as well. The ELT and HR has made it clear they want everyone in the company to abide by it. Sure, making this small change for this specific example will result in slightly improved productivity, but it will come at the cost of emitting a social signal that the words "whitelist" and "blacklist" are bad, which they very well are not. This is a trade I not willing to make.
This is an interesting emotional phenomenon; the more people claim I'm being "racist" by using "blacklist" or "master" the more I'm inclined to keep on using it, as a kind of "fuck you and your accusations".
It's not even that I mind adjusting my language if people object to it; but there's a world of difference between "I really don't like it when you use the phrase [...]" and "you're being racist when you use the phrase [...]".
while "Allowlist" and "Blocklist" are certainly better for being more self-documenting, whoever is in a position to create a whitelist and get it backwards obviously has a deeper problem re:RTFM
> whoever is in a position to create a whitelist and get it backwards obviously has a deeper problem re:RTFM
This is true, but also probably an indication that the term "whitelist" isn't as universally understood [by developers] as the "how dare you suggest using allowlist!" crowd suggest...
The difference is in the expected response when you use the "wrong" term. If I started talking about a blacklist someone could ask "Maybe we could use the term 'blocklist' in the documentation because its clearer to someone not as familiar with the technical terms?". They could also respond with "Why are you using such a loaded and out of date term? It is suspicious and sets a dangerous precedent, and doesn't belong in a place of work. You are getting a verbal warning."
