You know, I did some research on the term “blacklist” and found that it really never did seem to have anything to do with segregation and black v. white and the negative connotations that I assumed might have been associated with it, but I still feel pretty uncomfortable using it. It just seems unnecessary. Do we really need yet another little subliminal little message telling us that white is “approved” and “good” and black is “bad” and “unapproved”. For me, no.
Unfortunately I am forced to use the white list because if I don’t then certain necessary emails get caught in the filter, so I’ve been using that so I don’t end up getting in trouble by missing important emails, but my black list is completely blank. I just pretend it doesn’t exist, and if I get more spam because of it (I certainly do) then so be it.
Also of note is that I have taken to referring to the “white list” in my mind as “the happy fun good list”…perhaps over the years I can forget what it was originally called…you think?
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Ummm…so aren’t you going to tell us what they do mean? C’mon I google plenty of things at work already, can’t you save me this one?
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Living as I do in a city where the population is about 60% “black,” I’m always amused by the sensitivity over the implications of black and white in our society. All it takes is one good look around to see that “black” people aren’t really “black” and “white” people aren’t really white.
Yes, I know, there are larger cultural connotations (i.e.: pale = good, wholesome, desireable; dark = evil, sensual, bad) but it’s hard to take those things seriously when I know for a fact that within the “black” community in my city discrimination on the basis of skin tone happened well into the 1960s (one of my aunt’s best friends was refused admission to a certain prominent highschool because she was just a shade too dark).
Plus, nitpicking about terms like blacklist and whitelist is to me like people screaming about banning violent video games and saying nothing about addressing problems of class, race, sexism, and religious discrimination; it’s like trying to bail the Atlantic with a thimble.
Personally, I think of my e-mail program’s blacklist as the equivalent of the doorman saying “Sorry, but if you don’t have an invitation, you can’t come to the party.”
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Yeah, but I still don’t know the origin of the phrase.
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yeti: gimme a break man…i’m still sick as a dog. so sick in fact adam and i had to cancel our anniversary dinner (supposed to be dressing for it right now). we moved the reservation to tomorrow night, so hopefully that will work out.
in the meantime, perhaps this will sate you, it’s too much for me to sum up, but here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_list
i did more research then just this (of course) but again, i say, sick, sick, sick!woodstock: all good points. i don’t think i was nitpicking though, i guess i just feel like i want words like that in a negative connotation in my life as little as possible and i don’t like being force fed them by something as silly as a spam filter. i’m the last person to blame the “violent movies” or the “violent video games” or the “comedians” etc…
as for the prejudice of a doorman letting people in or not, i’m not sure how much i love that analogy either, because getting on that list or having that invite usually has to do with being beautiful or rich, or both, and i’m not wild about that idea either…food for thought though.
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