133

My company is developing a management tool for managing SIM cards. One of the features of the tool is to block the SIM card if it's put into a disallowed device by device IMEI validation.

The feature for this was mocked up using the terms blacklist and whitelist. However, after a while someone raised the point that these terms could feel a bit controversial.

The advantage of using these terms is that they are clean and easily understandable, but then again if they could invoke any racial issues we don't want anything to do with them.

So far we've come up with these possible alternatives:

  • Blocked List
  • Unblocked List
  • Allowed List

And honestly, we're not very excited for any of these words.

Are blacklist and whitelist controversial? Are there better words we could use?

Laurel
  • 66,382
AndroidHustle
  • 1,491
  • 23
    If this is to be used by technicians, you should stick with vernacular they're already used to (blacklist/whitelist). It won't be controversial to them. – webbiedave Dec 08 '11 at 18:57
  • 25
    I think it would be positively bizarre if blacklist were to be blacklisted on the grounds of being racist. – FumbleFingers Dec 08 '11 at 22:22
  • 16
    "Goodlist" and "ungoodlist" comes to mind; you can use "plusgoodlist" or doubleplusgoodlist" if you need more emphasis ;) – Piskvor left the building Dec 09 '11 at 12:07
  • 14
    Here I am 8 years later to say that I just received a company email encouraging us to stop using the terms blacklist and whitelist! You sir are a prophet – JustAnotherCoder Jun 19 '20 at 14:52
  • 2
    I'll pick up where Piskvorleftthebuilding left off, and tie into kojiro's concept of ACLs. Plus-list and Minus-List. The logic within the terms is simple enough that it doesn't require a lot of explanation, which are adaptable to a variety of situations and cultures. I would say it's universal. It's immediately adaptable and translatable. The plus and minus inherit context from the parent subject. Add to this list, take away from this list. It would also help when the terms are mainstreamed and can be represented with symbols in devices. – Bewc Jun 23 '20 at 14:29
  • To me, very suitable in basically all situations seem to be the terms positive list and negative list. I am surprised that nobody came up with this before. Unfortunately, I cannot answer this question, that's why this is just a comment. – Jonathan Scholbach Nov 02 '20 at 20:08
  • 2
    OP, do you mind updating the selected answer? The world has figured out the correct answer to this question, and it's something along the lines of Allow List / Block List, which is in one of the other answers. – Chris Calo Jul 02 '21 at 18:31
  • Your question was a decade before BLM movement which made us question terminology such as this. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Sep 11 '21 at 02:33
  • 1
    In my opinion that employee should be let go, as they’re only going to slow progress to a crawl by wasting time on stuff like this. – Albert Renshaw Jan 21 '22 at 03:35
  • I don't have the reputation to make this an answer, but:
    1. Yes. Blacklist and whitelist are undeniably controversial.
    2. I favor blocklist and allowlist
    3. Supposedly "blacklist" and "whitelist" are vestiges of the time when almost all of humanity was worshiping the sun, though I have little doubt some people today use these terms today intending otherwise.
     – dstromberg Jan 30 '22 at 21:54
  • Somewhat amusingly, the accepted answer here demonstrates that the answer to the question "Are blacklist and whitelist controversial?" is not what it says it is. – mbauman May 22 '23 at 14:48

11 Answers11

133

'Whitelist' and 'blacklist', though they are very common usage, can sound somewhat strange nowadays because of, whatever the provenance, their connections with racially tinged words.

An alternative, which is based on current technology but not yet widespread is:

  • allow list
  • deny list

'Allow' and 'deny' are the labels used for some kinds security specification.

Mitch
  • 71,423
  • 3
    I believe my mind is made up, I don't think the potential harm for using blacklist and whitelist is big enough for finding alternatives. however, I don't have final say in the matter, so if we go with alternative terms these two you listed looked very good. Much better using 'allow' rather than 'allowed' – AndroidHustle Dec 09 '11 at 08:25
  • 4
    @AndroidHustle: there's a lot of controversy over changing language to follow cultural practices (in this case 'politically correct' or PC issues, some for some against). I'm just offering an alternative. Some PC things sound silly (eg 'herstory') and some sound very reasonable (deprecation of the n-word). But whatever it is, it is culture that is driving things. If some people start to point out that 'blacklist' sounds racist more and more (either through unintended associations, or through realization that it -is- a terribly racist thing), then it might turn out to be deprecated also. – Mitch Dec 09 '11 at 21:47
  • 1
    They only "sound strange" to [insulting term for a class of people lacking an important personal attribute]. Seriously. Soon we won't be able to say niggardly, denigrate, or Nigeria or use the terms black heart, black/white knight, blacken one's name, black market, and so on! This is so pathetic. It's strikingly similar to the mother who wanted to name her daughter (rhymes with Regina) Vagina. Utter ignorance is driving this. – ErikE May 23 '13 at 21:29
  • 24
    I teach college CS. I dread saying "blacklist" and "whitelist" during lecture as it always causes at least some uncomfortability. I also despise political-correctness; however think it prudent to bury this archaic usage of black/white. Block/Allow list it shall be. – rdtsc Nov 02 '15 at 02:08
  • 19
    Block list/Allow list has the added advantage of explaining the consequences of the lists, too. Good suggestion! – Johannes Brodwall Sep 07 '18 at 12:07
  • 5
    allow/reject is pretty good since they have the same character count – Meredith Dec 02 '18 at 05:09
  • Or acceptlist / rejectlist? The ideal wording could be different case by case. – donquixote Aug 14 '20 at 05:01
  • 2
    Aside from the PC discussion, I also find allow list and deny list or similar terms are a lot more descriptive and especially easier to understand for non native speakers or non technical users for who the terms blacklist and whitelist are not well established. – Gellweiler Dec 18 '20 at 09:24
  • 1
    I don't think that those terms are fully accurate. It's definitely not the case that anything not on the blacklist is allowed, and it's possible that something on the blacklist may still be allowed, if further conditions are met. For instance, IPs on the blacklist may need to go through a CAPTCHA. There is the further issue that these terms are used to denote approaches: a blacklist-focused policy is one in which the default is to allow, but those that should not be allowed are specifically listed. I don't see "deny list approach" as being as clear as "blacklist approach". – Acccumulation Dec 27 '20 at 22:03
  • The fact that "whitelist" and "blacklist" are in some sense not "descriptive" is to some extent an asset, as disciplines that use them are free to use them in discipline-specific ways, rather than having people expect them to mean what "ordinary language" would suggest terms such as "deny list" should mean. – Acccumulation Dec 27 '20 at 22:05
  • 1
    i've chosen allow and deny. one of the problems with "allowlist" and "blocklist", is, because blocklist is so close to blacklist, even after making the switch, people sometimes mistakenly use blacklist instead of blocklist in conversations. – John Red Feb 26 '23 at 17:27
  • There is a subtle difference in meaning between "whitelist" and alternatives like "allow list". Whitelist seems to imply that anyone not on the list is automatically denied/blocked/etc. Whereas allow list simply explicitly grants permission or access, it does not have the same implication of exclusion as whitelist. Of course, one could name many inconsistent uses, but in general it holds true (I verified this difference in meaning with chatgpt with an open unbiased question about this matter). – Yeti Jul 09 '23 at 20:17
56

Blacklist and whitelist are fine, I don't think they are in any way racist, unless you're actually using them for discrimination.

Wikipedia's IMEI entry repeatedly uses blacklist for blocking stolen phones.

Many mobile operators, such as Vodaphone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange, all use blacklist for exactly the same thing as your use.

Whitelist is also widely used by many other applications for adding known, safe things.

If you really, really must avoid these industry standard words, blocklist has the same meaning and is nearly a homonym. For the antonym, I've seen "safe senders list" for email, so I suggest safelist to succintly convey the required meaning.

Hugo
  • 67,535
42

I'm almost a decade late to the party, but I tend to use different terms depending on the context.

When appropriate, I use:

  • Exclude List
  • Allow List

In other contexts, I use:

  • Block List
  • Allow List

Sometimes, I find it appropriate to use:

  • Reject List
  • Permit List

Or, in specific contexts, I use:

  • Minus List
  • Plus List

And in some other contexts, I use:

  • Exclusions
  • Inclusions

It's usually obvious which is the best fit for the context.

End Anti-Semitic Hate
  • 2,123
  • 1
    I used this answer as the basis of the list of alternatives I provided in my work chat. – RoboticRenaissance Oct 08 '20 at 18:50
  • @RoboticRenaissance I am happy to learn that my list helped you. – End Anti-Semitic Hate Oct 09 '20 at 13:44
  • 3
    +1 for pointing out that the usage can depend on context. imho, this is the best answer and should be accepted. – Jonathan Scholbach Nov 02 '20 at 18:32
  • Having terms that are general terms that encompass all these meanings, rather than each instance using a different term and having to determine exactly what they mean, has advantages. – Acccumulation Dec 27 '20 at 22:06
  • @Acccumulation If you have a one-size-fits-all answer that always works for every context, please do post it in an answer. It will be very helpful. To do that, press the large "Add Another Answer" button. Otherwise, what is the function of your comment? – End Anti-Semitic Hate Dec 27 '20 at 23:01
  • To me I find Permit/Deny to be the best combination - the words are extremely different phonetically while also encapsulating the meanings necessary, but I feel like preferences can vary for sure. – ColdFrog Sep 22 '21 at 04:31
  • 1
    @ColdFrog Those are great additions. I also like how both terms are visually quite different. Would you like me to add them to this list? I am happy to do so. – End Anti-Semitic Hate Sep 22 '21 at 07:22
  • @RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket your choice honestly, I find this answer to fit the general concepts that I was thinking myself anyway and just thought it wasn't worth a whole new one to throw out a slight word preference. – ColdFrog Sep 22 '21 at 22:29
18

Blocklist is a well known synonym for blacklist. For example, the Wikipedia article on blacklists can be looked up under blocklist. A major spam tracker, Spamhaus, uses the term.

As for whitelist, it's pretty much universal. That's the term Spamhaus uses, and there are no Wikipedia redirects from other terms (other than alternate spellings).

Mari-Lou A
  • 91,183
MetaEd
  • 28,488
15

I would normally assume the words blacklist and whitelist are so pervasive as to be practically inoffensive*. However, it may still be wise to avoid them, so I would suggest something like:

Safelist

As in 'the device is safe to be used with that SIM'. As recommended by MetaEd's answer, a good antonym is Blocklist.

But I say this, coming from a white background, so YMMV considerably

AncientSwordRage
  • 1,264
  • 1
    It does have a nice ring to it, thanks for the tip! – AndroidHustle Dec 09 '11 at 08:17
  • 2
    One substantial benefit of the "safelist" suggestion is that it works as a verb. Others, such as "allow list" don't flow well off the tongue. I'm adopting this and blocklist internally today. Thanks! – Rick Colosimo Jul 20 '20 at 14:31
11

UK NCSC to stop using 'whitelist' and 'blacklist' due to racial stereotyping.

The UK cyber-security agency to use "allow list" and "deny list" going forward.

From the article:

"However, there's an issue with the terminology. It only makes sense if you equate white with 'good, permitted, safe' and black with 'bad, dangerous, forbidden'. There are some obvious problems with this," she added.

and

The issue was also a talking point inside Chromium, the open-source browser engine at the base of Chrome, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, and many other modern-day web browsers. Microsoft engineers asked, and Google engineers agreed to stop using the whitelist and blacklist terms.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-ncsc-to-stop-using-whitelist-and-blacklist-due-to-racial-stereotyping/

Jouborg
  • 359
  • 1
    Is it that article that is bringing everybody here? There's been a spike in activity on this ELU question in the past couple weeks. – Mitch Jun 18 '20 at 21:50
  • 7
    I think also Google searches are leading people here. I searched for "alternatives to blacklist" and first hit was this StackExchange answer saying that the term is not racist. I obviously tweeted that WTF, as would a proportion of people, and that in turn results in the answer being driven further up the Google results. It's a perfect storm of failed algorithms, by StackExchange, by Google. – vk5tu Jun 21 '20 at 04:47
9

There are already numerous good suggestions, but because some possibilities like green-list and stop-list haven't been mentioned, I decided to list several additional possible pairs:

• pass/stop
• go/stop
• go/no
• pro/con
• yes/no
• green/red
• we/de
• good/bad

For example, “go/no” represents the pair of names, “go-list” and “no-list” (or “go list” and “no list” if you prefer to leave out the hyphens). Some pairs are better with hyphens, and some without.

Mari-Lou A
  • 91,183
James Waldby - jwpat7
  • 66,660
  • Thanks for your suggestions! I argued this with my product owner (who was the one who wanted to change it in the first place) who finally decided to keep Black/white -list. I believe he's still sceptical about it though. And the feature hasn't been introduced to the product yet so the terms may come to change, I'll definitely discuss the ones you mentioned with him. thanks! – AndroidHustle Aug 16 '12 at 07:11
  • 2
    One comment to add on this, "go" and "no" are relatively easy to mis-hear or mis-read. Nasa use "go" and "no go" in pre-flight checks to avoid that chance, for example. It's worth avoiding terms that can be mistaken for eachother. I'd avoid we/de on the same basis. – Owen Blacker Jul 23 '20 at 18:15
8

Why not stretch the well-known (at least in technology) acronym ACL? While the term commonly applies to controlling access for users and networking devices, there's no good reason it couldn't be used to describe other kinds of access control. Then the individual files that make up the ACL can be referred to as the include ACL and the exclude ACL.

kojiro
  • 2,103
  • +1 it's not a bad suggestion, and it differs from what anyone else has proposed. However I fear the connection is a little too vague, and that the acronym isn't prevalent enough to be understood by all.. But thanks any ways! – AndroidHustle Dec 09 '11 at 08:34
6

I wouldn't consider Black List or White List to be controversial because they are both widely acceptable phrases and are not derived from a racial context.

However, if you absolutely must play it safe, you could use the following pairs. 

'Accepted' <-> 'Rejected'
'Go' <-> 'No Go'
'Yea' <-> 'Nay'
RLH
  • 905
  • 9
    I don't think its credible to say they are not derived from a racial context because "black-white dualism" is descendant from western (i.e. European) culture. The Chinese Yin-Yang use black-white to represent complementary forces. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-and-white_dualism and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_or_Yang (although the first is not well cited). – David W Nov 17 '12 at 19:02
  • 10
    @DavidW, +1. Whether racially derived or not, if they reinforce such associations then its worth looking for terms with less baggage. IIUC, the derivation is analogous to "white-box" vs "black-box" in circuit analysis, which goes back to the relationship between words meaning dark/obscure/unknown and light/transparent/known in European languages. In circuit analysis a "black-box" is something you can't see inside, so "black-box analysis" is limited to looking at inputs and outputs while "white-box analysis" can include the internals of the circuit element. – Mike Samuel Aug 06 '18 at 15:13
  • 1
    @David W I don't think its [sic] credible to say they are not derived from a racial context. This is wrong, divisive and abhorrent: more than that, it adds to the sum of ignorance in the world. The first reference for “black” in a negative sense is in c. 1000CE: OE Byrhtferð Enchiridion Hig [sc. the faithless] ne þicgeað þæs lambes flæsc þe soð Crist ys, ac þæs dracan þe wæs geseald þam blacan* folce to mete, þæt ys þam synfullum*. This was a time when almost nobody in England has heard of a black person. Black is negative as it indicates "a lack of [God's] light." – Greybeard Mar 28 '20 at 10:36
  • 8
    Greybeard states that the first reference to “black” as negative (and faithless, i.e. non-Christian) was in 1000 AD/CE. That assertion is demonstrably false (search Greek black Indian) They also say my comment was abhorrent. In retrospect, I wished I used a softer word then “credible” but I look forward to the day when we all recognize racial bias as abhorrent rather than well intentioned attempts to diminish it. – David W Mar 29 '20 at 15:58
1

Perhaps open vs closed list.

A definition can be closed or open.

  • A number is a thing that can participate in arithmetic.
  • A number is an integer, complex, or real.

The first is open because we might discover new instances like octonions or surreals. The second is closed because, though infinite, it won't expand as our knowledge expands.

This can also apply to lists used for security decisions.

Maybe we need to define "cat" so we can limit access via a cat door. We could come up with open and closed definitions:

  • A cat is a quadruped with fur, whiskers, and retractable claws.
  • A cat is a member or descendent of a prehistoric population of proto-cats.

The first definition is open. We might discover a new planet with aliens that have four legs, fur, whiskers, and retractable claws which would then fit our definition.

If we build a cat-door based on the first definition, we grant access to undiscovered space cats before we know whether any have laser eyes.

The second is closed. Space cats would not meet this definition.

This distinction gets at why we care about "blacklist" vs "whitelist."

Closed lists are easier to reason about, so if we build a cat-door based on the second definition, we are not granting access to space invaders, and we can investigate how much work an evil genius would need to augment Earth cats with laser eyes.

Mike Samuel
  • 179
1

I personally say redlist and greenlist, using the traffic light metaphor. Although the terms "blacklist" and "whitelist" are not derived from a racial context, "redlist" and "greenlist" have a lower risk of being misinterpreted in such a way.

QueenieLou
  • 39