Nicky's Journal

For those fighting for or against certain term changes like blacklist / whitelist and master / slave, here is my argument for changing terms. 

Humans build our automatic responses unconsciously, based on what we hear,see, and read. Words matter.  Over time, they add up,  / creating structures  that harm certain groups or  individuals.

“Schemata influence attention and the absorption of new knowledge: people are more likely to notice things that fit into their schema, while re-interpreting contradictions to the schema as exceptions or distorting them to fit.”

“Further work on the concept of schemata was conducted by W.F. Brewer and J.C. Treyens, who demonstrated that the schema-driven expectation of the presence of an object was sometimes sufficient to trigger its erroneous recollection. An experiment was conducted where participants were requested to wait in a room identified as an academic's study and were later asked about the room's contents. A number of the participants recalled having seen books in the study whereas none were present”

Terms like “blacklist” are harmful. The harm isn’t about the color “black”, any overt racist intention, racist history, or racist etymology. (Those can be debated but are not relevant here.) The harm comes because certain terms, regardless of their origin, build up history and contribute to unconscious associations. This history and association remain even when words shift usage over time.The harm comes because “black” is linked with “bad,” or “denied,” or “criminal” - over and over and over. While this problem can’t be fixed with word choice changes alone, choosing non-loaded terms is  ONE element of removing  negative societal buildup.

For example, when you hear "representation matters," it matters because once people see something, it becomes in their mind a thing to consider. The entire arts of split  testing and marketing are built upon the idea that subtle changes to imagery and word choice can influence people's behavior.

In many cases, alternate terms can be more descriptive, more precise, and also better translate across human languages.

In open source projects, you want the largest and most diverse group of people contributing as possible. When people from different countries and backgrounds, and speakers of multiple languages feel comfortable using the project, you will discover different markets, use cases, and uses of the project than you will discover alone. By discouraging diversity, your project won’t ever be as good as it could be..