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matrix-org / synapse

Synapse: Matrix homeserver written in Python/Twisted.
https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse
Apache License 2.0
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Replace every mention of "blacklist" #15277

Open erebion opened 1 year ago

erebion commented 1 year ago

Description

The terms "black list" and "white list" are racist.

This Internet Standard draft explains it quite well:

https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-knodel-terminology-13.txt

2.2.  Blacklist-Whitelist

   The metaphorical use of white-black to connote good-evil is
   exclusive.  While master-slave might seem like a more egregious
   example of racism, white-black is arguably worse because it is more
   pervasive and therefore more insidious.  While recent headlines have
   decried the technical community's use of master-slave, there is far
   less discussion about white-black despite its importance.  There is
   even a name for this pervasive language pitfall: the association of
   white with good and black with evil is known as the "bad is black
   effect" [Grewal].

I propose adding block lists and allow lists and later deprecate and remove the offending terms.

Steps to reproduce

Ask some black people for their opinion

Homeserver

example.org

Synapse Version

none

Installation Method

Other (please mention below)

Database

none

Workers

I don't know

Platform

-

Configuration

No response

Relevant log output

none

Anything else that would be useful to know?

No response

erebion commented 1 year ago

If the word "black" makes you uncomfortable, you're a racist.

Lol, because in your world view it is completely normal that "black list" refers to something undesirable? xD

Serious discussion of this issue is welcome.

MatMaul commented 1 year ago

Hi @erebion, thanks for raising that. That's something that we definitively want to do, however it takes time and we can't commit to a timeframe (there is 200+ hits in the code just for blacklist). We would happily take a PR doing so however, so if anyone wants to take it feel free to do so, we will take the time to review it and merge it. Beware however that we would like to have a period where we keep compatibility for the config parameters like url_preview_url_blacklist, and a notice in the upgrade notes mentioning that the old ones are deprecated and asking people to switch to the new ones. We would then remove them in a following release.

clokep commented 1 year ago

See also: https://github.com/vector-im/element-meta/wiki/Terminology:-Word-list