Guidelines for Inclusive Terminology

On the TechWhirl-L mailing list, there was a discussion in which the term "blacklisted" was used by one of the posters. This prompted a polite pointer to the INCITS Inclusive Terminology Guidelines. I have to admit that the use of "blacklisted" didn't strike me as improper, but the term is based in racism, so I'll try not to use it in my own writing. 

According to their website:

INCITS -- the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards -- is the central U.S. forum dedicated to creating technology standards for the next generation of innovation. INCITS members combine their expertise to create the building blocks for globally transformative technologies. From cloud computing to communications, from transportation to health care technologies, INCITS is the place where innovation begins. Membership in INCITS is open to any organization or individual that completes a Membership Agreement and pays the required fees.

The guidelines themselves come in the form of a 22-5pa6ge PDF file. As well as guidelines for inclusive usage, they include examples of the most common terms to avoid and suggestions for alternatives. They are grouped into categories: race, accessibility, gender and sexuality, dominance, and violence and bereavement. 

For "blacklist", they suggest:

blocklist, denylist, droplist

Rewriting the text instead of directly replacing the term "blacklist" may make the text clearer (e.g. "the following are blacklisted" can be replaced with "the following are blocked").

At some point, I will update the "Words to Watch" document that I created when I worked at the TSX. I may publish it here if I can figure out a simple way of doing it that doesn't involve a huge amount of time to get into a format that Blogger considers presentable.