Companies and organizations (such as Red Hat / IBM, Intel, and Microsoft) have spent the last few years pushing for the elimination of technical terms such as "Whitelist", "Master", and "Man-in-the-Middle".
What follows is a bit of an inside glance into some of the exact conversations, within IBM (thanks to brave whistleblowers), around replacing these words -- a company which has been a strong driver in the war on engineering language.
"Subtle Racist Views"
Some of those expressing concern about technical and engineering terms appear to have little or no experience in the broader Computer Science field. Case in point, this curious post from someone who (according to Linked In) is a "Mainframe Application Engineer" who first learned of the words "White Hat" and "Black Hat":
"I wanted to share an example of the implicit bias in their training materials. I don't believe this is IBM-specific. This looks to be application security sector specific. Clearly this reveals that there is not enough diversity or black representation in that field. This is offensive and plays on the subtle racist views."
This is one example -- of oh-so-many -- where the mere existence of a color is declared racist by those within IBM.
What's interesting about this: Neither "White" nor "Black", in this usage, has anything to do with skin color or ethnicity. It, literally, has to do with the color of cowboy hats.
"Brown & Yellow Zones"?
Another, absolutely delightful, example is this message -- posted by a Software Development Manager -- who just found out about the words "brown zone" and "yellow zone":
"OK, I'm on a call and I'm hearing about security-related terms like 'brown zone' and 'yellow zone'' are those terms we should be concerned about?"
Note that the original poster simply heard the words for a color and -- despite not being able to think of a reason why they would be objectionable -- thought he should reach out to see if anyone else can help him find a way to find it obectionable.
The responses? "Using colors as identifiers can be unclear epecially for people who are color blind" and "I can readily see them being problematic."
Do either of these colors have anything to do with skin color? Nope. Having colored "zones" within networking is pretty gosh darned common. Because it makes visualizing things easy. Case in point:
Unless, of course, the "Blue Zone" in that slide above is specifically being racist against Smurfs.
Side note: I can't be the only person who giggles when he hears the phrases "brown zone" and "yellow zone"... right?
The IBM "Word Usage Council"
Of course, all of these IBM internal conversations resulted in IBM officially banning a wide range of terms from all internal communication -- and from all products.
"To be consistent with the tech industry and to reflect IBM values, the IBM Style and Word Usage Council has prohibited the terms 'blacklist' and 'whitelist'. Instead use the terms 'blocklist' and allowlist' in all new and changed content. The term 'slave', which has been allowed only for products with a history of using it, will also now be prohibited."
Yes. IBM has a "Word Usage Council" that decides which engineering terms programmers within the company are allowed to use. They have their own "Ministry of Truth" for technical words.
Not a joke.
Of course, we all know this has spread far beyond IBM -- with several companies (including IBM and Red Hat) forming the "Inclusive Naming Initiative". Specifically to find engineering words to ban.
The wildest part of all of this -- as far as The Lunduke Journal is concerned -- is the existence of a "Word Usage Council" which can decide what words -- engineering words -- employees are allowed to use.
Truly wild.
The leaks from Big Tech continue to flood into The Lunduke Journal. If you are looking to become a whistleblower, we have a handy guide on how to do so while staying anonymous and confidential.
