I came across the Antiracist Word Finder. It’s a useful, crowdsourced list. One can quibble with one or two of the suggestions, but it’s pretty solid. The attempt is “to surface how racism is embedded in everyday English-speaking life.
One of the words on the AVOID list is blacklist. The definition is “a list of people or things that are regarded as unacceptable or untrustworthy and should be excluded or avoided.” When I was growing up, it was a word that vaguely gave me discomfort.
But it wasn’t until the prevalence of whitelist in this more technological period that it really started to bug me. Whitelisting is a term for the “practice of explicitly allowing some identified entities access to a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition.” Ha! “Privilege” right there in the definition!
The Word Finder suggests Blocklist / Allowlist for data security. Wikipedia mentions ‘allow list’ and ‘deny list’. “While the term ‘black’ is race-neutral, it is linked to European duality of evil vs good (or dark vs light). Google and other tech companies plan to phase them out.”
As a term for trade barrier, Word Finder chooses Exclude / Include over Blacklist / Whitelist. “In some cases, ‘embargo’ is appropriate. For a list, a business or country that is offsides with humanitarian issues might be better excluded from a roster of reputable groups.”
Synonyms for blackmail
The Word Finder also excises blackmail. It prefers coercion or extortion. I’m not that fond of the term coercion in this context, as there are lots of ways to coerce, such as a physical threat. Blackmail is a specific subset of extortion, I suppose, less precise but also less problematic.
Exaction? “The action of demanding and obtaining something from someone, especially a payment or service.” But it lacks the part about the potential embarrassment.
I’ll tell you the truth. As a black male, I have disliked the homophone blackmail for a very long time. So maybe we need a new term. Do you have one?
Blackmail: Threat to harm via coercion? Not as catchy, but still accurate.
I understand the issue and have always avoided the terms “black” anything. This includes references in the Bible. “Clean as snow” is an obvious metaphor that deserves scrutiny. While I understand the use of “light” and “shadow,” the terms white and black have been abused over centuries. (My brother-in-law would say, “Amy, you are too sensitive.” To which I would reply, “Perhaps you aren’t sensitive enough.)
My two cents. When I think of the politics of being Black in this country, ironically, it’s “red lining” that first springs to mind. And you can find evidence of that all over America.
I’ve looked at Merriam Webster’s Thesaurus, and “extort” really does seem to be the best of a limited selection. Maybe we should adopt a foreign word? What’s the French/Spanish/Dutch/Norwegian word for the phenomenon, I wonder?
The French word for blackmail is chantage. Ditto in Dutch though I assume the pronunciation differs. Spanish is chantaje
Wonder what the derivation is?
idk- good question!