This was written a few years ago (circa 2018) and left in a draft state. Ideas expressed here have since become mainstream, and I am glad that they have. I'm publishing it a few years late because I've finally found some time to start looking at this blog again.
First off, I think racism is a human trait rather than a shortcoming of people with a specific skin colour.
I was writing some code today and had to deal with white lists and black lists. It occurred to me unconscious (and perhaps unintended) racism is built deep into the language. It subsconsiously reinforces the idea that white is good and black is bad. So I have decided that from now on I will only use the terms "included list" and "excluded list" in my code and do my bit to improve the human condition.
I discussed this with my better half who said the other way of looking at it is that the meaning we attach to white and black could have come from light and dark. Our hunter gatherer ancestors would've preferred the day as darkness brought more dangers to their existence. This makes some sense but we have progressed from that stage. As humans, we still feel safer during the day than at night, but it is time to get rid of references to black being bad within our everyday use of language.
If you are a developer reading this, I would strongly urge you to consider adopting the change.
Originally published at chandrusoft.wordpress.com