Dropping the Race Card

I recently watched again the movie Malcolm X. There's a good scene when Malcolm X and Baines are going through an English dictionary and comparing connotations between words starting or containing white versus black. The movie posits English words containing white often have some type of positive connotation whilst words containing black have negative connotations. Does infosec and IT in general carry over these connotations? To me...

• Black-box versus white-box testing: white-box is more open, transparent, easier to test
• Blacklists versus white lists: blacklists are bad, mmmkay
• Black hats versus white hats: I'm apathetic to either but those evil blackhat scofflaws! ;-)
• ...

Yeah, it seems to me. This isn't a poke at Infosec by me since I haven't perceived overt racism by the people I follow or with whom I associate. And also to be fair, these words weren't introduced by Infosec. They were borrowed from some other context.

However, being ethnically a Euro-mutt, my perceptions are more than likely biased. Words do carry meaning, implied or not. I don't see this as a political-correctness issue. Rather, our words frame our mindset. Kinda like a same-origin policy breach. If I connote a feeling with a particular word, it will by nature, leak out into different realms of my being.

Now, having grown up and lived in Minnesota (you betcha!) most of my life, I do not connote the word white with 100% positive emotions; white snow definitely solicits negative feelings in me :-) But I do see the connotations and don't want to perpetuate them. Sadly, the alternatives aren't full of awesome-sauce:

• Black hat versus white hat: unauthorized hackers versus authorized hackers? (and hackers carries its own connotations... geez)
• Blacklists versus white-lists: exclusion-only filters versus inclusion-only filters? (7 syllables to replace 2 ain't cool)
• Black-box testing versus white-box testing: zero-knowledge testing versus full-knowledge testing? (not too bad)

So, as I lose the connotations I gain verbosity. Foo. Win some, lose some. At least I'll connote dry, boring words than some deep-seated emotion. I guess that's a win, ain't it?