Allies Act to Abolish Racist Lingo

Hello all,

This week I am taking the opportunity to remind everyone about the fabulous resources available through the Better Allies newsletter - 5 Ally Actions which arrives in my inbox each Friday morning.

This post from last week is sticking with me and it's a great example of the short, direct, and richly referenced writing that Karen Catlin uses:

Abolish racist language

While I’ve addressed using inclusive language in past newsletters, I’m bringing it up again. This time, I’m focused on adopting anti-racist language in corporate writing. Think of customer-facing communication, internal policies, process documentation, comments in software, and other kinds of content.

I appreciate Intuit’s Abolish Racist Language guidance. It is part of their Content Design guide, which they give to anyone writing for them. Here’s just one example:

“We don’t use black, white, dark, or light as metaphors. Language that puts a positive connotation on white/light and a negative or mysterious one on black/dark reinforces anti-Black and colorist stereotypes. We choose more direct language to get our point across. We only use these words as literal visual descriptors, not value judgments.”

So, if you’ve ever wondered if terms such as dark mode, black hat hacking, or white glove are racist, be sure to check out Intuit’s guide.