Black Box - Avoid terms that use “black” as a way to convey something mysterious, secretive, or otherwise negative. Instead, use a more literal term like “confusing.”

Brown bag - A term used to refer to intra-racial discrimination from the segregation era. Use “lunch-meeting” instead

Circle the wagons - used to discriminate against indigenous peoples, especially in the old American west. Use “gather people” or “unite” instead.

Conquer - See “colonize”

Colonize - A term tied to the idea of dominance, especially over other people’s cultures. While this term can be used in a vacuum, be mindful of the audience you use this term or terms like it with. Try to use terms like “win” or “overcome”

Dark UX/Dark patterns - A way to describe a UX practice or pattern that has a negative effect on users (for example, gamification in an app creating a dopamine response for a user, even if the action isn’t in their best interest). Try to use terms like “Negative UX” or “deceptive design patterns”

Denigrate - while this term is currently used to mean disparage or unfairly critize, the term literally means “to blacken” and further reinforces negative stereotypes of black people and associates language related to blackness as a negative.

Grandfathered - this term originally described a clause in American laws that exempted certain groups from being governed by certain policy. It was especially used against black Americans to get around providing them rights that were set into law. For examples, the 15th amendment of the US constitution was meant to prohibit racial discrimination in voting, but was rarely followed and courts would use the “grandfather clause” to get around these policies, or to only apply them to poor white people. Use “legacy” or “exempt” or try to find another way to write what you’re trying to say.

Hold down the fort - the phrase originated from colonial settlers building forts on Indigenous American land. Use “take over” instead.

Open the Kimono - A term often used in business meetings to mean “show you behind the scenes” or “reveal information” but has roots in both sexism and racism against Japanese people and geisha culture. Plus, the idea of removing clothing in a meeting is inappropriate anyways.

Powwow - a powwow is a ritual with cultural and religious significance to Indigenous American communities and is disrespectful to use as a substitute for “meeting” in the same way that calling a “brainstorm” a “catholic mass” would be insensitive and also somewhat ridiculous.

Redline - a discriminatory practice used by American financial institutions to literally draw red lines around “risky” neighborhoods (predominantly Black and Latino) where people were deemed more likely to default on a mortgage. In design, it can mean to make changes or highlight priorities, which could be better described as “annotations” or “a priority list.”

Sell down the river - originally used as a concept that involved selling slaves from northern states that were deemed more lenient to slaves to states with harsher conditions in the south along the Mississippi river when they misbehaved. Use a term like “betray” instead.

Tiger team - Originally a term used for an air-force squadron that bombed Japan in World War II. “Tiger” is often used to describe people in East-Asian countries as well, and rarely in a positive light. It’s also not clear for non-Americans. Use “specialized team” instead.

Tribe - While this term is used today as a way to group people, it is originally a term with cultural significance to Indigenous cultures, like a Powwow ceremony. Alternatives include “team” or “community”

White glove - often meant to described luxury service. This term’s origins are unclear, but have been used to show cleanliness and purity, which often slaves were forced to wear when they provided service in their households, as well as racist minstrel shows, or a type of entertainment specifically intended to make fun of Black people. Use something like “premium” or “VIP”.

White label - This term does not necessarily have specific roots in racism, but is not always clear in translation, can unfairly assign value to white as a color, and can easily be substituted with more like language like “custom” or “generic” when discussing branding.