When we write, we write from a place of empathy. It’s easy to make a mistake and write something we don’t think sounds offensive, or to use a common phrase without thinking twice about it. This can be challenging when we write in relatable, friendly, young, fun voice in line with our brand guidelines.
The purpose of this section is not to shame you for making mistakes, or tell you how to write, or tell you what is racist or sexist or misogynistic — or what isn’t.
This section is meant to help you choose alternatives to words that have baggage for people with different backgrounds and from different cultures.
It’s not up to us to decide how others will feel about the words we use, but we can do everything in our power to prevent offending readers in the first place.
Many of these phrases come from an American context, as much of this content was developed to help write for an American audience.
While these phrases have lost a lot of their historical meaning, these terms were historically used to discriminate against Black and Indigenous populations, or to appropriate their culture or religious belief in disrespectful ways.
”Jip” may be more familiar for global audiences as an abbreviated term derived from “Gypsy” used against Roma people in both Europe and the Americas. From an American perspective, this is insensitive, and a term derived from a slur.
| Instead of | Use |
|---|---|
| Sprit Animal | Inner beast |
| Inner animal | |
| Animal familiar | |
| Peanut Gallery | Unwanted advice |
| Heckler | |
| Cakewalk | Easy |
| Jip | Cheat |
| Defraud | |
| Deceive | |
| Rule of Thumb | Approximate |
| Native (in reference to language comprehension)* | Fluent |
*One grey area to keep in mind is using “native” in reference to language comprehension when you mean “fluent.” Often, a person’s “native” status is not always correlated to their comprehension or fluency. This is especially important to consider when writing job descriptions and hiring requirements.
Many of these terms lost their historical context, were first used as metaphors, and were adapted by technology experts who were not considering widespread adoption of computer technology or the internet.
These terms are especially tricky to get away from as they are often embedded in software and technical support documentation, but either have roots in racism, or reinforce research findings that suggest people have a tendency to perceive someone with darker skin as more likely to commit immoral acts.
| Instead of | Use |
|---|---|
| Master (in terms of a branch in code, or other similar usages) | Origin |
| Original | |
| Key | |
| Main | |
| Slave (in terms of a branch in code, or other similar usages) | Secondary |
| Dark-mode | Night-mode |
| Light-mode | Bright-mode |
| White Hat | Ethical hacker |
| Black Hat | Exploitative hacker |
| Blacklist* | Blocklist |
| Whitelist* | Allowlist |
*Because whitelist and blacklist are technical terms that are hard to get away from, and because they are important for SEO purposes, it may not be possible to completely eliminate them from usage, especially in external-facing writing.
However, it is still possible to use SEO’d terms while acknowledging updates in modern communication practices. An example is writing “Whitelist (allowlist)” and including inclusive terminology in parenthesis.
Internally, while you don’t have to worry as much about SEO, it’s still important to prioritize understanding. If someone does not recognize “allowlist” or “blocklist,” do what you can to write clearly, whether that’s including inclusive terminology annotations like the previous example, or some other communication method.
Pronouns
Overall, don’t make assumptions, or play into stereotypes. In terms of pronouns, All hackers are not men, so when you use a pronoun for a hacker, don’t default to “he,” for example. The same goes in reverse, not all baristas are women, so don’t always use “she” when referring to people who work in coffee shops.
When it comes to pronoun usage in your writing, using “they” is a great way to refer to someone who’s gender identity you don’t know and is also a great way to avoid stereotypes when storytelling.