Concept in Definition ABC

If an individual or a group is considered dangerous, unfair, subversive or contrary to some certain interests, it is very likely that your name will end up on a list of non pleasing. This type of registration is popularly known by a term, blacklist. These two words are the translation of the English blacklist. As a general criterion, whoever makes this type of list has the objective of harming those who are included in it.

If all people are to be considered equally, the use of a blacklist is a way of discrimination. In general the elaboration of a Inventory of "dangerous" people obeys secret reasons and, therefore, this classification it is not officially known. There can be blacklists in a wide variety of contexts.

In the political sphere

In totalitarian regimes, political dissidents, groups labeled as subversive and, ultimately, anyone who is persecuted are persecuted. government considered potentially dangerous for any reason. It should be noted that in democratic systems such records are also made, but they are part of the "sewers of the state" or of the irregular practices of governments.

In the United States during the period known as McCarthyism, people "disloyal" to the government, especially those classified as leftists, were part of a blacklist. Among them, famous actors such as Humphrey Bogart or Katharine Hepburn, directors of movie theater like John Houston or screenwriters like Ling Lardner Jr. There are several films that tell about this historical reality: "Trumbo: the Hollywood blacklist", "Down with the curtain" or "Witch hunt".

In e-mail communications

When sending emails, some messages do not reach their recipient because the IP of the sender of the message has been entered in a black list. This causes the mail to end up in a spam or junk folder.

In daily life

In language colloquial we also use this denomination. Thus, we say that someone is on our blacklist when we imply that that person is part of our group of enemies.

Black color normally describes negative situations

Colors are associated with ideas and feelings. As a general guideline, something is black labeled black when it exhibits some negative characteristics (we say, for example, that "we have a black day" in those cases in which unpleasant things have happened throughout a working day).

However, in the world of marketing there is Black Friday, a day in which merchants offer great discounts (the origin of this expression is related to the black numbers, those that are opposed to the red ones, which are equivalent to losses from the accounting point of view).

Fotolia photos: Andyvi / Victor Koldunov