ClassGraph v4.8.86 Release Notes

Release Date: 2020-06-12 // almost 4 years ago
  • ✅ In solidarity with worldwide protests demanding an end to racial injustice and racism, all methods of ClassGraph containing the words "whitelist" and "blacklist" have been renamed to instead use the words "accept" and "reject" respectively. (The old methods are still in place for compatibility, but they have been marked as deprecated.)

    Some may object to this change as an over-sensitization or racialization of terms that were never inherently racial in nature. The terms "whitelist" or "blacklist" may not bring to mind racially-oriented connotations to many people. However, these terms originated in a time when the very words "white" and "black" had even stronger discriminatory connotations than they have now:

    From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6148600/ :

    In this context, it is worth examining the origins of the term “blacklist” from the Douglas Harper Etymology Dictionary, which states that its origin and history is:

    n.

    ✅ > also black-list, black list, “list of persons who have incurred suspicion,” 1610s, from black (adj.), here indicative of disgrace, censure, punishment (attested from 1590s, in black book) + list (n.). Specifically of employers’ list of workers considered troublesome (usually for union activity) is from 1888. As a verb, from 1718. Related: Blacklisted; blacklisting.

    It is notable that the first recorded use of the term occurs at the time of mass enslavement and forced deportation of Africans to work in European-held colonies in the Americas.

    👀 May we soon see concrete progress towards a world free of racism, prejudice and injustice.

    -- Luke Hutchison (ClassGraph creator and maintainer)