Inclusive Language in Technology

All Northwestern IT staff are expected to utilize inclusive language in work-related conversations and documentation. Outlined below is a list of approved, commonly accepted alternative terms to replace oppressive terminology. Anyone looking to propose additional alternative terms or replace an oppressive phrase can submit a request at any time using the online feedback tool. Staff are also expected to review and utilize the University's Inclusive Language Guide.

A special thanks to the Anti-Racism in Academia program and the EDUCAUSE IT Communications Community Group members for their pioneering efforts to introduce more inclusive language into the technology sector.

Inclusive Language Glossary developed by Anti-Racism in Academia
Eliminating Oppressive Language Coffee Shop Presentation

Oppressive Term	Inclusive Term(s)
Blackbox	Closed box, mystery box
Blackhat (hacker)	Criminal, unethical hacker
Blacklist	Block list, denied, deny list
Dummy Value	Placeholder value, sample value
Grandfather	Legacy
Grayhat (hacker)	Hacktivist
Man hours	Person hours, engineer hours, hours of effort
Master/Slave	Primary/replica, parent/child, active/passive, primary/secondary, trunk/branch
Mob Programming	Team, swarm, troop
Native (feature)	Built-in
Red Team	Cyber offense
Scrum Master	Agile Lead, Agile Program Manager, Agile Coach, Agile Team Facilitator, Scrum Coach, Scrum Teacher, Scrum Leader, Scrum Facilitator, Servant Leader, Scrum Custodian
Webmaster/web master	Web product owner
Whitebox	Open box, clear box
Whitehat (hacker)	Ethical hacker
Whitelist	Allow list, approved, safe list
Whitespace	Empty space, blank
White Team	Cyber exercise cell
Yellow Team	DevSecOps team