blacklist

Dictionary: black·list (blăk'lĭst') pronunciation

n.
A list of persons or organizations that have incurred disapproval or suspicion or are to be boycotted or otherwise penalized.

tr.v., -list·ed, -list·ing, -lists.
To place on or as if on a blacklist. See synonyms at blackball.

blacklister black'list'er n.

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Business Dictionary: Blacklist

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Originally lists, prepared by merchants, which contained the names of those gone bankrupt. Today it also refers to people who, for any number of reasons, are unacceptable for employment in an organization. An individual can thus be blacklisted.

Thesaurus: blacklist

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verb

See

Idioms: black list

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A list of persons or things considered undesirable or deserving punishment, as in Japanese beetles are on my black list of garden pests. The practice of making such lists is quite old. Notorious examples include the late 19th-century black lists of union members whom employers would not hire and the black lists of persons suspected of being Communists as a result of the hearings held by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the early 1950s. Today the term is also used more loosely, as in the example. [Early 1600s] Also see black book, def. 1.

Antonyms: blacklist

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Definition: ban
Antonyms: accept, allow, ask in, permit, welcome

US Military Dictionary: black list

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In intelligence, a list of persons suspected or confirmed as security risks. A black list is an official counterintelligence listing of actual or potential enemy collaborators, sympathizers, intelligence suspects, and other persons whose presence menaces the security of friendly forces.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

US History Encyclopedia: Blacklisting

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Blacklisting, an employer practice of excluding politically "undesirable" individuals from the job market. Originating in the 1830s, blacklisting, along with use of agents provocateurs and injunctions, was a widely popular anti-union weapon. Employers usually provided blacklists upon request and sometimes circulated lists through employers associations. Blacklists continued to be used following the Civil War, especially as violence between labor and business escalated in the late nineteenth century. Despite attempts to curb blacklisting, employers could easily communicate with one another in secret, making black-lists a fact of life before the 1930s. In 1935 the National Labor Relations Act, or Wagner Act, brought a measure of effective control by establishing the right to collective bargaining.

The Cold War added a new dimension to blacklists. Investigations into Communist activities in America resulted in the expulsion of Communists from trade unions and of Communist-dominated unions from national labor organizations. The most glaring example of blacklisting resulted from congressional investigations, the most celebrated of which was that of the so-called Hollywood Ten, who went to jail rather than answer questions concerning their political affiliations. In the subsequent exhaustive probe into the entertainment world, uncooperative individuals were placed on a blacklist and barred from employment in motion pictures, television, and radio for the next decade. Although blacklisted writers managed to continue working under assumed names, most blacklisted actors left the country or found other employment. Some found work in the theater because legitimate theater organizations, such as the Actors' Equity Association and the League of New York Theatres, were able to enforce a mutually agreed-upon antiblacklisting resolution.

Bibliography

Ceplair, Larry, and Steven Englund. The Inquisition in Hollywood. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1980.

Meltzer, Milton. Bread—And Roses: The Struggle of American Labor, 1865–1915. New York: Facts on File, 1991.

Vaughn, Robert. Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting. New York: Putnam, 1972.

—Joseph A. Dowling/C. W.

Law Encyclopedia: Blacklist

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This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

A list of individuals or organizations designated for special discrimination or boycott; also to put a person or organization on such a list.

Blacklists have been used for centuries as a means to identify and discriminate against undesirable individuals or organizations. A blacklist might consist, for example, of a list of names developed by a company that refuses to hire individuals who have been identified as union organizers; a country that seeks to boycott trade with other countries for political reasons; a labor union that identifies firms with which it will not work; or a government that wishes to specify who will not be allowed entry into the country.

Many types of blacklists are legal. For example, a store may maintain a list of individuals who have not paid their bills and deny them credit privileges. Similarly, credit reports can effectively function as blacklists by identifying individuals who are poor credit risks.

Because the purpose of blacklists is to exclude and discriminate, they can also result in unfair and illegal discrimination. In some cases, blacklists have done great damage to people's lives, locking them out of employment in their chosen careers or denying them access to influential organizations. For example, if a labor union makes a blacklist of workers who refuse to become members or conform to its rules, it has committed an unfair labor practice in violation of federal laws. Blacklists may also necessitate disclosure laws. State and federal fair credit reporting acts, for example, require that access to information in a credit report must be given, upon request, to the person to whom the information applies.

The most famous instance of blacklisting in U.S. history occurred in the entertainment industry during the 1940s and 1950s. Motion picture companies, radio and television broadcasters, and other firms in that industry developed blacklists of individuals accused of being Communist sympathizers. Those firms then denied employment to those who were named on the blacklists.

Blacklisting in Hollywood came about largely through the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was formed to investigate the activities of Communist, fascist, or other supposedly subversive and "un-American" political groups. Though the committee purported to be concerned with all types of potential subversion, after World War II ended in 1945 and relations with the Soviet Union subsequently deteriorated, it focused largely on Communism as a threat to the internal stability of the United States. In highly publicized hearings in 1947, 1951-52, and 1953-55 the committee sought to ferret out Communist sympathizers, conspiracies, and propaganda in the entertainment industry.

The HUAC hearings produced lists of individuals who either had been identified by witnesses as Communists or had refused to answer questions in appearances before the committee on the grounds of the First Amendment, which protects free speech and free association, or the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination. Entertainment industry companies, fearing that they would be perceived by the public as pro-Communist if they employed people named in the hearings, then used these lists as blacklists. They refused to hire hundreds of actors, writers, and other entertainment professionals named in the HUAC hearings. Many promising careers were thus ended and much potentially edifying art was lost.

Some of the first victims of Hollywood blacklisting were known as the Hollywood Ten. In the October 1947 HUAC Hearings Regarding Communist Infiltration of the Motion Picture Industry, ten Hollywood screenwriters and directors — Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, and Dalton Trumbo— appeared under subpoena, or court order, before the committee. Each of them refused to answer questions regarding affiliation with the Communist party on the grounds that such questions violated their First Amendment right to privacy, or a right to remain silent, regarding their political beliefs or affiliations. The courts rejected this argument, found the Hollywood Ten guilty of contempt of Congress, and gave them prison sentences lasting from six months to one year.

Nine of the ten were blacklisted in the film industry. (Ironically, the man conducting the 1947 HUAC hearings, Representative J. Parnell Thomas (R-N.J.), joined Lardner in federal prison in 1950 after Thomas was convicted of stealing government funds.)

Subpoenaed witnesses in these hearings faced a dilemma: on the one hand, they could invoke constitutional protection such as the Fifth Amendment, thereby implying current or former membership in the Communist party, putting themselves on the blacklist, and ending their chances of ever working in the entertainment industry again; on the other hand, they could "name names," or identify their friends as Communists, thereby betraying those close to them. In many cases, people were blacklisted for past political affiliations that they had abandoned. During the anti-Communist hysteria that gripped the nation in the 1950s, Congress's investigations into the Hollywood film industry went unchecked and the resulting blacklists destroyed numerous promising careers.

See: Entertainment Law; Freedom of Association; Freedom of Speech.

Science Dictionary: blacklist

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Concerted action by employers to deny employment to someone suspected of unacceptable opinions or behavior. For example, individual workers suspected of favoring labor unions have often been blacklisted by all the employers in a region.

During the McCarthy era (see Joseph P. McCarthy) in the 1950s, the careers of many public figures suspected of communist activities were ruined by blacklisting.

Military Dictionary: black list

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(DOD) An official counterintelligence listing of actual or potential enemy collaborators, sympathizers, intelligence suspects, and other persons whose presence menaces the security of friendly forces.

Wikipedia: Blacklist

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For other uses, see Blacklist (disambiguation).

For information on Wikipedia's spam blacklist, see Wikipedia:Spam blacklist.

A blacklist (or black list) is a list or register of persons who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, mobility, access or recognition. As a verb, to blacklist can mean to deny someone work in a particular field, or to ostracize a person from a certain social circle. Conversely, a whitelist is a list or compilation identifying persons or organizations that are accepted, recognized, or privileged.

1 Political context
2 Retail
3 Computing
4 Medical context
5 Distinction from a boycott
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Political context

The term blacklisting is generally used in a pejorative context, as it implies that someone has been prevented from having legitimate access to something due to the whims or judgments of another. For example, a person being served with a restraining order for having threatened another person would not be considered a case of blacklisting. However, somebody who is fired for exposing poor working conditions in a particular company, and is subsequently blocked from finding work in that industry, may be considered to have been blacklisted. Blacklisting can and has been accomplished informally and by consensus of authority figures, and does not necessarily require a physical list or overt written record.

Blacklisting is also tactic used in economic warfare which can be used against neutral government and companies that operate therein. In order to compel a change in policies by neutral government and companies based there, one belligerent in a conflict may threaten to prohibit their operations after a conflict is over.^{[citation needed]}

The etymology of the term blacklist is not apparently derived from ethnicity^[1], nonetheless some people consider the term derogatory.^[2]^[3] Out of respect for diversity, some organizations have considered banning the term.^[4] Less racially-charged alternatives include: denylist, rejectlist, blocklist.

Hollywood blacklist

Main article: Hollywood blacklist

In American history, one of the most famous examples of blacklisting stemmed from an investigation launched in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) into Communist influence on the motion picture industry. The first in the industry to be blacklisted, as a result of their refusal to provide evidence to HUAC, were a group known as the Hollywood Ten, most of them screenwriters, who had at one time or another been members of the American Communist Party. Today, the best known of the Hollywood Ten is writer Dalton Trumbo, who was barred from openly working in Hollywood for over a dozen years as a result of his defiance of HUAC. (He continued to work under pseudonyms and "fronts" until the revelation in 1960 that he had written the script for Spartacus.) Actor John Garfield was one of the more famous Hollywood performers to have been blacklisted by major American film studios as a direct result of HUAC investigations and hearings.

Blacklisting may sometimes result in a domino effect, as in the case of radio actress Madeline Lee. Both Lee and her husband, actor Jack Gilford, were blacklisted during the McCarthy era after it was revealed that Lee had given a party in her house to raise funds for a group later labeled as a Communist front. Though there was no suspicion that she had ever been involved in any putatively "subversive" political causes (and though her real name was spelled differently), Lee became the target of thousands of protest phone calls to her network. Another actress, Camilla Ashland, who appeared on the television show Danger, physically resembled Madeline Lee; though she had no political past, her network too became the target of protest phone calls. Madeline Pierce, a 20-year veteran of radio, who again had no political past, was also ultimately blacklisted.^{[citation needed]}

California Proposition 8 Supporter Blacklist

Main article: Boycotting of Proposition 8 Supporters

Following the passage of California's Proposition 8, Proposition 8 opponents obtained donation lists of those who had supported the ballot measure by contributing to the "Yes on 8" campaign, published the list, organized an activism group, and began calling for boycotts of the places of work of the supporters^[5] to force the firing or resignation of employees. Chad Griffin, a political adviser to Hollywood executives and same-sex marriage supporter explained the intent of the boycott or blacklist saying, "Any individual who has held homophobic views and who has gone public by writing a check, you can expect to be publicly judged. Many can expect to pay a price for a long time to come." ^[6] There has been controversy about whether this black listing is an appropriate response to the passage of Proposition 8 by those who opposed it.^[7]

Blacklisting of Trade Union members

Trade union members in the United Kingdom have been blacklisted by employers using the services of the Economic League (UK)^{[citation needed]} which operated between 1918 and 1993, and The Consulting Association which took over this role until it was closed down in February 2009^[8].

Retail

Main article: Returning#Blacklisting for returns

In the United States, a private agency known as The Retail Exchange blacklists those who make excessive returns to participating retailers.

Computing

Main article: Blacklist (computing)

In computing, a blacklist is an access control system which denies entry to a specific list (or a defined range) of users, programs, or network addresses.

Medical context

Blacklisting is multiple providers denying care to a certain patient or patients with a connotation of volition or willfulness. It is done in various ways for various reasons and is not new. In 1907 the Transvaal Medical Union in South Africa blacklisted patients if they could not pay cash in advance.^[9] That was a physical list kept by the community of physicians. A physical list is not necessary to blacklist patients, but there have been other efforts to do that. For instance, in the United States the web site http://www.doctorsknow.us was set up to blacklist any patient who had filed a suit against a physician. That effort was extended off shore to a website that encourages doctors to consider avoiding patients who are listed in their database.^[10] Those both are physical lists that blacklist patients who either have complained or sued their healthcare providers.

There are less formal and less visible blacklists as well. For instance, an organization called "Sufferers of Iatrogenic Neglect"^[11] knows of 40 cases where patients claim they have suffered on two counts: one, from the original human medical error, and two, because they complained about it and as a result got blacklisted. In West London, Rafat Saeed had difficulty finding a GP and says, “… it is very easy for a doctor to blacklist a patient through the Family Health Services Authority” ^[12]. Angelique Omega wrote in her blog, "I was once told in a phone call by a Renown E.R. nurse, after she very quickly looked up my name in their computer, that I'd better not ever show my face there ever again. This was after I had filed complaints …"^[13]

One patient created a graph showing that everytime his primary care physician knew about appointments he had with other physicians, those appointments did not result in diagnosis or treatment. All those physicians pretended to be helping, but eventually workers in one physician's office let him know that his primary care physician called them and told them not to diagnose or treat his injuries. ^[14] They were protecting the physician who caused the injuries.

Data sharing also can cause patients to become blacklisted. Data sharing makes it easy to get labeled as a "problem patient" without anyone adding a name to a list. Repeat patients who are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed, or patients with chronic conditions or mental illness, can get labeled as "problem patients" in computer systems such as HealthConnect or Epic that hold the records of patients and can make it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to get appointments for care. Such systems have no borders making this a global problem. ^[15]

Even without data sharing, collegial loyalty, watching each other's backs, can be enough to result in the denial of care to certain patients. Consider the patient who has been injured by a healthcare provider. Patients with iatrogenic illnesses often cannot get a record made of their injuries and often cannot get treatment. Trudy Newman in her article "Deadly Medical Practices" ^[16] described the cause as being physicians having a stronger allegiance to each other than to their patients. They are reluctant to acknowledge the existence of iatrogenic injuries by diagnosing or treating them. A patient with iatrogenic injuries can go from doctor to doctor to doctor without getting diagnosed or treated and never know why. Without a list or any communication between physicians, collegial loyalty by itself results in patients with certain kinds of problems being blacklisted.

However, the term blacklist does connote volition or willfulness. A new and unrecognized disease resulting in patients being unable to find treatment might not be considered blacklisting unless inclination or personal belief or the equivalent had to do with why treatment either was not found or was unreasonably difficult to find.

In the UK the term blacklisted also is used in the NHS to denote blacklisted medicines that are not allowed to be prescribed on NHS prescriptions.

Distinction from a boycott

A blacklist is generally regarded as infringing on civil rights, since it represents the effort of a third party to hinder a voluntary transaction between two other parties. For example, the Hollywood blacklist put powerful outside pressure on film producers to refrain from hiring blacklisted screenwriters who they would otherwise likely have employed.

This is distinct from a boycott, where a direct party to a transaction is encouraged to abandon the transaction to further his larger moral interests. For example, the civil rights boycotts organized in the American South in the 1950s encouraged black Americans to cease patronizing businesses known to have discriminatory policies towards blacks. Since a direct party voluntarily chooses not to make a transaction, no violation of civil rights takes place. (A business has no "right" to patronage.)

The distinction between blacklists and boycotts can become blurred. For example, following the passage of Proposition 8 in California in November 2008, a Web site appeared under the URL antigayblacklist.com, which listed names and business information of persons who made large donations to the Yes On 8 campaign and called for visitors to avoid patronizing these businesses. Although describing itself as a blacklist, the site might be termed a call to boycott, since no voluntary transactions were hindered by third parties.

References

James J. Lorence. The Suppression of Salt of the Earth. How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America. University of New Mexico Press: 1999. ISBN 0-8263-2027-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-8263-2028-7 (paper)

^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-18925.html
^ http://mla.libertine.org/tmda-users/2002-05/msg00202.html
^ http://garysaid.com/chapters/002609.php?blacklist
^ http://ask.metafilter.com/17862/SpamAssasin-blacklisting
^ "Resist the Blacklist". The Ledger. 2008-11-22. http://www.theledger.com/article/20081122/NEWS/811220306/1036?Title=Resist_the_Blacklist.
^ LA Times
^ Weinstein, Steve (2008-11-25). "Are We Being Bullies? Debate Rages Over Boycotts". Edge. http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=83898. Retrieved 2008-11-26.
^ Office of the Information Commissioner press release dated 2009-03-06
^ The Cape Doctor in the Nineteenth Century: A Social History (Clio Medica, 74) by Harriet Deacon, H., Ph.D. Phillips, E. Van Heyningen.
^ Law.com - Web Site Encourages Blacklist of Med-Mal Plaintiffs
^ http://www.sin-medicalmistakes.org
^ Saeed R (June 2003). "Patients' accounts of being removed from their general practitioner's list: qualitative study. Patient's response to the research". BMJ 326 (7402): 1319. doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7402.1319. PMID 12805173.
^ Doctors in a Surveillance Society | The Progressive Blog Alliance HQ
^ http://patient-safety.com/graph.htm
^ Blacklisted Patients Arise! - Greedy Trial Lawyer
^ http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/8834.php

External links

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Translations: Blacklist

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - sort liste
v. tr. - blackliste, sortliste, sætte på den sorte liste

Nederlands (Dutch)
zwarte lijst, op de zwarte lijst zetten

Français (French)
n. - liste noire
v. tr. - mettre sur liste noire, mettre à l'index

Deutsch (German)
n. - schwarze Liste
v. - auf die schwarze Liste setzen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μαύρη λίστα, κατάσταση προγραφών
v. - βάζω στο μαύρη λίστα, προγράφω

Italiano (Italian)
mettere all'indice

Português (Portuguese)
n. - lista (f) negra (gír.)
v. - colocar na lista negra

Русский (Russian)
вносить в черный список

Español (Spanish)
n. - lista negra
v. tr. - poner en la lista negra

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - svart lista
v. - svartlista

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
黑名单, 记于黑名单中

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 黑名單
v. tr. - 記於黑名單中

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 요시찰 인물 명부
v. tr. - 블랙리스트에 싣다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ブラックリスト

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) قائمه سوداء (فعل) أدرج أسمه في قائمه سوداء‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רשימה שחורה - רשימת חשודים או מופלים לרעה‬
v. tr. - ‮כלל ברשימה שחורה‬

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