Don't say 'black market', say 'illegal market' instead

Bank leaders are discouraging the words 'black market', 'male', 'female' and other phrases that could be deemed offensive in what critics have slammed as the latest example of 'woke nonsense'.

UK Finance - a trade body for British bankers and those in financial services - has issued a guide on language which includes banning term 'black market' and replacing it with 'illegal market', despite it being a commonly used for generations.

The guide says the phrase could be seen as racial bias or discrimination. Similarly, suggest the word 'slave' be changed to 'secondary' when discussed in the sector.

The document constantly refers to the need for greater diversity and inclusion around language. UK Finance said it takes issues around language in wider society 'extremely seriously'.

UK Finance is the latest firm to revise its language to be more inclusive. It comes just weeks after MPs slammed London Mayor Sadiq Khan for banning staff from using the phrase 'ladies and gentlemen'.

The firm has made several suggestions to make verbiage more inclusive, including no longer using the words 'grandfather-father-son'.

The guide says: 'Grandfather-Father-Son' is typically used to infer a level of age or hierarchy in infrastructure or backups, where 'Grandfather' is an older generation of technology, or backup, whereas 'Son' is a newer generation or copy.

'Typically infers that 'Grandfather' takes longer to restore, whilst 'Son' is quicker to restore.'

'Man-in-the-middle' - a term used to describe a cyber attack - could be seen as gender bias, the guide says. Instead 'network interception' should be used.

While connectors used in IT should not be described as 'male' or 'female' as it could be seen as gender bias. Instead suggested replacements are 'male alternative' or 'female alternative'.

The guide has banned 'black hat', a term used in the industry and cyber-security to mean an unauthorised user, with 'unethical' suggested instead.

'Sanity check' is also prohibited, as it may 'infer a level of disability'.

'Functional test' should be used instead.

The guide also suggests the phrase 'dummy' should be replaced by 'beginner'.