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Blacklists are legal in most countries, but those based on race, age, gender, or religion are illegal. They can be created due to poor performance or cultural pressure, such as during the McCarthy era. Blacklisting can have serious consequences for individuals and businesses, including ruining careers and causing business failure.
A blacklist typically refers to a group of people or businesses that have been chosen to avoid them. In most countries and jurisdictions, blacklisting is considered perfectly legal, with a few exceptions. Generally, a blacklist might apply to a single company or a single individual, but more commonly has group associations. Historically speaking, culture and race have also played a part in blacklisting. An example would be in the United States, before the civil rights movement, many black people were blacklisted from certain types of jobs.
Blacklists relating to race, age, gender, or religious beliefs are generally illegal, especially if they apply to employment or other qualifying tests. An example of a blacklist that is not generally considered legal would also include the blacklist of “whistleblowers.” The term “whistleblower” is generally used to describe someone who works in a particular industry and who later exposes some type of wrongdoing within that industry. These people are often blacklisted by that industry and are no longer able to find similar work.
In business, sometimes this type of list is created in response to poor performance or inferior products. If a company produces a product that has been shown to be deficient, other companies may blacklist it and refuse to buy it in the future. For many businesses, being blacklisted can be very serious and can sometimes cause business failure. Boycotting is also considered a type of blacklist and can have devastating effects on business.
A good example of a blacklist resulting from cultural pressure would be what historians call the “Era of McCarthyism.” Although Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy is credited with most of the unrest resulting from the blacklist, the list was first created by a congressional committee established in 1937 called the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). McCarthy worked closely with HUAC and in 1950 began actively blacklisting people suspected of non-American sympathies.
The blacklist McCarthy created included members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other grassroots movements, but the list’s primary goal was to identify and punish communist sympathizers within the United States. McCarthy’s blacklist included many members of the Hollywood community and was responsible for ruining the careers of many film actors, directors and producers. During this era, many Americans feared that the Soviet Union was attempting to take over the United States through infiltration and subversion.
During the McCarthy era, the whole concept of book burning became popular, as any books within libraries that were believed to have communist or socialist sympathies were burned en masse. Additionally, many hearings were held to determine whether any films should be added to the blacklist. During one of these hearings, famed novelist Ayn Rand testified against the 1944 film Song of Russia, which was eventually blacklisted and banned in the United States.
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