Blacklisting is the act of placing individuals or organizations on a list for denial or punishment due to their behavior. It originated in the merchant community and has spread to include any type of banned list. Blacklists are used to deny entry to establishments and can be legal for financial reasons, but discriminatory practices can lead to lawsuits.
When someone is blacklisted (or blocked), it means they are placed on a list of individuals and organizations who have been singled out as deserving of some sort of denial or punishment, under the assumption that they deserve that treatment because of their behavior. For example, in some industries, it is common to blacklist bad employees, and once an employee is blacklisted, it is impossible to get a job in that industry. The legitimacy of the action varies according to the situation; in some cases it is perfectly acceptable, while in other cases it is seen as discrimination.
The origins of the blacklist lie in the merchant community. Historically, when people went bankrupt, they were added to a list maintained by neighborhood merchants, who denied bankrupts credit and services. Sometimes such lists were publicly published, adding to the shame and humiliation of failure. This list became known colloquially as a blacklist, and over time the concept spread more generally to include any type of list of banned individuals.
Blacklists are used to deny entry to social clubs, restaurants, performance venues, shops and other establishments, often with the justification that people are being banned for illegal activity or causing trouble. Because private companies retain the right to refuse service in many regions of the world, this type of listing is not illegal, although a listing that includes large numbers of people from a particular social, ethnic or religious group might raise eyebrows.
The employee blacklist is of more ambiguous legality. In some cases, someone is banned due to discriminatory practices, as was most notably the case with the 1950s Hollywood blacklist. In these cases, the employee may have reason to file a lawsuit. Often, such lists are informal rather than explicit, created through exchanges of information between people in the industry so that it is more difficult to prove that such a list actually exists.
Blackballing for financial reasons is also legal, for the same reason companies can refuse services. Someone who writes bad checks, for example, might be kicked out of a store, and in some communities, store owners exchange information with each other, creating a list that covers all objectionable people in the community. Services at banks and other financial institutions may also be denied to individuals on a blacklist, provided the organization can demonstrate that the individual’s financial circumstances are grounds for denying services.
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