General > General Technical Chat
'Master' and 'slave': Tech terms face scrutiny amid anti-racism efforts
PlainName:
--- Quote ---There are certain words, like the N-word, which have no legitimate use
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It took 200 years for that to become a slur. It's not the word but the intent that causes problems, and if a particular word is particularly favoured as a slur then that too will end up be referred to only by its initial letter. Any of those insults you mention could end up that way - they are intended to be insulting, after all, even though they once weren't.
Simon:
the problem is the usage of the word or the context of it's usage, if the word itself is the problem then we will be learning a new language every year.
magic:
--- Quote from: james_s on June 19, 2020, 05:07:48 pm ---There are so many people out there who seem obsessed with white-knighting for groups of people they themselves do not even belong to and it drives me nuts.
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First they come for the blacks, then for da joos, then it will be us. I've heard it so many times that it occurred to me they may really believe it and then left wing politics started to make a lot more sense to me.
--- Quote from: james_s on June 19, 2020, 05:23:25 pm ---Recently it was discussed at work that asking someone "where are you from" could be offensive and it was suggested instead to ask them "where is it that you call home". I'm genuinely confused because to me these statements mean exactly the same thing :-//
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It will stop confusing you once you meet some pitch black "French" who is absolutely maddened by asking him "okay, you are French, but where are you really from?" :-DD
I think somebody already said it, it's a way for them to weasel out and say "I call this place right here my home". You see, race is a social construct and so is ethnicity, family, nationality and all of that. It really is irrelevant what somebody was born, only what they identify zerselves with and you are not allowed to question it any further.
--- Quote from: james_s on June 19, 2020, 05:23:25 pm ---Then there's the term "People Of Color", is that not the same as saying "Colored People"? The latter is considered offensive, the former to me sounds the same as the latter so I don't use either.
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People get offended by you not going out of your way to remind yourself and everyone around how important social justice is to you.
Using the latest social justice fad terminology is a way you remind yourself and everyone around how important social justice is.
Once the effect wears out and a social justice term becomes a common noun and perhaps, oh horror, makes it into some racial government statistics (like African American already did) then a new term is invented for virtue signaling and the whole cycle starts anew. It will never end (until the 7+ billion people of the world become one unified Eurasian-Negroid race similar in appearance to Ancient Egyptians and the diversity of peoples is replaced with a diversity of individuals - I will wait ;)).
--- Quote from: EEVblog on June 20, 2020, 01:06:58 am ---And in my personal experience there are more who don't want to be "represented" by the "allies".
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Yes, these are those who contact you ;) In general, most of the "people of color" in the West are clearly some sort of liberal/libertarian/egalitarian/post-racist/etc because otherwise they wouldn't be living there in the first place (maybe with the exception of the latest wave of "just about anyone who has the legs to cross an unsecured border").
But there are others too who fuel the drama for having nothing better to do with their lives.
At any rate, I know software developers who avoided the master/slave terminology a few years ago to escape controversy (yes, it's that old). We know that Microsoft® GitHub™ announced they are "working on it", whatever that means. Google, Facebook etc probably are "sanitizing" their codebases behind the scenes as we speak. Those clowns will do it. It may not happen everywhere, there will be resistance etc, but it will be happening in many places. Just like "affirmative action" and all the other progress stuff.
America's problems can only be solved by Rocket Man at this point ::)
coppice:
--- Quote from: james_s on June 19, 2020, 05:23:25 pm ---Recently it was discussed at work that asking someone "where are you from" could be offensive and it was suggested instead to ask them "where is it that you call home". I'm genuinely confused because to me these statements mean exactly the same thing :-//
--- End quote ---
How are they the same? The place I call home is the house I own now. The place I am from was my parents house when I was born (even though I was born in a hospital a few kilometres from that house). That's a personal view, though. A lot of people see those terms differently, but I think few will see them as being the same. Some feel a strong connection to their roots. For me, wherever I lay my hat, that's my hat stand.
Zero999:
What words are deemed to be offensive changes with time. In the medieval times insulting Christianity and monarchy were the most offensive things, as it was the main religion and the monarchy wanted to remain in tight control. Now things have shifted to insulting groups of people.
We have the euphemism treadmill, which means that new terms are continuously invented, as they start to be used as insults. For example, the words idiot and moron were originally used to refer to those with learning difficulties, but they were used as insults, so they invented a new term: mental retardation, but that started to be used as an insult so newer terms were invented. The most recent term I've heard is global developmental delay, which is difficult to remember for many with average intelligence. :palm: I volunteer at Riding of the Disabled where many of the clients have learning disabilities. I remember when one of the leaders read a client's file and they asked me what global developmental delay meant, so I used a more old fashioned term, which would now be regarded as offensive and they immediately understood, but weren't offended or angry with me, because they knew I wouldn't use it in front of them.
We'll never win, people with learning difficulties will always be the subject of ridicule by bullies and inventing new terms will not change anything.
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