Tech Terms Face Scrutiny Amid Anti-Racism Efforts (cnet.com) 318
Apple, Google, Microsoft and other Big Tech companies have stepped up their comments on the need for racial justice amid the Black Lives Matter protests that have gripped the US for the past two weeks. Now, a growing group of technologists say the language of the industry itself needs to change in order to fight racism. From a report: The terms "master" and "slave," used to describe the relationships between two computer hard drives and or between two camera flashes, have come under scrutiny because of their association with America's history of slavery. Similarly, "whitelist" and "blacklist," terms for allowing and denying access to a service, are being revisited because of their potentially racial overtones.
"I refuse to use 'whitelist'/'blacklist' or 'master'/'slave' terminology for computers. Join me. Words matter," tweeted Leah Culver, co-founder of the Breaker podcast app and a co-author of the widely used OAuth signon technology. More than 16,000 people liked her tweet. Photographer Theresa Bear expressed a similar sentiment on the PetaPixel photo site, writing that it's time to "make way for our black community" by banishing the use of "master" and "slave" to refer to how flashes are controlled. "Can you imagine being on set with a black human and the photographer yells to the assistant, 'Hey, can you put it on slave mode?'" Bear asked. Other terms proposed for sunsetting include "white hat" and "black hat," with "ethical" and "unethical" suggested as replacements.
"I refuse to use 'whitelist'/'blacklist' or 'master'/'slave' terminology for computers. Join me. Words matter," tweeted Leah Culver, co-founder of the Breaker podcast app and a co-author of the widely used OAuth signon technology. More than 16,000 people liked her tweet. Photographer Theresa Bear expressed a similar sentiment on the PetaPixel photo site, writing that it's time to "make way for our black community" by banishing the use of "master" and "slave" to refer to how flashes are controlled. "Can you imagine being on set with a black human and the photographer yells to the assistant, 'Hey, can you put it on slave mode?'" Bear asked. Other terms proposed for sunsetting include "white hat" and "black hat," with "ethical" and "unethical" suggested as replacements.
Oh boy... (Score:2)
Oh boy, this isn't going to be popular with some slashdoters.
Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Informative)
and it's not even news.
Here is an attempt to ban those terms in 2003: https://slashdot.org/story/03/... [slashdot.org]
and in 2018: https://developers.slashdot.or... [slashdot.org]
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Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was on the SCSI standards committee back in the day, 2003-ish, the recommended terms from ANSI/INCITS editorial standards were "master" and "peer". Standards were written for a broad international audience, some of whom with a poor grasp of English, and so words that might offend in some culture were avoided when there was a reasonable replacement. "Master" was kept, because there wasn't a good alternative.
Other recommendations were "cancel" instead of "abort", and "process" instead of "execute". As long as no clarity is lost, there's nothing to get worked up about. Heck, using more similar terminology between standards is a good thing.
But of course, if you're writing a standard, you're being very careful about wording at all times. I wouldn't apply the same strictness to a design doc or code comment, unless it was referencing a standard.
My last employer was just over the top about this sort of BS, banning words such as "blacklist" in code. On my way out, I couldn't resist trolling them hard, and asked on the right discussion lists whether the word "whitespace" was problematic. Hilarity ensued.
Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Funny)
Shit, there were moves in the 1960s, half a century ago, to remove ABORT (because people spoke in all caps back then) from computers. Because obviously the systematic mistreatment of an entire race will be fixed by changing a word in an error message.
Last time this came up, in the context of master/slave, I suggested replacing it with equivalent safe terms from another language, specifically German, which has a rich (Reich) terminology. So you'd have a leader (Fuehrer) and citizens/people (Volk) instead of master and slave. Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer, who could possibly be offended?
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The USB standard uses host instead of master, and device instead of slave.
ATA switched from master/slave to device 0 and device 1, which is actually a lot more accurate because the former master in no way controls the former slave, it's literally just which select signal they respond to.
I used leader/follower in code before.
The main problem with whitespace (apart from being inaccurate for dark mode) is that it's not well defined. The Wikipedia page on it has a long list of random characters that are conside
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The USB standard uses host instead of master, and device instead of slave.
USB is by nature asymmetric, though. Host and device are standard terms for storage, and the "host" role doesn't usually rotate between endpoints for redundancy or anything. That doesn't make sense for a networking protocol, however.
I used leader/follower in code before.
Not bad, when it's not backwards to how the actual bits flow on the wire.
The main problem with whitespace (apart from being inaccurate for dark mode) is that it's not well defined.
Whitespace is a very old term in graphic design/print layout from long before computers. It is very well understood by professionals in the field.
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Attempt? The ATA/IDE spec removed master/slave around the time of the first one. It wasn't even accurate anyway.
Databases mostly use primary/replica, again more accurate.
Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Insightful)
It shouldn't be popular with anyone who cares about justice.
The protests for racial justice need to strike a balance between motivating supporters and alienating the public.
Jumping the shark by expanding their demands into wokeifying computer terminology is just going to make many people roll their eyes and lose interest.
MLK famously said "Keep your eye on the prize." Set realistic goals. Focus on achieving them. Don't get sidetracked into sloganeering and irrelevancy.
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Jumping the shark ...
Dial it back, sharks don't like to jump or be jumped. :-)
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There is the problem that too much discrimination is powered by words. And people refusal to change what words they use, even if they do hurt people is a strong sign of that.
While many of these terms may not be racially connected or directly. Such as White Hat vs Black Hat, where it was based on Cowboy movies where they Good Guy wore a white hat, while the bad guy wore a black hat. It does bring the image of White = Good, Black = Bad. This type of speech is ingrained into our psyche at an early age.
So wh
Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Insightful)
This type of speech is ingrained into our psyche at an early age.
The same goes for our perception of these words. If we regularly use the words master, slave, black or white without any hesitation, without furtively looking around the room to see if we offended anyone, even if some carry a positive image and others a negative one, then no one should (or probably will) feel too bad about those words being used around them. But if we start telling kids at an early age not to use these words or to be extremely careful with them because they can be hurtful, then that lesson itself actually makes them hurtful. We are teaching black kids to feel bad when they hear a negative word like "blacklist", and other kids to be angry at whomever uses these words.
Discrimination is not powered by words alone; but by our perception of them. Our current focus on so called inappropriate use of these words is having a far greater impact on that perception than any original positive or negative connotation these words carry. It's turning well meaning people into "racists", fuelling mutual hatred rather than a closer understanding of each others' real problems.
Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm all for using terms that make the most people feel the most comfortable and included. Master/slave and male/female (when discussing connectors) appear like obvious usages to address.
The dark/light thing might be tougher issue. Fear and distrust of the dark as well as the things that operate under cover of night is sort of ingrained in our biology. People of all races are likely to associate darkness with negativity for a very long time. No changes in language will fix that. I'm sure there's room for improvement, but trying to flip people's instinctual reactions to dark vs light would be a tall order.
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Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Insightful)
The notion of black=evil, white=good has little to do with skin color, IMO. It's terminology related to a very primitive instinct. People fear the darkness and feel safer in the light, since we don't have good night vision. And the terms are clearly referencing articles of clothing, which go back to spaghetti westerns and their visual terminology for identifying heroes and villains. That's all it is. Look, we have to draw a line somewhere, or things start getting ridiculous. And frankly, that's most likely the primary cause of resistance here, not some deep-seated, systemic racism.
Honestly, I'm fine revisiting a few terms like master/slave, which could be viewed as negative terminology regardless of race. And I think there are perfectly good substitutes for whitelist and blacklist that are more appropriate and descriptive for user-facing UI anyhow. It doesn't seem like a hill worth dying on to me, and I don't see how it materially affects anyone's life in a significant manner, so long as advocates avoid the temptation to throw around the term "racist" at anyone who doesn't immediately agree to ban such language. Remember, advocates, that you're asking people to change a common term that folks have been using their entire lives, and a relatively benign one at that, compared to truly offensive language.
But not let's not automatically assume that every term with black or white in it has racial connotations by default. Dare I say... it's not a completely black and white issue.
Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Insightful)
So when we hear "Black People" we equate it to Bad, then our higher brain reasoning will need to kick in and say, deal with this word a neutral.
First it was "don't use the n-word", because it is associated with slavery (not really true, but whatever...), just call them blacks. Then it is "don't call them blacks", because the black colour is associated with bad things (night, darkness, death) since the dawn of history, call them African-something. Then it will be "don't call them African-something", because Africa is associated with corruption, chaos, ethnic wars, call them ...
There is the problem that too much discrimination is powered by words.
The real problem right now is that too much bullshit is powered words.
Re: Oh boy... (Score:2)
If these words really have an effect as claimed, shouldn't we expect those who are steeped in these terminologies to be more racist than the average person? Is this true, are software developers more racist than they would have been had they not pursued this career path?
Re:Oh boy... (Score:4, Insightful)
There is the problem that too much discrimination is powered by words. And people refusal to change what words they use, even if they do hurt people is a strong sign of that.
Oh boy, you haven't thought this one through. People generally get annoyed when you tell them to change the way they think because it's convenient for you. Why should I adapt to you instead of you adapting to me? To appease some insane Twitter personalities seeking attention and virtue points? Pass. What makes you believe that you have the right to tell me how I should think? Because that is what you are doing. This is a seriously anti-liberal stance you have.
While many of these terms may not be racially connected or directly. Such as White Hat vs Black Hat, where it was based on Cowboy movies where they Good Guy wore a white hat, while the bad guy wore a black hat. It does bring the image of White = Good, Black = Bad. This type of speech is ingrained into our psyche at an early age.
This is equally dumb. When I wear a black shirt no one is associating me with bad. Maybe they think I'm a croupier at some seedy casino, but that's it. Perhaps in your ivory tower the people beneath you on the dirty streets are so dumb that they can only observe simple things like color, but where I live children seem quite capable of differentiating between a person wearing a black shirt and the evil Gargamel dressed in black.
So when we hear "Black People" we equate it to Bad, then our higher brain reasoning will need to kick in and say, deal with this word a neutral.
Other people's basic brain reasoning seems perfectly capable of separating "black cowboy hat" and "black people". Perhaps the whole black people = bad is a problem with you and not everyone else?
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Justice is one thing. Obsessing over the minutia of how a few words are used is another. How far do we want to take this? Should we eliminate terms such as white sale, white Christmas, whiteout, white knuckle, Snow White, white tail deer, white dwarf star, blackball, blackjack, blackout, black bean, brown bag, brownout, brownie, brown dwarf star, etc.? Again, how far do we really want to take this?
We have always been at war with Eastasia (Score:5, Insightful)
It shouldn't be popular with anyone who cares about justice. Justice is one thing. Obsessing over the minutia of how a few words are used is another. How far do we want to take this? (...) Again, how far do we really want to take this?
‘It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn’t only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take “good”, for instance. If you have a word like “good”, what need is there for a word like “bad”? “Ungood” will do just as well—better, because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of “good”, what sense is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like “excellent” and “splendid” and all the rest of them? “Plusgood” covers the meaning, or “ doubleplusgood” if you want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already. but in the final version of Newspeak there’ll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words—in reality, only one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.’s idea originally, of course,’ he added as an afterthought.
-- George Orwell 1984
Re:Oh boy... (Score:5, Interesting)
Setting unrealistic goals is an integral part of any cult, because if you set achievable goals, you might achieve them, and then what's left to be in charge of?
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Well, I don't remember using master/slave in a programming sense for quite a long time, similarly the father/son in trees has gone by the way for a few decades. I even saw father/son listed in an old text and it really did stick out as archaic. No one was forced to make those changes, no one was given a politically correct glare or boycotted, they happened normally over time.
However whitelist/blacklist is such a commonly used set of terms in so many contexts everywhere that it's going to be impossible to re
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I even saw father/son listed in an old text
Ah ha!!! We have finally found someone who reads TAOCP, rather than just keeping it on their desk to impress nerds.
Re: Oh boy... (Score:2)
And you thought modern movie plotlines were patronizing enough... Imagine a villain saying "If you only knew the power of the UNETHICAL SIDE of the force!"
Bravo, incredible storytelling.
Ok, getting ridiculous (Score:5, Informative)
Other terms proposed for sunsetting include "white hat" and "black hat," with "ethical" and "unethical" suggested as replacements.
Even though it has nothing to do with race, but rather a common trope from old Westerns where the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats....And the term blacklist has origins in mid 1600s England, again nothing to do with race. But as for master/slave, maybe replace it with something like queen/drone?
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But as for master/slave, maybe replace it with something like queen/drone?
For many contexts, "client/server" works.
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C/S and M/S have nothing to do with each other in computer terminology.
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But as for master/slave, maybe replace it with something like queen/drone?
For many contexts, "client/server" works.
No, those relationships are actually exact opposites. A server provides data to multiple clients. A master controls multiple slaves. It's the difference between one-to-many and many-to-one.
Also, master-slave typically implies approximate equality between the thing doing the controlling and the thing being controlled. It is typically used when one device/program of a particular variety is used to control another device/program of a similar variety, e.g. a master camera flash controlling a secondary flash
Re:Ok, getting ridiculous (Score:5, Insightful)
What I'm really afraid of is that all this whitewashing of contemporary references to slavery is going to go so far that future generations will grow up never even learning about historical slavery, because all references to it have been scrubbed from contemporary literature and they didn't pay attention in history class. That could lead to the pendulum swinging the other way as they start to question what was wrong with slavery in the first place. Need I point out that modern Nazi/white supremacists are in denial about the atrocities which Nazi Germany committed during WWII. You have to remember history in order to learn enough from it to avoid repeating past mistakes. (Speaking of which, should we ban the word 'whitewash' as well?)
Yeah, but why not? Given primary/replica or whatev (Score:2)
If someone lacking technical understanding demanded that everybody stop using any kind of master/slave architecture, I might laugh them off. I'm not going to break all the systems because of your perception of the word.
If someone suggests a different term that would be widely understood, I don't really care what it is called. Sometimes I speak in very technical terms. If some manager finds technical terms laborious to read and asks me to tone down the jargon when I write to him, okay. It doesn't hurt me a
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What I'm really afraid of is that all this whitewashing of contemporary references to slavery is going to go so far that future generations will grow up never even learning about historical slavery, because all references to it have been scrubbed from contemporary literature and they didn't pay attention in history class. That could lead to the pendulum swinging the other way as they start to question what was wrong with slavery in the first place. Need I point out that modern Nazi/white supremacists are in denial about the atrocities which Nazi Germany committed during WWII. You have to remember history in order to learn enough from it to avoid repeating past mistakes. (Speaking of which, should we ban the word 'whitewash' as well?)
Have you ever been down south? Some people choose to call the American Civil War the "War of Northern Aggression" and will fervently tell you how the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery. States have tried (and with some success) to rewrite their school history books to downplay unpleasant or inconvenient parts of American history.
Whitewashing is already happening.
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Main/secondary
Leader/follower
Primary/replica
Even master/minion if you really want.
No one is calling for scrubbing by the way, just a change from now on.
Re: Ok, getting ridiculous (Score:2)
Here's a command/control relationship these people can understand:
Comrade First Citizen / Comrade Citizen
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But as for master/slave, maybe replace it with something like queen/drone?
Why is it valid to change these terms but fine leave the others alone when others are just as aggrieved by them?
What makes your line in the sand about what's acceptable and what's objectionable any more or less reasonable?
Master and slave inherently have nothing to do with race and every group of peoples have occupied both positions at some point in their histories if you're willing to go back far enough. If this were a part of some other country's history how likely would be to entertain the notion t
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Master / Slave is descriptive so there is reason to keep those terms.
White Hat / Black Hat and Whitelist / Blacklist are somewhat arbitrary, so if you came up with a simple, widely understood alternative, I would have no problem.
But none of those terms have to do with race.
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How about Dom/Sub or overlord/peasant?
Master/slave isn't a very accurate description of the relationship between IDE drives. One does not control the other, it's literally just which select signal they respond to.
*Ahem* (Score:2)
No that set of terms still perpetuates the historically abusive nature of the power imbalance that dominates our current racist society. For progress to take shape, we will eventually have to dismantle not only the practice of making an element of software or hardware beholden to another, but the concept of subordination itself.
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Why is master/slave even a problem??
We don't have any [people] slaves here today, and it's been [fairly] universally acknowledged that slavery is Bad (tm). This shouldn't even be an issue. It should not be offensive to anyone.
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Primary/secondary is somewhat common now, and supervisor vs worker tasks. Even though it is much rarer than it used to be, I don't see an issue with master/slave; these aren't offensive words in themselves, they are words that describe offensive actions. The dictionary won't be changed, the chapters in history textbooks won't be ripped out, people won't forget that the words exist or what they mean.
Remember, the origin of the phrase "politically correct" originated on the left to describe those who were j
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Silly you. Queen is okay, king is problematic. Get with the program. I'm so glad I'm coming into the homestretch because I have no patience for this virtue signaling bovine fecal matter. If master/slave for inanimate objects is a problem for you, the problem is YOU.
And, yes, slavery is bad but historically, the vast majority of the world's civilizations practiced some sort of slavery and it had very little to do with skin pigmentation. And while, some countries banned it before the US did, I seem to recall
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That's fine. I don't have a problem with taking statues down, but there's a problem with whitewashing history (meaning that application of inexpensive lime or chalk based paints). Having the statues in a place of honor is bad, so just move them to a museum. Keep the college name I think, the name has been redeemed through the countless graduates who've gone through there. Because you're not going to ever find someone so totally virtuous to satisfy everyone (and we don't know what Jesus looked like except t
Better yet ... (Score:2, Troll)
how about getting rid of the terms 'black man' and 'black people' There are no such beings! They are all dark skinned or very dark skinned. melanin is a brown chemical that causes skin tone by varying in amounts. So in reality there are no such thing as 'black' people , only more or less brown people again there are no such thing as 'white' people , only less brown or light completed people.
If you really want to combat racism with language changes you need to focus on the thought and meaning of the words
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When I was in the Marine Corps, everyone was either "Light Green" or "Dark Green".
Re:Better yet ... (Score:5, Insightful)
how about getting rid of the terms 'black man' and 'black people'
The term "black" was adopted to solve the very problem you think will be solved by getting rid of it.
Just in my life time, we have gone through these names for Americans of African descent:
Colored
Negro
Black
People of color
African-American
None of these changes made any difference. Maybe instead of advocating for yet another name change, we should accept that the name isn't the problem and instead focus on the core issues of social and economic justice.
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I understand that it is common to refer to black Americans as "African-Americans" and I can see the basic logic in this. They are Americans who's ancestors came from Africa. It makes some sort of sense.
The thing that I don't understand is why I never seem to hear white Americans referred to as "European-Americans".
Re: Better yet ... (Score:3)
Because African-american isn't meant to be descriptive; it's a euphemism. I knew a white guy who was born in South Africa, and moved to the USA when he was in his teens. He is technically African-American; far more so than a black person in the USA whose ancestors have been there for 5+ years. But do you think anyone calls him African-American? Or that he himself would ever dare describe himself that way, except jokingly amongst friends?
Re: Better yet ... (Score:4, Insightful)
So you know Elon Musk?
Re:Better yet ... (Score:4, Informative)
I don't understand is why I never seem to hear white Americans referred to as "European-Americans".
Because no one gets offended by being called "white" or caucasian.
I have even been called "cracker" and "honky". Neither bothered me.
People are only offended by racial terms if they feel they are being pushed down. Since white people aren't pushed down because of their race, they don't get offended.
Disclaimer: I have seen the term "European-Americans" a few times, usually in contrast to other hyphenated-Americans.
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So yes, I find "caucasian" offensive.
Sure you do.
Re: Better yet ... (Score:5, Funny)
I love this new "people of colour" designation. Occasionally when someone says something like "you probably don't even know any people of colour" I'll respond back with "actually I know plenty of coloured people" just to watch the steam shoot out of their ears.
Nothing demonstrates the absurd arbitrariness of these terms quite as well as when someone tries to insist that "coloured people" is bad while "people of colour" is good.
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My point was that if you want to overcome racism you need to get to the point where skin color is just another identifier like eye and hair color. As your post proves out, the problem is more in the fact the group is labeled at all then in what it is named.
I mean I've never heard talk of 'green' people fighting with 'blue' people , while referencing eye color, why , because a 'persons' type should be defined by their actions and culture , not their physical looks. So there should be no such thing as 'black
Re: Better yet ... (Score:4, Insightful)
You're never going to stop people from noticing physical characteristics. The redhead at work will always be "the ginger". The issue is when people form their identity around those characteristics, or discriminate against others based on them. Nobody talks about "the problems facing the ginger community" because nobody identifies as a member of the "ginger community" and because there aren't very many people out there who make broad generalisations like "I don't trust those damn gingers".
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I understand, the fact that my post was marked as 'troll' is telling. My point was that if you want to overcome racism you need to get to the point where skin color is just another identifier like eye and hair color. As your post proves out, the problem is more in the fact the group is labeled at all then in what it is named.
I mean I've never heard talk of 'green' people fighting with 'blue' people , while referencing eye color, why , because a 'persons' type should be defined by their actions and culture
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They should also address Professional Sports (Score:3)
Where teams buy, sell and trade players, and "own" them.
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A lot of black people in the NBA.
Re:They should also address Professional Sports (Score:4, Funny)
hopefully they can work on their disgusting lack of diversity (same with the NFL). It's 2020 people, be better.
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Where teams buy, sell and trade players, and "own" them.
They all sign contracts, so technically those athletes are merely indentured servants, not slaves.
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Where teams buy, sell and trade players, and "own" them.
I don't think that's actually terminology that is used. The owner owns the franchise. The club "signs" players, the players "play for" their team. I don't believe they ever refer to the team as owning the player.
What about male & female (Score:4, Funny)
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Why on earth not ? The terms are descriptive and clear. No one is being insulted or denigrated by their use.
The trouble is that the SJWs can dream up reasons how words are bad and then terrify those who might use these words by fear that they might be called: sexist; racist; or something.
Re:What about male & female (Score:5, Funny)
Why on earth not ? The terms are descriptive and clear.
You need to know how they self-identify before you can say that with honesty.
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non-binary would suddenly take on a whole new and confusing meaning.
Re:What about male & female (Score:5, Funny)
To replace the terms "male" and "female" for connectors, I propose we use "penis-like" and "vagina-like".
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Remember the network sensors! (Score:5, Funny)
Holy crap - Grow up! (Score:5, Insightful)
Could I imagine someone saying "Hey, can you put it on slave mode", yes, because they're not talking about another person, or implying that one should serve another, they're literally asking for a mode change. if you can't disassociate the terms, that's your problem, not mine and not the industries.
We have to stop over-relating racism and xenophobia, with unrelated groupings of similar terms, because a word can have more then a single meaning. The master in context of computing would imply that one thing X has power or control over another Y. In the same context slave would mean that Y is under control of X or in use by X, but what it absolutely does NOT, under any appropriate context mean is that "X is racist and hate fill against Y and makes use of Y as a object of inferiority".
If you're immature to the point this bothers you, then don't make this the computing / technology industries problem, you need to grow up and realize that you're wrong, and you don't understand the terminology. Is it time to stop using the term Master / Slave in terms of technology? - NO! Is it time to stop using it in context of other areas like BDSM? - NO! Is it time to stop treating POC / Black People like disposable objects or treating them like they aren't valued the same - 100% FUCKING YES! - Don't be a racist / xenophobic asshole.
Not this again (Score:2)
Existence (Score:2)
And besides, these terms (M and S) describe a perfectly legitimate relationship between some electronic devices, which has nothing to do with social or historical human relationships.
Just another example of petty revisionism.
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It is ALSO to imply that the MAJORITY of slaves were black thus ignoring history and being factually incorrect. The 'term' slave, in fact comes from the latin for "Slavic" because that is where the Romans like to get 'slaves' from. So the Bosnians should be the ones most offended. https://www.slavonic-europe.or... [slavonic-europe.org]
Slavery existed a LONG time before the discovery of America, like more then 1000 years. It was effective. It was Christian sensibilities and religious zeal that removed it from the western minds
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Lookout Chess. (Score:2)
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Next on the chopping block ... (Score:3)
More computer terms and their bias:
I propose... (Score:4, Funny)
...replacing the device terms "master" and "slave" with "dom" and "sub".
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Values of beta may give rise to dom!
The Ironing is Delicious (Score:5, Insightful)
This has to be one of the funniest stories I've read. The stupidity of the people quoted in the article knows no bounds.
"Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny," tweeted Mike Bartlett, a vice president at documentation company Slite, quoting Indian anti-colonial movement leader Mahatma Gandhi.
That'll be well-known racist Mahatma Gandhi [bbc.co.uk] who considered black people the lowest of the low, whose beef with the British Empire was that (in his view) they wanted to "degrade the Indian to the level of the kaffir (for those who don't know, the "K" word is the early 20th century version of the "N" word, i.e. never said without spite and hatred)".
When choosing a quote to demonstrate how "woke" you are, rule number one is surely "find someone who didn't have a major problem with black people"...
oh please.. (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
These people are retarded.
Mad Magazine - Spy vs. Spy - double plus ungood! (Score:2)
No distractions from the real problems please (Score:2)
The problem is that we have systemic racial bias in our law enforcement institutions. Law enforcement officials should have to pass mandatory racial bias psychological testing and body cams should be federally mandated. You cannot perform enforcement activities without having a body cam on and recording. Law enforcement should be highly educated, well paid, and individually accountable for any ac
Fucking stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
I am so tired of this stupidity. I'm a mutt that was born in the USA. I've had many people assume I'm one thing or another for a lot of my life. When I was a kid I asked my father what we were. He told me we were Americans and that he and my mother were both born in the US and so were all of my grandparents. I won't ever be welcomed at any KKK meetings, even though what I believe often times gets me accused of being a member because people are stupid.
The narrative that slavery and its roots are in the US and only pertains to black people has got to stop. First of all, of the 12.5 million African slaves brought to the new world between 1525 and 1866, 10.7 million survived the journey. Of those, 390,000 arrived in the US. The other 10.3 million ended up in the Caribbean and South America. Almost 5 million slaves ended up in Brazil alone. There were an estimated 60K to 70K that ended up in the US from the Caribbean as well. So half a million African slaves ended up in the US out of twelve and a half million that were sent to the new world. So between 3.9% and 4.9% of all slaves made it to the US. Depending on how you want to calculate it. Which is awful and a terrible thing to be sure. But not a US only issue, or even the majority.
These people were sold into slavery by other African tribes. Why is no one ever pissed off at those tribes? They were shipped to the new world by Europeans, who also get very little flack about it. In fact many friends of mine from the EU like to tell me how horrible the US is for slavery when it was their ancestors that bought and shipped the slaves here to begin with. Not to mention all of the African slaves that ended up in European countries. I also never hear much about the native American tribes that owned slaves, both black and other natives.
On top of that, why is slavery only an African issue? It's estimated that between half a million to 1 million Europeans were captured and put into slavery by Muslims in north Africa. There were also native American slaves, Radanite Jews sold westerners into slavery to China. Chinese soldiers also enslaved Koreans, Persians and Mongolians and Indians. Japan also has a history of slave trade as well as India and many other countries.
As far as I know, every culture, creed, "race" has had members that were slaves and/or sold others into slavery. This is not a African, American or African-American only issue.
There there's the whole "race" thing. We're all part of the Human race. The characteristics that make our skin one color or another, our hair color/type, eye color/shape, etc. have to do with dominate and recessive genes that we all have. Just because people from one area that have similar dominate genes look one way does not make them a separate race.
No one in the US today was ever a slave in the US, nor do they even know or knew anyone or any of their ancestors who were slaves. Is there still racism in the US? Of course. But "white" people aren't the only ones. I've known my share of racists from just about every background. Is the US the only country that racism exists? Hell no. The US probably isn't even in the top 10 most racist countries in the world.
US Not most racist. Therefore don't fix? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is the US the only country that racism exists? Hell no. The US probably isn't even in the top 10 most racist countries in the world.
You're right, we definitely shouldn't bother trying to improve things in the US if things are worse somewhere else.
I mean why have aspirations right?
Re: (Score:3)
WTF (Score:2)
First thing those idiots who talk about slavery in America need to understand is that American's didn't sail to Africa, disembark, then hunt down and enslave Africans. They instead disembarked and PURCHASED African slaves. Now who did they purchase those slaves from? OTHER AFRICANS!
It's bullshit like this that makes wonder how much better things would have been if the American Colonization Society had been successful in their objectives.
Brains matter (Score:5, Insightful)
So does context.
Barf (Score:3)
>"I refuse to use 'whitelist'/'blacklist' or 'master'/'slave' terminology for computers. Join me."
I think I am going to barf now.
Oh, do make sure to get rid of ANY word or phrase that has "black" or "white" in it too. Blackball, blackmail, blackball, blacksmith, blackout, blackbird, blackberries, blackjack, blackboard, blacktop, blackball, whitewash, whitebeard, whitefish, whiten, whitehat
Grow up, people.
Oh look (Score:2)
White hat = ethical (Score:2)
This suggests "corporate sanctioned" security experts always behave ethically. That's probably not true.
I am all for progressive language changes, but (Score:2)
There doesn't seem to be any rationale put forward by the tweeter. Like, there's no explanation at all of why the terms need to change, or the harm they do.
Now, "whitelist" as a good thing and "blacklist" as a bad thing, sure, I can see why that *sounds* like a bad premise, without any context of the history of those words. But in fact, the terms "black list" and "white list" are at least 500 years old and never had anything to do with race. Connecting these terms to race is basically a farce by somebody wh
Do you remember the "Black Hole" controversy? (Score:5, Informative)
Hallmark cards "Hoops and Yoyo" card series had a graduation card with a space theme that mentioned "Black Holes".
The NAACP was outraged at the insult to black women, because they could clearly hear "Black Whores". The card was pulled from shelves.
So it's not what you say that matters, it's what idiots hear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Of Lincoln? The guy who literally made the order of "all slaves are now free men"?
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master/slave ended with PATA drives.
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USB is a master/slave setup. The controller determines which device may use the bus at any given moment.
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and, funnily enough, a device can act as both a master and a slave.
Re: "Blacklist" dates to the 1600s. (Score:2)
Historically accurate; some slaves went on to gain their freedom and become masters by buying slaves of their own. In the early 1800s there were almost 4,000 black slaveowners in the USA.
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Kubernetes has a concept of a master node and a worker node, so even modern IT products use this connotation.
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Yeah, the issue here is that they'll distract everyone with talk about a wholly unrelated bit of technical, but continue to literally write their own laws and pay legislators to force them on us, and cops to keep the people down.
Follow the fucking money if you want to know who's at the root of this shit.