Black people: can we stop the police from killing us please?
White people: we will change the terminology in the Linux kernel, you are welcome.
White people: we will change the terminology in the Linux kernel, you are welcome.
Do society a favour and get this cancer out of your HR departments, and start saying no while you still can; because if you wait long enough, all of the activism will be fake, because it's cheaper and you're not allowed to notice the difference.
I know that's probably not what you intended, but I've reread it several times and that's how I'm interpreting it each time. I think this disconnect between people -- a modicum of safety in a world that doesn't value our lives is seen as huge and worthwhile by some, but trivial and unimportant by others.
If you are a black person and the common use of the word "blacklist" is an affront to your psychological safety, then I would find that curious and I would ask why it is you feel that way. From what other black people in this thread have written, that doesn't appear to be the common case. Amusingly, the people fighting the good fight in the comments here (at least, the last time I checked) seem to have flatly ignored the people who essentially say "I am black. Squabbling about words in Linux does nothing in the fight against slavery. Why won't white people listen to us."
If that isn't your situation and you are being offended on behalf of other people, then I think you're standing on shaky moral ground.
To clarify, when I said "nothing… at stake… of any real value", I was referring to the common modern trend of slacktivism.
I don't particularly care about blacklist/whitelist (as there's a clearer connection to light) but a lot of the defenses against even considering that change sound racist as fuck to me -- there's lots of people who explicitly argue the status quo is OK and that it couldn't be worth any changes here.
Master/slave, however, does bother me. It's led to one too many conversations where people need to, or so, say things like "the slave isn't keeping up with the master" or "the master should detect that and kill the slave" or "we should add more slaves" and those words are grating to me. I don't want to say them, and if a coworker is saying them sometimes I'm not sure if they're enjoying getting to use those words a little too much.
I also want to add, none of this is as important to me as meaningful reparations for slavery and institutionalized racism. But the fact that other things are more important doesn't mean this isn't important. If I meet someone who is in a position to significantly advance reparations or rename these tech terms, I'll be talking with them about the former, not the latter. But most people are not in a position to move the needle on both of these issues.
This is something I absolutely agree with you on, and I think it's a disgrace that so many people — usually the most rabid — on both sides of the argument use the opinions of a fraction of some group as political ammunition.
> a lot of the defenses against even considering that change sound racist as fuck to me -- there's lots of people who explicitly argue the status quo is OK and that it couldn't be worth any changes here.
The status quo in which regard? The status quo with regards to police brutality in the US is obviously not OK, but the status quo with regards to words having multiple meanings and being able to be used in different contexts should be fine.
> Master/slave, however, does bother me. It's led to one too many conversations where people need to, or so, say things like "the slave isn't keeping up with the master" or "the master should detect that and kill the slave" or "we should add more slaves" and those words are grating to me. I don't want to say them, and if a coworker is saying them sometimes I'm not sure if they're enjoying getting to use those words a little too much.
I'm not denying your experience, but it sounds like your complaint is against racist assholes in your vicinity. I'm not [yet?] convinced that stopping them from using those words specifically will change their behaviour or perspective.
> I also want to add, none of this is as important to me as meaningful reparations for slavery and institutionalized racism.
I recognise that, and it's a view I share. My ancestors also suffered under slavery (much more recent slavery than the US slave trade) and their country is still asking for reparations.
> But the fact that other things are more important doesn't mean this isn't important.
I'm not suggesting we engage in whataboutery, but at least from my perspective lesser complaints undermine more egregious complaints, and for the sake of practicality I prefer to choose my battles.
In any case, while we agree on some (I think most?) things, I don't feel any less uncomfortable by the attempts of some people in society to normalise Orwellian newspeak. I do appreciate that we can discuss this thoughtfully and respectfully though, and I appreciate you sharing your perspective.
Security theater often makes people feel better and requires little effort. Should we embrace security theater instead of improving security?
This will never happen. Critical race theory and displays of anger are quite in vogue in the academy; actually engaging with police departments requires patience and working with police departments (which your colleagues will find icky). Meanwhile the politicians just want to take advantage of general outrage for their own benefit and that of their party. We'll get a little reform out of the current protests as they stand, but not nearly enough.
This comment will not prevent police from killing black people, but there's an outside shot it will help one or two people in the world actually treat the problem like they actually want to solve it, so, I'll chance it.
Sure, for the longer term profiling, excessive roughness, etc. But prosecuting a murderer for murdering is quite straightforward. It just takes a non-corrupt public prosecutor.
For example, I'd love to see a candidate for Commonwealth's Attorney of Jefferson County running on a platform of enforcing the law by prosecuting Breonna Taylor's killers. 2025 is some years away, but I don't think the statute of limitations will have expired.
Better said in someone else’s words than my own:
https://mobile.twitter.com/btanderson72/status/1279507428128...
It’s not about what the word meant all along.
“Negro” wasn’t considered a derogatory term for black people for the majority of its history as a word, but today, especially in English, we avoid it because of the legacy it picked up.
You don’t have to admit the word was always racist to believe that we should use some other words in today’s context.
I think this will do harm in two ways:
a) harm because of the explicit association as just described
b) harm because many people (possible supporters) will reject these kind of things as unreasonable
Now, I think the policy itself is not a big thing. Can be done. But it should have included a statement that the underlying idea is perhaps a hit silly and this is done to avoid this distraction.
Once everybody does that, the forest is gone and then, well, game over.