Whilst I agree with some points here I think it's fair to add some balance. Regarding your points: 2 and 3 see this excellent comment on the Drupal issue to make the change away from master/slave terminology... in 2014.
Whilst some black devs may disagree (as is their right) there's no question that for some 'master/slave' in combination is an issue and I think that's fair enough.
People choose meanings
Yes - and historically Europeans have deliberately assigned negative connotations to words associated with blackness; and incidentally 'leftness' - since left-handed people are also apparently outside the 'norm'. My point being: this didn't happen by accident. People also deliberately use words as weapons in order to oppress and belittle; to the point that the original signifier for something can become offensive (e.g. spastic). I'd argue that invalidates point 2.
But I do agree that point 1 and 8 could apply in this context. No-one seems to be arguing that in isolation 'master' is problematic but, because someone dug through some old messages and apparently discovered that the original engineers did have 'master/slave' in mind when they decided on the the naming, the use of 'master' in the context of Git is now a problem... That feels like quite a stretch.
But that's not for me to decide. Did anyone go to the Black community and ask if they had a problem with 'master' in the context of Git? So far I've seen little evidence of that. Just lots of white people congratulating each other 🤷
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Thanks for pointing out the Drupal thread, I've added that to the post.
Godwin's law, but I wonder if having an issue with a term that had one negative connotation 150 years ago seems, isn't about as smart as having an issue now with Germans in general because of what some of them did 80 years ago.
Dismissing 'master/slave' as something historical doesn't stand up to scrutiny though: legally imposed racial segregation was fairly recent history - even in the UK and US. These laws were intended to limit the prosperity and power of freed slaves and their descendants. It seems pretty clear to me that - one way or another - we have been restricting the freedom of these people ever since.
The German comparison is therefore nonsense: Germans are very well aware of their history and - in general - actively engaged in remedying their past mistakes. Whilst the UK and the US continue to perpetuate the myth that they're the good guys whilst being institutionally racist.
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Whilst I agree with some points here I think it's fair to add some balance. Regarding your points: 2 and 3 see this excellent comment on the Drupal issue to make the change away from master/slave terminology... in 2014.
Whilst some black devs may disagree (as is their right) there's no question that for some 'master/slave' in combination is an issue and I think that's fair enough.
Yes - and historically Europeans have deliberately assigned negative connotations to words associated with blackness; and incidentally 'leftness' - since left-handed people are also apparently outside the 'norm'. My point being: this didn't happen by accident. People also deliberately use words as weapons in order to oppress and belittle; to the point that the original signifier for something can become offensive (e.g. spastic). I'd argue that invalidates point 2.
But I do agree that point 1 and 8 could apply in this context. No-one seems to be arguing that in isolation 'master' is problematic but, because someone dug through some old messages and apparently discovered that the original engineers did have 'master/slave' in mind when they decided on the the naming, the use of 'master' in the context of Git is now a problem... That feels like quite a stretch.
But that's not for me to decide. Did anyone go to the Black community and ask if they had a problem with 'master' in the context of Git? So far I've seen little evidence of that. Just lots of white people congratulating each other 🤷
Thanks for pointing out the Drupal thread, I've added that to the post.
Godwin's law, but I wonder if having an issue with a term that had one negative connotation 150 years ago seems, isn't about as smart as having an issue now with Germans in general because of what some of them did 80 years ago.
Dismissing 'master/slave' as something historical doesn't stand up to scrutiny though: legally imposed racial segregation was fairly recent history - even in the UK and US. These laws were intended to limit the prosperity and power of freed slaves and their descendants. It seems pretty clear to me that - one way or another - we have been restricting the freedom of these people ever since.
The German comparison is therefore nonsense: Germans are very well aware of their history and - in general - actively engaged in remedying their past mistakes. Whilst the UK and the US continue to perpetuate the myth that they're the good guys whilst being institutionally racist.