Tech Terms Face Scrutiny Amid Anti-Racism Efforts

[DEAD7]

Tech Terms Face Scrutiny Amid Anti-Racism Efforts


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.

 

[Spatial Paradox]

This seems to be gaining steam. It looks like Google's going ahead with replacing references to "master/slave" and "blacklist/whitelist" in Go for example: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/236857/

I could see some people writing off changes like this as unnecessary pandering or insincere, but that association of "black = bad" and "white = good" is so pervasive in everyday speech. It can only help to try moving away from that vocabulary association wherever we can.

Slightly off-topic, but the comments in that Slashdot thread are very revealing about the attitudes quite a few people have in tech. It's always a pouty "why are these changes even necessary, it's not a big deal" sentiment that I'm sure is mostly coming from white and Asian men in any kind of race related thread on tech sites

 

[jj23]

This seems to be gaining steam. It looks like Google's going ahead with replacing references to "master/slave" and "blacklist/whitelist" in Go for example: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/236857/

I could see some people writing off changes like this as unnecessary pandering or insincere, but that association of "black = bad" and "white = good" is so pervasive in everyday speech. It can only help to try moving away from that vocabulary association wherever we can.

Slightly off-topic, but the comments in that Slashdot thread are very revealing about the attitudes quite a few people have in tech. It's always a pouty "why are these changes even necessary, it's not a big deal" sentiment that I'm sure is mostly coming from white and Asian men in any kind of race related thread on tech sites

My director asked me about it recently.

I was like, let's see structural change where everyone is on the same playing field and then we can move on to naming conventions.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

This seems to be gaining steam. It looks like Google's going ahead with replacing references to "master/slave" and "blacklist/whitelist" in Go for example: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/236857/

I could see some people writing off changes like this as unnecessary pandering or insincere, but that association of "black = bad" and "white = good" is so pervasive in everyday speech. It can only help to try moving away from that vocabulary association wherever we can.

Slightly off-topic, but the comments in that Slashdot thread are very revealing about the attitudes quite a few people have in tech. It's always a pouty "why are these changes even necessary, it's not a big deal" sentiment that I'm sure is mostly coming from white and Asian men in any kind of race related thread on tech sites

It’s actually funny and sad, I feel - purely based on browsing various forums - there is more anti black/diversity sentiment from Asian and Indian males than even white guys, I mean of course you have your covert breitbart white tech bro’s, but them Asian cat and and H1B’s don’t seem to like minorities or women at all

 

[Thanos]

I don't care what they call it, I care about tangible results. The fact that they made a connection was weird.

 

[Yapdatfool]

It’s actually funny and sad, I feel - purely based on browsing various forums - there is more anti black/diversity sentiment from Asian and Indian males than even white guys, I mean of course you have your covert breitbart white tech bro’s, but them Asian cat and and H1B’s don’t seem to like minorities or women at all

Cause blacks and/or women are a direct threat to their livelihood financially and physically. Kinda dumb though cause whites would never hire blacks or women in those roles in the first place.