GitHub moving away from 'master' and 'slave' branch names amid racial tensions (opens in new tab)

(businessinsider.com)

6 pointsjamesdepp6y ago9 comments

9 comments

5 comments · 2 top-level

necovek6y ago· 3 in thread

I hope, as part of the movement to clean the language of touchy usage, the word "slave" also gets dropped from English and other languages since it derives from "Slavic" people who, during the Roman times, were captured and used for unpaid labour.

Please do not refer to the practice of abusing people and forcing them to work as "slavery" either.

I am exaggerating a bit, but the point stands: master might have a bad connotation when it comes to enslavement, but the term has and has had other meanings prior to being used in that manner.

Since this discussion went so far as to touch on black- and whitelists, I wonder if we are to stop from black symbolizing darkness (you know, night) and ill, and white from symbolizing light (day) and good.

necovek6y ago

And not to be taken wrongly: I do believe BLM movement is needed, and the only problem with it is that it's a bit late.

But superficial "support" like this is meaningless.

holler6y ago

you have to wonder, where does this end?

jjeaff6y ago

In the words of John Oliver, "somewhere". It ends somewhere. You don't do nothing because you don't know exactly where it might end.

Should we remove confederate statues from places of honor? Where does it end?

I'm not all for word policing, but if some words I am using are making people feel bad, I don't see any problem in trying to change those words. As long as removing these words is coming out of mutual respect and not from laws that are infringing on our rights of free speech.

Which is the case here. I don't think anyone is forcing anyone to remove words like master and slave.

1 more reply

josteink6y ago

But we can still pay for GitHub using MasterCard.

So yeah. Until that is banned, I’m not believing this genuinely reflects anyone’s actual belief besides trying to score cheap PR points during the BLM riots.

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