Even if these words aren't necessarily racist, what's wrong with getting rid of what sounds like exclusionary language? It's a relatively minor change compared to what we're used to in the developing world.
Those words by themselves are not racist, it is always the context that makes the meaning. If you think they are exclusionary, it's only in your mind. I usually don't think of racism if I hear those words, but I do recognize some people do. Those words are not exclusionary or racist because they exist, but rather how they are used.
How far do you want to go? Should we really check any context where the words black or white are used for the potential of a racist interpretation? Maybe abolishing the words black and white on the whole would help? I don't see those changes solving any real problems.
Precisely. I really do understand where people are coming from with this, but the efforts - noble as they may be - seem misplaced. The real problems are much bigger, and to be honest - very hard to solve, or even begin to solve. Creating racist problems where they don't exist in such a way as to allow a simple solution may make people feel good that they are solving 'something' or doing their part, but ultimately does nothing to stop racist people being racist, or tackle any of the very real injustices people face. Inserting accusations of racism everywhere at the drop of a hat dilutes the real issues and potentially creates more division where there need not be any.
Developer advocate, full-stack engineer, startup co-founder & CTO, bringing 15 years of experience in Silicon Valley, including at Google and Yahoo!. Public speaker.
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Education
UC Santa Cruz Extension
Work
Developer Advocate at Weaviate, the open-source semantic search engine
Even if these words aren't necessarily racist, what's wrong with getting rid of what sounds like exclusionary language? It's a relatively minor change compared to what we're used to in the developing world.
Those words by themselves are not racist, it is always the context that makes the meaning. If you think they are exclusionary, it's only in your mind. I usually don't think of racism if I hear those words, but I do recognize some people do. Those words are not exclusionary or racist because they exist, but rather how they are used.
How far do you want to go? Should we really check any context where the words black or white are used for the potential of a racist interpretation? Maybe abolishing the words black and white on the whole would help? I don't see those changes solving any real problems.
Precisely. I really do understand where people are coming from with this, but the efforts - noble as they may be - seem misplaced. The real problems are much bigger, and to be honest - very hard to solve, or even begin to solve. Creating racist problems where they don't exist in such a way as to allow a simple solution may make people feel good that they are solving 'something' or doing their part, but ultimately does nothing to stop racist people being racist, or tackle any of the very real injustices people face. Inserting accusations of racism everywhere at the drop of a hat dilutes the real issues and potentially creates more division where there need not be any.
Many things:
I wrote more about these and other issues in 8 problems with replacing "master" in Git.