Re: Rename offensive terminology (master)

["Michael Felt (aixtools)" <aixtools@felt.demon.nl>]

How does the saying go...

You can please some of the people all of the time,  ..., but you cannot please all of the people all of the time. 

I learned as a child that my choice of certain words was influenced by words used by people i trusted. Words that I clearly did not understand completely because when I (tried) to use them, with no negative intention, but saw the use of a word shocked the people who heard me. 

Does that mean I was a racist, or am a racist, because I used a word that others considered racist. Yes, I was naive. But I learned words can offend, regardless of intent. 

And I feel that is what is missing here. Using a term that someone else takes offense to does not mean any offense was ever intended. But I tire of hearing that I am responsible for knowing what offends “them”. And since I am one of the unlucky, not clearly belonging to a “minority “ of some kind, I may never complain. 

But I was well above 40, and learning from my own children,  before I learned to deal with all the persecution i had to live through in my early years. 

Racism is a powerful word, and it exists everywhere. Sometimes it is intentional - and we need to address that. But do not make the mistake that it is always intentional. 

A git “master” or “main” - who really cares. Do not seek offence where none is intended. You only make your own life miserable. 

Compare that with teasing (not as horrible as racism it seems). Just remember, teasing is always intentional, the object and objective of teasing is always clear. 

The intent of a word choice is not always how it is received. 

If “master” offends you, I feel for you. If “main” makes you happy, I am happy for you. 

I am saddened that people feel that “master” in git is an expression of racism. It is not. I am saddened that people feel it must be changed because someone takes offense. 

I also know my opinion does not matter. The fear of the many becomes the “ring that rules them all”. 



Sent from my iPhone

> On 14 Jun 2020, at 15:58, Don Goodman-Wilson <don@goodman-wilson.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> MASTER IS NOT INHERENTLY RELATED TO MASTER-SLAVE RELATIONS.
> 
> 1) There is a great deal of evidence that that claim is simply not true.
> https://twitter.com/tobie/status/1270290278029631489
> https://twitter.com/jpaulreed/status/1272064807345115137
> 
> 2) It's beside the point. Many problematic words and phrases have
> perfectly benign origins, but take on new meanings in new contexts.
> 
> I personally reject the kind of moral relativism that is being
> espoused here. In fact, I believe that there is such a thing as
> justice, and that we each have a responsibility to seek it out and
> create it in every corner of our activities, big and small. You can
> abdicate that responsibility, I can't force anyone to do otherwise nor
> would I want to. But history judges harshly those who would throw
> others aside. Of course there are more people in the world than just
> Americans. But there are also Americans, and in particular Black
> Americans. Precisely because git is the tool of choice for open source
> and so much other development work, I believe we have a responsibility
> to build a tool that reflects the values of _all_ that we want to
> welcome into these communities. If you would rather exclude Black
> Americans or others descended from generations of colonial slavery,
> that's your choice, but you need to own the fact that it is an
> inherently racist choice.
> 
> Don Goodman-Wilson
> 
>> On Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 2:20 PM Sérgio Augusto Vianna
>> <sergio.a.vianna@gmail.com> wrote:
>> There's nothing to be resolved because there is no problem. If someone
>> reads "master" and gets triggered because all they can think of is
>> racism, that person needs therapy.