On Sat, Jun 6, 2020, 3:09 PM Ralph Seichter, <ra...@ml.seichter.de> wrote:

> * Ian Evans:
>
> > Leah Culver (@leahculver) tweeted at 11:32 PM on Fri, Jun 05, 2020:
> > I refuse to use “whitelist”/“blacklist” or “master”/“slave” terminology
> > for computers. Join me. Words matter.
> > (https://twitter.com/leahculver/status/1269109776983547904?s=03)
>
> Does Leah Culver also refuse to use the word "index"? It has been used
> at least since the Roman Empire, and in today's German, index can still
> be synonymous to blacklist/blocklist depending on context.
>
> To me, "black" and "white", just like their German equivalents "schwarz"
> and "weiß", do not have any relations to race unless the surrounding
> context establishes that type of relation.
>
> Out of curiosity, I had a look at Wikipedia.de's disambiguation page for
> "Schwarz", and the very first entry is as I had expected:
>
>   Schwarz, Farbe, bzw. die Empfindung der "Abwesenheit von Farben"
>
> The literal translation into English is as follows:
>
>   Black, colour, respectively the perception of "absence of colours"
>
> This is followed by more than 20 entries, none of which has racial
> connotations. There is however a reference to another disambiguation
> page way down in the "see also" section, and following the link to
> "Schwarze" (lit. "blacks") there is a mention of it meaning, among other
> things, either "people with dark skin colour" or "members of a
> christian-conservative party" -- once again, depending on context.
>
> Corollary: Please don't mistake American sensibilities for something the
> whole world cares about, let alone needs to conform with. Racism is a
> blight on humanity, but there are more important issues to consider than
> the use of colours.
>
> All that said, if Wietse voluntarily chooses to change certain terms,
> that is completely fine by me.
>
> -Ralph
>

It's an interesting discussion and at least it's a discussion and not a
war. I just saw the thread today and thought it was, as I said, food for
thought.

People and programmers can look at the menu and choose or just ask for a
coffee and the cheque.

>

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