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. >
