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Blacklist is not a racist word

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Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#41

Post by bb88 »

oceanghost wrote: post #38
devxpy wrote: post #14

I was wondering why all of a sudden the default github branch was “main”

What's dumb about that is, I'm sure it refers to the definition of master as: adjective main; principal. "the apartment's master bathroom has a free-standing oval bathtub"

So what I didn't know was the origin of the word "master" in relation to housing.

"The phrase "master bedroom" first appeared in the 1926 Sears catalog, according to the real estate blog Trelora. It was a feature of a $4,398 Dutch colonial home, the most expensive in the catalog, referring to a large second floor bedroom with a private bathroom."

https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_971e3114fec2c583d17a32ac8c...

1926 was only 60 years after the civil war, an era where the evils of slavery will still felt by those, also a year that the KKK still had marches in DC.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3b39318/

The KKK even had political influence:

"In the case of the Democratic Party, the key battleground was the 1924 Convention. The Klan endorsed William Gibbs McAdoo, the frontrunner for the nomination."

http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/Eugenics/Klan.html

So the only question that remains was Sears and Roebuck racist? Some think they were, others point to the fact that they enabled blacks to still purchase from the Sears catalog.

Another option is that Sears was just marketing the house to the consumers that existed at the time. In 1926, what rich KKK sympathizer wouldn't like to sleep in the "Master Bedroom" gloriousness of the 1860's?

Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#42

Post by bb88 »

rcoveson wrote: post #12
nerpderp82 wrote: post #5

Not but it has racist connotations, you really want to go out of your way to educate everyone on the etymology of a word because of an antiwoke crusade? It is the same reason that polite people don't continue to use the word, "niggardly".

The word "black" is a thousand times more important to speech than the two syllables that make the word "niggardly" problematic. White and black, light and darkness, yang and yin, on and off, one and zero. I'll bet that most people that have ever lived understand those parallels. Human melanin concentrations in skin don't enter into it. Attempting to control usage of a word as fundamental and common as "black" is an…

Well, it does have it's own wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_n...

Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#44

Post by antiRadical »

spacemanmatt wrote: post #35
antiRadical wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say those people who suddenly make innocent common words "racist" are the assholes. They're extremely privileged and act like a totalitarian regime. What's scary is that they believe they're on the right side.

> act like a totalitarian regime That is dangerous overstatement.

You're wrong. Do you know the origin of political correctness? Stalin and Nazis loved that.

"Blacklist is racist" is indeed a dangerous overstatement.

Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#45

Post by epgui »

kjeetgill wrote: post #39
polotics wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking about words and their meaning, "radical" comes from the latin for root, so a true radical should get to the bottom of things, work from first principles... Let's have a go! It is dark at night, and black is dark. The one thing that's clear is "white" human skin ain't white, and "black" ain't black either. So... saying black or white to categorize any member of the human race is incorrect, using "blacklist" fo…

I'm actually incredibly fascinated by this tortured comment. In a comment advocating for getting to the bottom of things and first principles of "words and their meanings" of all things (whatever that means here, I don't know), you: a) misinterpret what any current usage of radical would mean b) proceed to, from what I presume your idea of presume principles is, chain together a half hearted series of arbitrary conne…

(The comment you're replying to didn't make sense to me either, but it is true that in the literal, pedantic world, black isn't really a colour. It's true that "black" is just a word we use to describe how our brains interpret the near-absence of light in a patch of our field of vision. In other words, black is the absence of colour/light.)

Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#46

Post by al_mandi »

car_analogy wrote: post #11
nerpderp82 wrote: post #5

Not but it has racist connotations, you really want to go out of your way to educate everyone on the etymology of a word because of an antiwoke crusade? It is the same reason that polite people don't continue to use the word, "niggardly".

Please don't use "crusade" as a negative. The crusades were difficult fights for liberation of various European countries against Muslim colonialism, which had already stolen much of their land and enslaved their people [1,2]. Using them as a negative synonym is very offensive and problematic. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Musl... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary

Of course the word crusade has a negative connotation. The trails of blood and destruction they left are well known and documented. As per your links, the enslavement that happened were due to war, so the same as what the Europeans did.

Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#47

Post by al_mandi »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #33
chimineycricket wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you let the minority dictate your life it's gonna cause trouble. What if nazis start saying that they love "mainline" branch because it's meinline and that reminds them of Adolf. Ok lets remove mainline. Remember the whole ordeal with the "ok" hand sign? That's what happens when you let the minority control you, and that wasn't even a real case of racism.

> What if nazis start saying that they love "mainline" branch because it's meinline and that reminds them of Adolf. Ok lets remove mainline. You see, the thing about culture is that it's rapidly evolving and not necessarily rational (which is perfectly fine). If the word "mainline" would become associated with nazis commonly enough, I'd definitely want to avoid its usage despite of there being nothing wrong it, just…

Why is a rapidly evolving, irrational culture perfectly fine? It sounds quite dangerous and self destructive to me. If you're going to live on eggshells being scared of what a fringe minority decides on a whim, then I don't know what to say.

Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#49

Post by oceanghost »

bb88 wrote: post #41
oceanghost wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's dumb about that is, I'm sure it refers to the definition of master as: adjective main; principal. "the apartment's master bathroom has a free-standing oval bathtub"

So what I didn't know was the origin of the word "master" in relation to housing. "The phrase "master bedroom" first appeared in the 1926 Sears catalog, according to the real estate blog Trelora. It was a feature of a $4,398 Dutch colonial home, the most expensive in the catalog, referring to a large second floor bedroom with a private bathroom." https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_971e3114fec2c583d17a32ac8c... 1926 wa…

That's all very interesting but I don't think it has anything to do with if the phrase "master" is racist.

A quick search reveals the following English idioms:

master master plan master of ceremonies master key master class master baker master of arts baggage master past master grand master zen master puppet master master of fine arts master of science master sergeant chess master old master master builder master bedroom harbor master master of literature master copy master cylinder master at arms master of library science sailing master master race question master master of arts in library science master hand master file master of divinity master of theology master mason master of architecture master of arts in teaching master of education property master master switch drill master master lease master in business master of the rolls master cast ballet master master in public affairs master mechanic master stroke master vibrator master chief petty officer master of laws riding master harbour master job master rattlesnake master assay master master notes master of science in engineering master and servant wreck master dance master games master kong the master master plans bus master master in business administration master mind master tape senior master sergeant station master the master master slave mint master special master wagon master forage master jack of all trades and master of none master in chancery master keys quarter master three master two master be own master been own master dock master dutch master fencing master master electrician master of the horse writing master bush master corrected master cast gang master is own master master classes master gland master lode master switches master tap master two step exercise test

Re: Blacklist is not a racist word

#50

Post by dang »

antiRadical wrote: post #44
spacemanmatt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> act like a totalitarian regime That is dangerous overstatement.

You're wrong. Do you know the origin of political correctness? Stalin and Nazis loved that. "Blacklist is racist" is indeed a dangerous overstatement.

We've banned this account for using HN primarily (exclusively, actually) for ideological battle. We don't allow that here, regardless of what ideology you're for or against. It's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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