if you scroll past the left v. right and recycling sideshows, there is half-decent discussion that is relevant to the article below.
GitHub, fuck your name change
531–540 of 1001 posts
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#532> Out of curiosity I asked my manager, who is like 20 yrs older than me, if he had ever been stopped and searched, he said not once in his life. I had a similar conversation when a black colleague was late for work, having been stopped and searched by the police in London. The other 10 (white) developers were all shocked, but he said it as casually as someone might report they'd missed the train, or had a puncture on…
As a black guy in London, I've not been stopped and searched in over a decade, so I do think that profiling tends to happen more the younger you are (and fit a particular profile).
A less cynical and perhaps naive explanation would be that it makes sense statistically for minorities to be stopped when there is a description.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#533Though I initially sympathized with the name change from master to main (cause I don't care what it is called), I am now more of the opinion that this kind of window-dressing might actually be harmful as it distracts from addressing the root cause. It is a bit complicated as the name change in itself is not bad, but given the context, and that it distracts from addressing real issues it actually is. Same thing with p…
> as it distracts from addressing the root cause. This would imply that people are capable only of doing one thing at a time and, potentially, that they're only capable of doing one thing full stop. I would honestly be amazed if a single person, anywhere[1], looked at this change and thought "yep, I don't have to think about slavery now". > think of themselves as somewhat environmentally responsible. Well, I guess th…
Americans at large are heavily invested in ignoring the repercussions of slavery.
Our President still lives in a house built by enslaved peoples. Our Congress still legislates in a Capitol built by enslaved peoples.
That fact remains true, and is the prima facie evidence that all Americans have profited from our legacy of slavery, and that we aren't all that concerned with tearing down that legacy and eliminating the harms to folks that those monuments contain... instead a plaque or statue explaining the role of the enslaved peoples is enough.
Meh.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#534"So, what was tech’s big song and dance? Let’s remove offensive terminology from our collective lexicon."
The movement to remove unfortunate terminology (master/slave absolutely being one) from our stack has gone on long before the George Floyd protests - literally decades, including many discussions on here. This framing renders the entire article just noisy hysterics.
Of course it has yielded the predictable "As a gay black man..." commentary. Right.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#535> Out of curiosity I asked my manager, who is like 20 yrs older than me, if he had ever been stopped and searched, he said not once in his life. I had a similar conversation when a black colleague was late for work, having been stopped and searched by the police in London. The other 10 (white) developers were all shocked, but he said it as casually as someone might report they'd missed the train, or had a puncture on…
At the university where I worked, a colleague mentioned that he had been stopped by the campus police four times in his time there (which was longer than my time). He was surprised to learn that I had been stopped thrice over a shorter period, and I am so white I can be seen from great distances. We regularly had to come in at night for patches and upgrades then and it was just a fact of life.
Even in my neighborhood, if I go out walking at night, I get stopped by the police, approximately once every two years. This is with a grey sweatpants, a white T-shirt, and a long white shirt, hardly burglary attire.
I wonder how much of it is a function of being male and, if large, apparently threatening-looking.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#536Saying that the left spends too much effort on rhetoric might be valid criticism, but focusing on it as reasons to "walk away from the left" (which not too many black Americans are doing, BTW) is disingenuous. Sure, the left talks about rhetoric, but it also fights for higher wages, civil liberties, healthcare, affirmative action, investment in education, workers' rights, and voting rights. It's fine not to like ever…
>Saying that the left spends too much effort on rhetoric might be valid criticism, but focusing on it as reasons to "walk away from the left" (which not too many black Americans are doing, BTW) is disingenuous.
That depends whether you distinguish between the Left and the Democratic Party. Most minority voters remain firm Democrats, although fewer than in 2016. Many/most minorities I've met, including myself, are completely disenchanted with "the Left" as an activist bloc that tries to take over or derail the Party. That bloc is simply two or three times as strict about "culture war" issues - which I agree with you are ultimately nigh-meaningless, but alas - as about the "kitchen table" issues where most people actually agree with them.
In short, you can be a racial or ethnic minority who wants universal healthcare, a new voting rights bill, and to strengthen workers' unions, but then you dissent from the "Left" agenda on one culture-war issue, one that theoretically applies to your group but which you were never consulted about, and bam, the Left hates you and wants you gone.
"Everyone get in line, we have to stop Trump" only worked while Trump was in office. It's hard to tell people we all need to get behind whichever street protest is marching downtown now, with Biden in office willingly signing surprisingly progressive bills like the stimulus.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#537I won't waste an opportunity to frame this as a modern shifting of the overton window. Rather than editorialize, here you go.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#538I want to share my own reactions to the name change since this is a really interesting topic. For context, I'm an African American, so many of my ancestors were slaves.
- The first time it occurred to me that "master" in this context could offend anyone was when GitHub changed the name (and broke my workflow).
- My immediate reaction was, "this change is by white people for white people," where "white" means anyone who isn't black.
- My next reaction was, "they may be changing the name for the wrong reasons, but the change is brilliant."
What's powerful about this name change is that it pushes us to alter a habit, in my case one embedded deeply in my fingers, something that I do every day without realizing that I'm doing it. Thus it is a useful reminder of the implicit bias that contributes to the lack of diversity in tech. Never mind that the old name was harmless, the change brings repeated awareness to an important topic, and it reaches a the developer community in a targeted way.
So, next time you are annoyed that you have to fix a script or you accidentally type master when you needed to type main, please just take a deep breath, change the name, and remember to reflect upon whether you have are subconscious habits or biases that work against diversity in tech.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#539Saying that the left spends too much effort on rhetoric might be valid criticism, but focusing on it as reasons to "walk away from the left" (which not too many black Americans are doing, BTW) is disingenuous. Sure, the left talks about rhetoric, but it also fights for higher wages, civil liberties, healthcare, affirmative action, investment in education, workers' rights, and voting rights. It's fine not to like ever…
> but focusing on it as reasons to "walk away from the left" (which not too many black Americans are doing, BTW) Wasn’t it black moderates that powered centrist Biden to the nomination? Bernie and Warren’s failure to gain any significant traction with the black electorate sunk their progressive candidacies.
Biden won because many of us blacks, especially in South Carolina voted for the candidate that we thought would most likely win over whites. Warren and Bernie were seen as too progressive and the reward for that would be 4 more years of Trump.
Re: GitHub, fuck your name change
#540Saying that the left spends too much effort on rhetoric might be valid criticism, but focusing on it as reasons to "walk away from the left" (which not too many black Americans are doing, BTW) is disingenuous. Sure, the left talks about rhetoric, but it also fights for higher wages, civil liberties, healthcare, affirmative action, investment in education, workers' rights, and voting rights. It's fine not to like ever…
“ s. Sure, the left talks about rhetoric, but it also fights for higher wages, civil liberties, healthcare, affirmative action, investment in education, workers' rights, and voting rights.” I don’t think the person you are replying to would agree with you about affirmative actions being a good thing. Other than that, the left is super repressive of free speech which is the only civil right left to win , detrimental t…
You're blaming "the left" for distrust in voting? I don't know where to begin...