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GitHub, fuck your name change

mooseyanon.medium.com

581–590 of 1001 posts

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#581

As I've said when this was discussed a while ago, the problem is not with the word "master", it would be with the word "slave". "Master" has many uses that have nothing to do with slavery, as evidenced in words like "master's degree", "master" vs. "apprentice", "mastery", etc. Once "master" is used in combination with "slave", it refers back to slavery and leans on it, there is no doubt about it. That's the case for…

In this case, master is derived from a master/slave concept in BitKeeper, so it falls into your second category.

https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#582
post #429

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. 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…

> "Wokeism" (and the even more made-up "cancel culture") is the new War on Christmas.

Saying that woke excess is "made-up" and "hysteria" is gaslighting. Coca Cola ran a diversity training encouraging employees to "be less white": https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-co.... The Smithsonian has a whole page on "whiteness" treating it like it's a bad thing. If you work a college degree-required job, you've probably had an employer recommend you read something by Robin Di Angelo, who claims she "tries to be a little less white every day."

I've never met anyone who got offended when I said "Merry Christmas." I've repeatedly run into instances of woke excess over the past year. The faculty at my law school declared themselves "gatekeepers of white supremacy" on a Zoom call: https://freebeacon.com/campus/northwestern-law-administrator.... (The interim dean, who declared himself a "racist," is a friend of mine, and I was shocked to read about his behavior.) Even the whole Dr. Seuss thing--"Mulberry Street," which was cancelled, is one of my daughter's favorite books. I bought it for her a couple of years ago new at a Barnes and Noble in Annapolis. It's not some obscure relic of history.

I think it's tremendously disingenuous to deny that this phenomenon has crossed the line from "manufactured outrage" into "real concern."

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#583
post #421
post #237

> “Meritocracy!”, I hear you cry. “They pick from the most talented students. The ones that worked the hardest to get into the most elite schools. The black students should have just worked harder” Crazy idea: if companies that do virtue signaling on inclusivity were paying their taxes, decent schools could be funded and we would not have so many of those issues. But instead, those companies are actively lobbying to…

I don't think companies paying their taxes - in the USA at least - would help much on the education side of things, because much of the USA has a stunningly bad system of using property taxes to pay for schools. So schools in rich areas get more money than schools in poor areas. Charging companies taxes and simultaneously reforming how schools are funded could work? I imagine changing the funding mechanism would be e…

> because much of the USA has a stunningly bad system of using property taxes to pay for schools.

This might have been true once upon a time, but pushes in State and Federal funding over the last couple of decades have mostly filled in the gaps. Take a careful look at district funding per-pupil in your state and you might be surprised. While there certainly are differences, they are nowhere near as large as they were in the past.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#584

Disclaimer: I'm a white engineer who is now a VP. I also have a black daughter. I can't speak for the black experience(s) because I'm not black, but I'm also acutely invested in seeing things get better in terms of race relations and opportunities for all people. A few thoughts: 1. Words matter. They aren't the most important thing per se, but they shouldn't be ignored. Over time, all these little changes do add up.…

Why isn't the discussion that it's also quite racist to associate the word "slave" with Blacks/Africans? People don't seem to know any history when they say that. It's not only Africans that got enslaved, peoples of all ethnicities did. It's just virtue signaling at the end of the day. It's ridiculous watch everyone fight over this while missing the root cause.

That seems like a completely valid point: Can we still use the terms master/slave when actually discussing the atrocious history of slavery in America? Why are these words considered hateful? They are useful words that describe a concept very clearly.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#585
post #237

> “Meritocracy!”, I hear you cry. “They pick from the most talented students. The ones that worked the hardest to get into the most elite schools. The black students should have just worked harder” Crazy idea: if companies that do virtue signaling on inclusivity were paying their taxes, decent schools could be funded and we would not have so many of those issues. But instead, those companies are actively lobbying to…

The USA spends more per capita than anyone else and we get worse results. More money isn't going to fix it. We need to break up the teacher's unions and put competition into the education marketplace by supporting students not schools. If we gave every student a stipend that their parent's could use to pick the school they wanted, then our education system would have competition and actually get better.

> More money isn't going to fix it.

Bingo. My wife teaches for an urban school district. They get plenty of money. We see where it all goes, and it isn't into supporting education.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#586
post #237

> “Meritocracy!”, I hear you cry. “They pick from the most talented students. The ones that worked the hardest to get into the most elite schools. The black students should have just worked harder” Crazy idea: if companies that do virtue signaling on inclusivity were paying their taxes, decent schools could be funded and we would not have so many of those issues. But instead, those companies are actively lobbying to…

The USA spends more per capita than anyone else and we get worse results. More money isn't going to fix it. We need to break up the teacher's unions and put competition into the education marketplace by supporting students not schools. If we gave every student a stipend that their parent's could use to pick the school they wanted, then our education system would have competition and actually get better.

I think the "per capita" bit is misleading. Because it lumps in certain area with other areas.

Certain school districts are way underfunded compared to others. Part of that problem is that a lot of school districts are funded through property taxes. Which has a way of reinforcing the cycle of poverty.

Your voucher system would simply exacerbate the problem. You know what happens when you allow people to be selective about their schools? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight In your case, it would just be a move to private schools and if you don't think those people wouldn't be able to vote out all taxes that go to schools now, then you are naive.

And breaking up the teachers' unions? Yeah. That's a race to the bottom. Already schools in those underfunded districts do their best to discourage long-tenured teachers as their pay is directly related to years of service. Make it easier for schools to churn teachers and that's exactly what you'd see. Not a selection for the "best", but for the cheapest.

Education is a service with no direct material benefit. Investing in it does not pay off any particular person or group in any noticeably tangible way. However, having a well-educated population benefits everyone and everything.

Education is one area where we probably need less privatization rather than more.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#587
The words we use matter. If they didn’t you wouldn’t feel the need to use fuck in your title. If you think it is inclusive to use old terminology the. why don’t you use old technology? Because it is worth it communally for us to update and get better at cooperating. Running around tellkng Github to fuck themselves is just more toxic masculinity wrapped up in a need to stay at the center of every conversation at work and at home. I am happy I don’t have to work on your team.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#588
post #516

When can I downvote posts?

HN is not about downvoting things one disagrees with but rather posts that do not add anything to the discussion. Same holds for upvoting, many times I upvoted posts I did not agree with but that raised interesting observations on the topic discussed. This is what makes HN great in my opinion.

I wish HN actually did work that way, most people do not use their votes like you.

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#589

EDIT: For comparison: * "Common Mistakes of New Engineering Managers" (5hrs ago, 110 points, 30 comments) -> rank 2 * this post (2hrs ago, 1000 points, 500 comments) -> rank 20 Why is this post being penalized? Too many black folks commenting and up voting? (/s) ----- Amazingly well written. I'm going to say some things. You'd guess wrongly if you infer that I'm bitter - since I'm personally very lucky. Having been b…

indeed, the thing that struck me was how much of a middle class sausage factory SV-tech is. I had worked in VFX/media for a long time, and we at least knew that we were mostly rich middle class fops. Having heard all the noise about how upset the tech bros were when diversity increased at FAANG, when I got here I expected to have some, well diversity. I went from a team that had 8/30 female-male, which the company fe…

Maybe referring to people by genitalia as their primary characteristic is part of the problem?

Re: GitHub, fuck your name change

#590
post #237

> “Meritocracy!”, I hear you cry. “They pick from the most talented students. The ones that worked the hardest to get into the most elite schools. The black students should have just worked harder” Crazy idea: if companies that do virtue signaling on inclusivity were paying their taxes, decent schools could be funded and we would not have so many of those issues. But instead, those companies are actively lobbying to…

The USA spends more per capita than anyone else and we get worse results. More money isn't going to fix it. We need to break up the teacher's unions and put competition into the education marketplace by supporting students not schools. If we gave every student a stipend that their parent's could use to pick the school they wanted, then our education system would have competition and actually get better.

As a Canadian who's spent some time in various parts of the States, I would say the biggest change that needs to be made is a greater cultural value being placed on good education. In simpler terms, I believe disadvantaged youth will do better at school when those youth start _wanting_ to go to school.

The most successful ethnic group in the United States are Nigerian-Americans because in Nigerian society, education is valued above all else. 61% of Nigerian-Americans over 25 hold a Masters degree - a remarkable number!

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