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If "Master/Slave" terminology in computing sounds bad now, why not change it to "Dom/Sub"?
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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It's not obvious to realize this, but the luxury of thinking words are neutral is a privilege.
Think of it this way. If 5% of the time, when a person said "howdy", they punched you in the face. You would be very wary of anyone saying howdy. Just in case. Now imagine having to live on edge like that 24/7. It wears you down. It's exhausting.
Well, it costs me nothing to choose a different word besides howdy. And for that cost of $0 I can make someone else's life less anxious. I know how much anxiety sucks because I'm basically made out of it. So I'm going to do what I can to put other people at ease.
Now obviously black people know that the IT term master and slave are not about them. But they are also conditioned by society that, some small % of the time when those words come up, things go very poorly for them. So yeah, I would be twitchy about it too. Even if my rational mind knew it was silly.