Rename blacklist (and possibly whitelist)?
yeah we should change the names to allowlist and allowntlist
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q9UafsiQ6k
So this song is not done anymore either? I wanna escape this world.
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Not to mention that Jack Sparrow does not have a ship anymore :/
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There is such a thing as taking it too far. Context matters in all of this, and the blacklist and whitelist have absolutely nothing got to do with race.
Saying that someone has "Black" or "White" skin doesn't hold any racism in itself. If I say "oh yes, I was talking to the Chinese girl who works there." I'm not being racist, I'm describing someone who's name I do not know.
I stand alongside my black friends against racism. I have never used a racist term in my life, not even in jest. BUT... I won't start getting outraged about black vs white, good vs evil and the grey. This kind of thing is just going down the rabbit hole of unrelated things and fake outrage.
If you haven't been doing it already, call people out on rasicm, tell them how wrong it is. EDUCATE THEM. I've never had to do that with a young person, but I did have to educate older xenophobic/racist people at times. Be part of the solution. Inventing things to be outraged about is actually a part of the problem. This is not how you get through to people who are backward thinking.
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There is such a thing as taking it too far. Context matters in all of this, and the blacklist and whitelist have absolutely nothing got to do with race.
Perhaps, this is, and until the last few days I would not have even considered terms like this be offensive. It's through discussion that as a community we can decide what is acceptable or not. Why choose a word that may cause offence, when there are alternatives that do not?
If I say "oh yes, I was talking to the Chinese girl who works there." I'm not being racist,
Yet you chose not to say "yellow girl", which is deemed offensive. But I get your point. Maybe we should get better at describing people without having to resort to just skin colour as the only differentiator.
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It's true, but then Chinese people don't refer to themselves as yellow. I might use "Asian" to describe someone of Eastern descent. Or west Asian to describe someone of Indian or Pakinstani origin if I don't know which country they are from. I think the difference with the use of "black" is that people with African heritage refer to themselves as "black" and Caucasians call themselves "white." I think if they were to stop using it and change it to something else, the world would change with it too, or at least we would make it change. I don't think a word itself has to be bad.
I have an African friend who lives in Ireland and I call him "African" because he's from Africa, not because I'm afraid of "black." He says things like... "You white people yo." I take absolutely no offense to that because whenever he says that, it's generally just light-hearted and not meant as an insult. The context matters big-time. Of course "You white people" can be used as a negative, racist context too and I've seen that, especially on Twitter. On the other hand, I never say "You black people" back. I guess there's a certain "nope" when it comes to using it the other way around. It feels wrong. There are plenty of other ways to tease someone. XD.
I don't feel guilty for being white though. At the end of the day, I come from a country that was treated as "low grade" white people... or to be specific "savages." Our history is one of genocide (not a true famine) and in a way, despite the difference in skin colour, we can most certainly relate due to how people of my grand-parents generation were treated abroad. Even in this day and age, I've been subjected to xenophobic remarks from a certain brand of right wing toss-pots from America. I take offense to "potato" when it's being used negatively toward Irish people. There are specifically worse terms that have been used toward me, that I won't repeat here, but I wouldn't tell people to stop using the word "potato" when it's not directed at me. =)
I do understand where you are coming from though. Your heart is in the right place.
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I generally like your way of thinking, but sadly, "educating" people will solve nothing. Calling people out will solve nothing. Modern racism isn't stemmed in "backward thinking". Most modern racists aren't racists because they don't like other people's skin color. Modern racism (also xenophobia and other kinds of prejudice) appears when a certain group of people feels threatened by a different group of people. Sometimes they feel a physical threat, most often though they feel a threat to their job, to their social standing etc.
What I'm stating here is basically my girlfriend's opinion (she's much more intelligent than me, so I couldn't have put it better myself).
My girlfriend is a "Korean girl" who used to live on a certain Russian island where a lot of Koreans live. The Koreans there were abandoned by the Japanese when the island went under Soviet Union control back in the middle of 20th century. So there was racism from the Russians towards the Koreans because the Russians weren't particularly happy that Soviet government suddenly gave citizenship to all those Koreans who, being natural workaholics, could've taken all work places from the Russians. The Koreans felt threatened and didn't do much to integrate into community, keeping to themselves, avoiding the Russians and thus making the situation even more tense. But then the government ensured there's enough work for everyone, the Russians were satisfied, the Koreans had nothing to fear anymore and now they're all living happily there and are now united against a new threat: migrants from Central Asia and Azerbaijan who come there in search of work.
So basically the way to solve the racism problem isn't to indulge in some worthless propaganda, but to ensure the people of every race don't feel threatened by people of other races. Whatever is being done nowadays (kneeling, removal of monuments, replacing white people by black people on board of directors of certain companies) isn't helping; it is in fact doing the very opposite - makes more people feel threatened. But you can't just tell a person they have nothing to fear from a black person or a white person - you have to take certain actions. Like providing proper work for everyone, giving certain social guarantees etc. And this is where most governments fail miserably. :/
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I'm so disappointed to see someone openly against trying to educate. You said the way to fix it is to make it so all the races don't feel threatened by the others. How do you expect to do that without educating? Because the people you described just switched targets, they didn't actually change their bad behavior.
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Because "education" means nothing when you lose your job to a person of a different race just because that person is of a different race and not because they're better than you at this job. The "education" you're talking about is just a senseless propaganda and populism.
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Actually no, that isnt what Im talking about at all, but feel free to run with the assumption. There are plenty of places to find actual, science-backed information out there, and it is never acceptable to encourage people to stay ignorant, or discourage learning, because they might run into propoganda and have to think for themselves.
I just find it highly assuming that I can go up to actual racists and suggest education, and they scream about how it cant work because of propoganda, and when I suggest the same to SJWs, they also scream about it not working because of propoganda, even when it's been shown that exposure and education of different people, races, and cultures tends to produce less racists and problematic behavior.
I just take it to mean the people arguing against education are lazy and uninterested in change that could actually help our problems, but would rather just whine for attention, and therefore shouldnt be catered to.
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I'm also talking about different things than you assume I'm talking about. You basically didn't get anything what I meant.
Where exactly did argue "against" education? Nowhere. I just said it doesn't work.
It's like it is with an illness. There is illness and there are symptoms. So if we assume racism is an illness, then "education" only alleviates symptoms instead of treating the cause. And the cause in this case is...well, there's a number of them. Poverty, crime, wars, social inequality... once these are dealt with, there won't be racism anymore. This is what I'm advocating for.
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No, I understood you perfectly.
Do you think saying education doesn't work, is encouraging, or discouraging from the topic of education? It is discouraging, and an implied argument against it by reason of it not working.
Also, educating someone on their symptoms, can often help them understand the cause. Like literally. I have severe PTSD. Understanding my symptoms helps me understand my condition, including the cause and treatments and ways to minimize the damage it causes in my life.
Racism is roughly is the same. Understanding problematic behaviors/symptoms helps someone understand any racism/sickness they may be demonstrating, and help them find a treatment. Obviously not everyone is going to be open to it, just like with physical and mental illness. But there are plenty who are, and again, trying to discourage education is never a good thing in any context.
And again, how do you expect to deal with any of the things you listed if, according to you, trying to educate is pointless? People don't magically get informed on issues you know, including governments and the people who set policies.
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Understanding my symptoms helps me understand my condition, including the cause and treatments and ways to minimize the damage it causes in my life.
Not as much of a problem as yours, but I often can't sleep before important work-related events, presentations and such. But knowing and accepting this resulted in not stressing over not sleeping, so I'm just grumpy at myself for that stupid behaviour - I may be tired, but still in a good mood :) understanding helps to overcome emotions and rationalize reactions.
I wish you the best regarding your PTSD!
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That's nonsense. Besides, where did this happen where someone was booted out of their job for being white, and then their job given to a black person. I would like to know this because this is ridiculous. IT DID NOT HAPPEN! If I was going for an interview and lost out to someone who looks different than me, that's because they had something I don't, it's not because someone gave them preferential treatment. I laugh when I hear comments like "he/she only got the job because they look like a model." That's jealousy. No employer is going to give you a job based on how you look if you're not the best candidate. Racism comes from the same sentiment.
People used this same argument against the IT industry when they made the rule that 10% of employees in a large company needed to be women. "Baaaaw losing out to a woman." Women had become a "threat" as you like to put it. The thing is, there were so many talented women out there who were not being given a chance because it is a predominantly male industry. It forced employers to look at more applicants and add some female candidates into the mix.
Now more women are going to college to study IT-related courses because there are opportunities for them. There is no need for the rule anymore because people are being employed now on merit and not their gender. That wasn't the case 10-15 years ago. There could be 1 or 2 in a class full of men.
Let's face it, employers don't consider all applicants, they pull a few off the top and pick the best of them, then call them for interview. My last employer admitted this to me. He said there were 100s of applicants, he picked 10 off the top, and brought 2 of us in for interview. I got the job on the spot. If it didn't work out, he'd look at the next 10. I'm sure there were several people in that pile who were just as suited to the job as I was. So for the IT industry, it was like that. They looked harder. They didn't employ sub-par people because they had different plumbing. Similarly, employers are not employing people from minorities who do not deserve the position.
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Yeah, let's find one line in a long statement and ignore everything else.
That "nonsense" came from a person who's actually been subject to racism (and who's also a woman that has 3 higher education degrees (since you mentioned women's quota and so on), unlike those of you who only speak hypothetically. But some people just put on rainbow glasses and say they can fight racism with words and gestures. It doesn't work like that.
Also if you didn't see something with your own eyes it doesn't mean it didn't happen. We don't really have a black/white problem in my country because there's only like, less than 0.005% of black people here, but I can't even count how many times I've been refused a job I'm competent with because the employer said "we need a woman in this position". Hiring people who don't deserve the position also happens everywhere, be it because of their gender, race or because they're director's cousin's nephew or something like that.
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I didn't ignore it. I read all of it. I just don't agree with you, or your girlfriend's opinion. Is it really your gf's opinion, or is it yours? And it's still "nonsense" because you didn't provide a source. I don't need to see something happen with my own two eyes, I just need a credible source that recorded that it happened. There would be an unfair dismissal lawsuit in such case.
You said it yourself, it wasn't solved. They just found a new group to hate. Therefore, they learned nothing, so that kinda debunks the rest of it, which is why I didn't give it any attention. "Everyone was happy, then new people came."
As for you being denied a job to make way for a woman so many times that you've lost count, why do I not believe that. If they wanted a woman for the job, they would never have called you for interview in the first place. They'd just tell you that your application was unsuccessful.
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First of all, I must say I've always considered you one of the most reasonable people of this community and one I most often agreed with in other threads, and my initial comment was intended as supportive, not dismissive. I thought we can have a civil discussion here and I was really stunned to see such hostility in your further replies. Well, good intentions, road to hell and whatnot.
Now, to answer your questions. Our opinion (it is shared, I only used my gf's explanation because she put it better than I could and she has more experience with the matter, being non-white etc) is based on a hard FACT that racism and xenophobia are a byproduct of perceived threats. It's a well researched and well studied matter. You're asking for sources, there you go. "Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat" by Lincoln Quillian, 1995. The works of J. Eric Oliver, Thomas Espenshade, Katherine Hempstead and others. Google them or find them in a library. I hope you'll find those sources credible enough. Otherwise I'll just have to rely on the "highly likely" argument as I've heard it's being accepted as a definite proof in English-speaking countries.
Then again, you're taking words from my mouth. You say "you said it yourself, it wasn't solved". When did i say "it wasn't solved"?
No, it was solved perfectly. Then a different issue appeared which will be solved in a few years time with appropriate measures being implemented. But that's already a bigger success than your "education" has ever managed to achieve. Despite all these talks about racism being wrong that go on for years, there's always a new white cop to murder a new black guy and new protests, burned stores, looters and marodeurs. We don't have this shit over here. While some people still voice their displeasure with migrants etc, racially or ethnically motivated crime is almost eradicated over here, compared to what was just 10-15 years ago.
Now, to the last part. When did I say anything about an "interview"? Please pay attention. I neved said that. I was applying to editor job, they don't conduct interviews for these (at least not in my country). They give you a task to, well, edit something, you send it over and that's it. So yeah, I've had explanations like "sorry, we like what you did but all of our other editors are female so we discussed it a bit with them and they decided they don't want a male working with them" or "sorry, you did everything well but we're worried that men aren't responsible enough so we can't hire you after all". Should I send you screenshots or recordings of phone calls? Sorry, can't do, couldn't have possibly predicted those could be useful in a future discussions.
tl;dr: your response is in fact the best illustration to why "education" isn't going to work. I'm trying to correct you where you're wrong but you're dissmissing it as "nonsense" despite it being a PROVEN FACT. Basically this is the same with racism. You can only educate people who don't have a set opinion on a matter. Even then, say you managed to persuade a white person that racism is wrong. Then that white person goes out and gets mugged by a black person. Or let's say you managed to persuade a black person they don't have to be afraid of white people. Then that black person finds a fake bill on the street, tries to use it and gets beaten senseless by another white cop. All your "education" will go down the drain the very instant that happens.
The only education that matters is a proper one. History, psychology, sociology etc. People should read proper books on the matter, try to find the root of a problem and eradicate that root. But no, most of them believe they can solve everything just by using appropriate hashtags, and occasionally, by apologizing.
And here's one of my favorite quotes to summarize my feelings about the current situation. "If for honesty you want apologies, I won't sympathize. If for kindness you substitute blindness, please open your eyes".
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Ageism, Sexism etc is illegal in most first world countries. You can bring someone to court for saying something like "sorry, I don't think a man would be responsible enough for this job." That's sexism and frowned upon. It goes both ways you know.
I have been told in an interview "we're sorry, but you're too nice for this position." That's not a problem because it was true. I wasn't as confident as I am today. I was a student and applied to work in a hotel bar.
That was before I went into my current career. I get called to interview based on my portfolio, and/or a mini project that has to be done on site. Might not always get the job, but... there are excuses that they just can't use because you can sue.
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I will keep my sanity and pretend I never read this thread.
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A word is a word. The only power is has is what you give it.
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I will agree only if blacklist is renamed to "Naughty list" and whitelist to "Nice List". HoHoHo.
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+10
I may not agree with the suggestion but I applaud the intent, especially when you read the torrent of vitriol, mostly from people I have never see participate in any discussion on the forum, and who are ironically saying people should stop being offended by everything when their reaction clearly shows that they are offended by Hippo's post.
The internet has become a place where discussion is now impossible. Can we just disagree on something while respecting the right of the person with an opposite opinion to have an opinion? I guess not.
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can we also change the color black to another word while we're at it ya
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we are going to live in fahrenheit 451 universe, enjoy your new emoji language, racist free
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Does it mean we need change name of "black" colour to "block" colour cause somebody mix meanings?
No, I'm not suggesting that. But I think choosing terminology that lessens the 'white==good' and 'black==bad' trope isn't a bad thing. If I was writing software now, I would probably think twice about using these terms, and consider if there were better, more descriptive alternatives like 'include/exclude list'.
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But why? "Black=bad" trope has nothing to do with black people. Come on, people wore black on funerals long before they even knew black people existed. Sayings like "black magic" or "black humor" also have a huge history. I guess it starts from very primal times, when people were afraid of the dark, so black=dark=bad is something we have on the instincts layer. Not only it's very hard, if even possible, to change this, but also it's clearly not connected to racism, and therefore whole idea of fighting against this is stupid. Also, I won't be surprised if black people also afraid of the dark, and so black color for them may also have negative meaning. I wonder if there were any philological researches about this.
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Black = darkness, the unseen and unknown, the hidden, the decayed. Ashes. Night. Fear. Evil. Bad. Dubious...
Black people =/= black. Black people are dark-skinned not black. The historical use/context behind black=bad has absolutely ZERO to do with "black people" in this way. Same with the colour white and "white people" (who aren't actually white either, and also more traditionally called fair-skinned/light skinned). You must realise this, right? Your movement would be so MUCH better served just trying to stop people from calling black people "black" (maybe instead just calling them what they are; darker skinned...) rather than going on a crusade against the colour and it's usage (that's used much in this way across the entire planet, and dates back countless centuries across all cultures). You'll never be able to hold the colour black (/word for) itself from these connotations. They're the connotations one very naturally develops. It is a TERRIBLE idea to start shaming this usage. It makes us bound for countless years of very silly and pointless headaches. And knowing how the internet and crowds can be, will almost certainly and completely unnecessarily hurt many people. Especially with the bigger a deal that's made of it.
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Just to think about that "blacklist" could be racist is so hypocrite.. maybe sometimes it not about peoples color..when somebody talks about black and white.
Pls rename Mankind to Womankind... its just racist to use a male word for all humanity. (sry huWomanity)...sry Man is also in Woman o.O
This reminds me of a german party with some child lovers in it called "Die Grünen", this is exactly their tone..
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Don't get me wrong, I love languages and I studied latin so I know there are multiple translations for one word but "man" is not a latin word for for anything. It's an English word with old English origins.
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Since we are at it. Is it possible, that each member could rename their own lists, in a way the selected users could read what list their on when joining a GA?
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"Hey our company is finally writing black numbers, we are making profit" --- this is also racist?
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yeah i know and red is like native americans in that scheme...so black is better than red or what... correcting language because of Zeitgeist is a mess...better we leave things like they are..
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that guy's post says it all:
In the context of git, the word "master" is not used in the same way as "master/slave". I've never known about branches referred to as "slaves" or anything similar.
the other guy's comment however is just trying to be extra woke to maybe grab some attention in a way that pretty much will backfire...
You're either on purpose or unknowingly ridiculing and overshadowing the just demands for equality and police reform by stressing over petty shit like this, what's next master's degree should be main's degree?
look at that pathetic Twitter thread that he linked in the comment, people suggesting to put "please" with "git push" and remove "force push"
Do you realize that we can do all of this and people will still suffer in the real world? or do you only care about how it feels and now how it is irl?
Focus on policy and actual change, not petty cosmetic bullshit.
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Yep. Totally agree. Wonder how many (if any) actual black people are participating in this thread. My guess is none, because if they were I'm pretty sure they be saying exactly what you've just said and wouldn't give a flying fck about the questionable debate on semantics going on here.
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Can't say for sure but since we spent most of our daily life online, these semantics debates has become all too frequent, and I feel like they are used most of the time by opposition as the actual face of the movement instead of just being a side thing, to both ridicule it and also convince some of the protestors to just take these small sacrifices as wins ie. changing some name here or there instead of actual change like banning certain practices of the police and making sure that police aren't above criticism and punishment, etc..
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sarcasm activated
Sure.
Let's rename Whitelist to Goodlist, and Blacklist to Badlist. And post clarification that from now on white=good and black=bad.
sarcasm deactivated
pedantic dickweed mode activated
Akshually
They should have been called Grantlist and Blocklist fro the start, so they are named after their intended and implemented purpose. That would be far more accurate and thus less confusing than labeling them with a colour does". I suppose it's not too late to change the labels, it's been shown that people will get used to such changes over time.
pedantic dickweed mode deactivated
But honestly, fucking with semantics like this just because a word has a negative connotation doesn't serve a real purpose.
As Pinacjo posted already:
Focus on policy and actual change, not petty cosmetic bullshit.
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Nicelist and Naughtylist, just so you feel it's a little bit like Christmas every day.
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It's not a matter of changing the language that we already have with black and white, it's a matter of how we refer to each other.
My giving people labels in order to identify them, we put them into a box.
On the internet we WANT to do that, because that's how it works with blacklisting and whitelisting.
But on the outside refering to people with these labels before knowing them, we automatically box them. "White" people aren't actually white, some of us have a blue glow we're that pale, some have a red hue because we have bad skin or we went out in the sun for too long. Same with "black" people, they're not actually black, so we should stop associating people with colours before we change out language.
Well in my opinion, idk if it would actually work.
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I made a joke in my previous comment on the first page of this topic when I talked about greeks associating black with the underworld. It containts neither of the 3 but you should have a look at it when you want to consider me on your whitelist, thanks regardless <3
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Saw it and found the post interesting actually. Color symbolism is a fascinating aspect of ethno-sociology. And you stay on my bluelist for the same reasons as before. Jokes are needed when we're talking about serious topics.
"I am being too rough on my weiner." made me crack up too btw
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I use sex and things as jokes to highlight how ridiculous a situation is. It works well as when people see it they're immediately drawn to it because of the "taboo" nature it still kind of has.
Also #relatable.
You're welcome on my bluelist, got Halo Masterchief Aniversary giveaway going on for my blues.
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I use sex and things as jokes to highlight how ridiculous a situation is. It works well as when people see it they're immediately drawn to it because of the "taboo" nature it still kind of has.
Humor is and remains the best form of communication. Even when people just take it at face value and get offended by it, it doesn't go by unnoticed.
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Thank you thoughtfulhippo! I wholeheartedly support this proposal, for the following reasons:
By the way, speaking of racists, have you noticed how they always claim to support free speech and democracy, but then when you make a humble proposal to change a single character in a website, they get offended like hell? Any change, no matter how small, seems to be too much for them. They are indeed the true snowflakes! Hopefully after reading this comment they will add me to their blocklist :)
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Sorry to dissapoint, but you won't get upvotes and gold from kind strangers here.
Try your luck with virtue signalling somewhere else.
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Thanks, it's good knowing that some easily offended SJW got offended by me.
Funny, considering your reply that can be seen just above mine.
Talk about irony, huh?
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Unsurprisingly you are making a lot of assumptions and look who's getting mad all over the thread, dude. You're the one being offended by a mere suggestion for discussion, not me.
I'm not offended. I just dislike people who can't discuss in a respectful way on a forum. Don't worry, your ratio alone was enough to end on my dicklist. Now you're also on my ignore list. Have a nice life.
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"Hey, I'm not mad or offended, I just hate you, your opinion, your views, your luck, you replying to me. I'll even completely block all of your replies to show how not offended and not mad I am".
Nice, looks I struck a nerve.
Jackpot.
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Quite some assumptions you have there. This is why I dropped out of working in the tech fields. Non-tech, politically motivated people have this habit of trying to force their ideas without understanding the headache they're causing the people who actually have to do the work.
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Why is everything that uses colors "racially motivated" now?
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I'm sorry, do you have some kind of condition that makes your eye-sight bad?
He's calling the term "blacklist" racist because it has the word "black" in it and it's a term with negative meaning.
I wonder if you'd be also defending his point if the meaning of words had opposite meanings and Hippo was calling the term "whitelist" racist.
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Actually I work in tech, so I know full well how people will ask for complex new features claiming 'it's easy', because they don't know how much work it requires. However, this change is the refactoring of a single string across a project, so I don't see how it could be hard to do or cause headaches. The developers don't need to add any new code, and not even change how the existing one works, because this change is non-functional. From a developer's point of view it's just a cosmetic change, like fixing a typo.
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But then, this is you taking people's comments like the world is in black and white. Not trying to be funny with choice of words there. Right enough, there are a few obvious racist posts in this thread. But...You're missing the grey. Not every person who disagrees with this proposal is doing so because they are racists. Maybe some of us respectfully disagree because we don't think that words should be given this kind of power.
When taken away from this whole racial argument, black and white are not vicious. Maybe if both sets of people (black and white) stop using colour to refer to themselves and each other. We all do it though. "Black lives Matter" in itself is using the word "Black." Are they wrong for doing that? Are they wrong for not using "African American" or "African insert nationality" instead? I don't have an answer for that, but just food for thought.
Take, for example, the word "Queer." I am in my 30's now, and I remember this being the derogatory term for a gay person in Ireland when I was a kid. (The F word is more an American thing). They took it back and call themselves "queer." This is how they took power away from a word that had been used viciously in the past. The LGTBQ+ community now own it.
Words are only strong if we give them power. If we start adding meanings to words that are not there, are we not just creating more negatives when we should be trying to change people's perceptions on race? I don't think making racists angry is the way to get through to them. I'm not saying that we ever can. But just getting one person to open their eyes and realise that we're all the same in different skin is a success in my book. Every person enlightened is another who won't rear their kids up on hate.
Darkness and Light have always been associated with negative and positive. The last "From Darkness into Light" walk I took part in was about helping people with depression. I'm sure you've heard of that. So, black and white are associated with dark and light. In this context, it has absolutely nothing to do with race. Afterall, as some people said here, "white" people aren't really white and "black" people aren't really black. We're probably pink, beige and plenty of shades of brown. =) I saw a post on Facebook posted by my friend who was slightly making fun of white people and how we are different colours at different times like pink(baby), blue(cold), grey, green(sick) etc. It was pretty funny.
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Thanks for the long and articulated reply. I see your point, and in general I agree that it would be better if people weren't defined by the (supposed) color of their skin. However, unfortunately this is the world we live in, and in this world it's impossible for black people to stop calling themselves 'black', because they are reminded every day of their blackness through the racism and discrimination they receive. Let's not forget that it's white people who started calling them 'black', and worse (such as the n-word). It's through this language and categorization of minorities that they justified slavery, segregation, and all kinds of abuse. It's what gave them power.
Through history, the words 'black' and 'white' have been tainted by racism, and until there is racism in this world it's impossible to make them neutral again. That's why I believe that it's best to stop associating 'white' to good and 'black' to bad, in all contexts, because this association contributes to the internalized racism that most people have, and reinforces it (by the way, I see your point about 'dark' and 'light', but I believe that these two terms are generally less racially-tinged than 'black' and 'white').
In general, I disagree with your view that it's not good to make racists angry. I believe that there will never be real change if we are afraid of angering racists, because racists are angered by any meaningful change. These people are not interested in discussing the merits of any proposal, and they will never come around to support it. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic, but that's my view.
In this case, I listed a few good reasons why I support this proposal, but curiously, most people didn't reply saying 'no, it's a bad idea because...'. They just resorted to sarcastic comments and called me a 'SJW monkey' who is 'virtue signalling', etc. It's disheartening to see that any time these topics are discussed on this website, people react this way.
Of course I don't mean to imply that everyone who opposes this proposal is racist. Many people don't like change, many disagree on the merits, and that's fine. I'm just disappointed, because I want this community to be inclusive.
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But... blacklists are red and whitelists are blue! They were being called the wrong thing from the beginning!
Seriously though, when we get offended over innocent words we're just looking for something new to get offended by and missing the true problem (real violence against POC). There's no point in changing already established words because it is such a non-issue that no one really cares/thinks about. I think if SG has a problem, it is the incredibly bad tone users can get whenever the BLM discussion gets brought up.
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As other projects have, or are, renaming outdated terms, I suggest SG rename 'blacklist' (e.g. to 'blocklist') and possibly whitelist too.
And for those that consider these terms not racist, this comment sums it up for me:
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