'Master' and 'slave': Tech terms face scrutiny amid anti-racism efforts

[james_s]

During my first years of university I worked part-time as a taxi dancer (among other related nightly jobs). I grew a very thick skin but which kind of stuff can I claim as offensive to my very own little subculture?

What's a taxi dancer? Is that an autocorrect of "driver"?

Fortunately not.

In a nutshell you go to ballrooms and people pay so that you dance with them all the night, laugh at their jokes and show them around other places that a tourist might enjoy.

But sadly, we also had many very well instructed taxi drivers too.

That sounds like a fun job.  Like an upscale tourist guide?

That sounds roughly like what I'd call an escort. There is often a fine line between escorts and prostitution though.

I was picturing someone dancing around a taxi cab.

[james_s]

Oh, I didn't know it was the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) doing this too.
https://www.oshwa.org/a-resolution-to-redefine-spi-signal-names
What next, you aren't allowed to get an open hardware certification number if you don't do this?
They say they "encourage" it, but it really only one step away from banning it in project they certify.
Would be interesting to see what happens if someone submitted a project with the terms and they "encouraged" you to remove and you refused.
Their wording is quite forceful:
" it needs to stop."
"It’s unfortunate and embarrassing that our community has gone this long without acknowledging the need to treat all humans with respect."

Got a project you could submit and see what happens? I don't think I have anything worth releasing as open hardware that I've designed that uses SPI and I don't have any real clout.

I find it "unfortunate and embarrassing" that they are trying to shame people for using widely accepted and accurately descriptive terms that have nothing at all to do with human slavery. 

[Sal Ammoniac]

More politics from the OSHW association:
https://www.oshwa.org/2020/06/26/black-lives-matter/

What's next? Requiring that all PCBs approved by the OSHW Association have a black solder mask?

[coppice]

More politics from the OSHW association:
https://www.oshwa.org/2020/06/26/black-lives-matter/

I've always avoided involvement with these types of group. They are constantly ripe for takeover by parasites, who contribute nothing but a constant whining noise. If you are running any kind of open contribution project its very important to be quick and abrasive about telling parasites just where to shove it.

[james_s]

The people who condemn fascism nevertheless have shown a willingness to use fascist tactics to further their cause. That is, controlling speech and thought.

I would say that it is authoritarian. Fascism and communism are technically opposites but both tend to rely on authoritarianism to implement and are on the surface almost indistinguishable. I see it as a bit like positive and negative voltage potentials, one defines a charge, the other a lack of charge but touching a high positive voltage feels pretty much the same as touching a high negative voltage.

[magic]

not really, we had a female leader of the conservative right wing party that did not feel the need to make a list of women that she hypothetically would want to see running the country. I don't know why Caroline Lucas who to be fair is generally right about a lot of things felt the need to decide for herself who should make up a hypothetical un-elected government and why she chose to be sexist and only pick women at which point someone took the equally pathetic stance to accuse her or racism for not including any black women at which point the whole hypothetical exercise became real news.

Gotta look past who is a man or a woman and see the larger context. I don't know how your "conservative" party works, but for the "progressives" out there it typically is a purity spiral - with each passing year, the victims of yesteryear learn their place in the pack and make stage for new even more victimized victims. Those who have issues with it get bullied.

First it was the working men, then the white women, now it's black women, then it will be muslim black women because the atheistic society will be found to disrespect them more than just ordinary black women, then it will be homosexual muslim black women to show that these two can be reconciled, and I don't even dare to guess what could come next - maybe nazi incels for a plot twist? If you play that game and start to think that it really revolves around you and your "group", you lose the game. The goal is not any particular cause, the goal is to solve all causes. Tthe harder ones take priority, sorry.

The problem with the left is that think every is intelligent and will listen to reason, the right realize that there are not very many intelligent people and so pander to the ignorant masses and win elections.

Heh, I'm far right enough that I'm not even sure if I care anymore who will win the next one here. All are just nonsense and pandering to bottom of the barrel voter.

I've been trawling through comments trying to find out if POC have ever expressed discomfort with the terms master/slave. The two I found both said it is stupid and insulting to their intelligence. It really seems to be a campaign by white allies presuming to know what POC think. It has become a "loyalty test", people are forced to take sides. Either you swallow the kool-aid, or be branded the "enemy".

kentrado 17 hours ago [–]

As a black person, I find this to be pretty racist. The idea that this will appease blacks or is wanted by us is deeply insulting.

How disconnected from black experience can you be that you think this is important or desirable?

It trivializes our very important concerns about police brutality and systematic racism. Do you want to fight against slavery? Then lets campaign to abolish the exception in the 13th amendment.

I made the additional effort of also reading responses to the post you quoted and here's the first few lines of the top voted one:

> As a black person, I find this to be pretty racist. The idea that this will appease blacks or is wanted by us is deeply insulting.

White-dominated society deciding to stop casually reinforcing racist ideology and trying to figure out how to do that isn't about appeasing blacks or appealing to them on the level of atomic steps (I suppose the end goal of a society with less pervasive racism is something that probably appeals to most blacks—it certainly does to me personally, but I wasn't elected to speak for the whole race.)

> How disconnected from black experience can you be that you think this is important or desirable?

I think it's pretty racist for you to declare that my experience must not be black enough, as I find it not terribly important in and of itself or, out of context, desirable, but a part of a direction which is both important and desirable.

Hear me people, I told you the orange forum is the place to go for that stuff

[coppice]

not really, we had a female leader of the conservative right wing party that did not feel the need to make a list of women that she hypothetically would want to see running the country.

We also had a female leader of the conservative party who famously drove every other woman out of the cabinet or other significant government or party role.

[SilverSolder]

not really, we had a female leader of the conservative right wing party that did not feel the need to make a list of women that she hypothetically would want to see running the country.

We also had a female leader of the conservative party who famously drove every other woman out of the cabinet or other significant government or party role.

She only liked women with BALLS!

[EEVblog]

Oh, I didn't know it was the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) doing this too.
https://www.oshwa.org/a-resolution-to-redefine-spi-signal-names
What next, you aren't allowed to get an open hardware certification number if you don't do this?
They say they "encourage" it, but it really only one step away from banning it in project they certify.
Would be interesting to see what happens if someone submitted a project with the terms and they "encouraged" you to remove and you refused.
Their wording is quite forceful:
" it needs to stop."
"It’s unfortunate and embarrassing that our community has gone this long without acknowledging the need to treat all humans with respect."

Got a project you could submit and see what happens? I don't think I have anything worth releasing as open hardware that I've designed that uses SPI and I don't have any real clout.

I have no interest in baiting them.

I find it "unfortunate and embarrassing" that they are trying to shame people for using widely accepted and accurately descriptive terms that have nothing at all to do with human slavery.

Yes, exactly that. Their wording is very forceful and makes me never want to be involved with them. I don't like being dictated to or coerced, especially when it comes to my speech or usage of terminology. And I suspect many others won't like it either.
But they are free to do whatever they like and will live with any consequences.

[james_s]

We also had a female leader of the conservative party who famously drove every other woman out of the cabinet or other significant government or party role.

My (female) partner works in a very heavily female dominated industry and has on numerous occasions complained that women are "catty" and said that there is so much petty drama. Her words, not mine. Personally I quite like working with women however they've always been rare in tech.

[SilverSolder]

We also had a female leader of the conservative party who famously drove every other woman out of the cabinet or other significant government or party role.

My (female) partner works in a very heavily female dominated industry and has on numerous occasions complained that women are "catty" and said that there is so much petty drama. Her words, not mine. Personally I quite like working with women however they've always been rare in tech.

I've been lucky and had female bosses for many years - they've been great!

[james_s]

I've been lucky and had female bosses for many years - they've been great!

Now that you mention it, most of mine have been too. I had male bosses for only about 4 out of the last 15 years, they were mostly good too.

[Raj]

Oh wait, I do...The problem isn't that we aren't letting it change it...The problem is they are getting paid to create problems where there are none since all of them have already been solved. PLEASE PEOPLE...STOP DONATING TO THESE PARASITES.

And those who aren't getting paid are delusional that they are on the right side, and when they win, they'll be the leaders of the world or something. Those people need a psychiatrist ( and apparently saying someone need a psychiatrist, is the only politically way left to call someone mental).


It also might have something to do with people maturing at an older age these days-https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-todays-teens-are-growing-up-more-slowly-than-they-used-to/ Maybe we should start stretching the schooling years to last 25% longer and make the voting age older?



The way American diversity is, I'm surprised why it hasn't fallen yet. Being an Indian, I've seen a lot of infighting within the country on the basis of caste and what not and America isn't even made of people of a single country. What's worse is many American green card holders don't wanna be known as Americans, but Indians, Africans, Middle easterner etc while they gladly reap the benefits of American law



Meanwhile, most of the electronics are made in countries with real slavery specially China, they might try to hide it but they can't. Even in India, my neighbors own servants who serve them in exchange for using their land/building as a shelter (no salary). If it isn't slavery then what is it?

May the historic records remain unaltered so we remember why slavery was bad. Forgetting it would only help bringing it back under different name.




Our man AvE already calls male-female connectors as pokey bit and pokey bit receptacle 

If you don't like 'master' and 'slave', you could adopt the original (1981-ish) SASI/SCSI standard terminology of 'initiator' and 'target', and still be using consistent technical language.

I like that buy why change gigabites worth of text in several datasheet just for people who can't just shutup and admire what EE make for them

O my god (one out of 6000 different, do your own pick), personally, my compiler and soldering iron are my gods.....
At first I thought you were making a joke 

Why oh why bother with idiotic stuff like this, its been master/slave for obvious reasons, if someone gets this wrong, its their own mind that is wrong in the first place ("for the pure, everything is pure").

STOP BEING OFFENDED AT ANY POSSIBLE CHANCE

And no, "primary" and "secondary" has nothing similar to "Master" and "Slave", the "Master" is, hmmm, "The Master" and the slave obeys.
What about "Female" and "Male" adapters, maybe the "Female adapter" don't think of itself as "female" but one of the other 68 different types that exists.....


EDIT: Here is some more to be offended about:
0xDEADBABE
0xDEADFEED
0xBABEFEED
0xC0DEFEED
0xC0DEBABE

Go ahead


Geez, enough of this craziness 

We at EEVBLOG apparently aren't, but it's the companies making chips for us who'll bend the knee fearing for their own properties being burnt down by these far leftists.

On connectors we're going to be forced to use GR-874's until a hermaphrodite gets offended 

Oh phew i thought id have to use those APC-7 connectors. My wallet can't afford those.

But yeah my coworker kept referring to them as "hermaphrodite connectors" because he forgot the name for it and having only one gender is the main feature.

I'll still like them over USB C cause they are mostly orientationally independent 

And what am I supposed to do with my male and female connectors?
I'm going to have to start using gender neutral or trans DB9 connectors?

Normally I would suggest that somebody says these things as a great prank joke.
But unfortunately there are people out there who take the idea seriously.

Naa, even these professionally offended guys will admit it that they aren't really serious about it.

I vote for

• "politician" and "elector"

I'd love that

This is just getting ridiculous. Really.

Even for people actively working against racism IMHO. They are just wasting their time (and everyone else's) while there are certainly valid causes to defend.
If anything, this is just getting non-activists irritated, which just works against their cause. I sometimes wonder if those people are not just sabotaging the cause actually while just trying to get some exposure.

As an extra thought specifically about this "word ban" approach: I suggest those people to read (or re-read) "1984". The idea of banning words from the language just for the sake of avoiding related thoughts to even form in peoples' heads is exactly what was described as "Newspeak".

"working for racism"? is there any racism left?

So I have a question:

For those of us who've been around for a while, when did it happen that people started with the attitude "the entire world has to worry about protecting MY feelings and NEVER do or say anything that might even slightly offend me"?

I mean, back in the old days it was "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me". Y'know, the kind of attitude that intelligent, grown up adults would try to take, and teach young kids about. Learn to deal with life and put it in perspective. But now it's all about "likes" and emotion and ego, not rationality. And apparently the worst thing you can do is to offend someone. WTF?   

Somehow we're supposed to know what might offend any of the 7.6 billion people on the planet. It's insane. Where have the adults gone? We're supposed to know (or care) what words offend any random person? WTF?

It must have been in the 80's or something. But it seems like now everyone has bought into the insanity.

We're doomed.   

EDIT: BTW, DrG, the "pimp/bitch" was hilarious. 

Again, cause we're paying them to be offended

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000jx41

All these protests about history. Well for the idiots information the problem only ever got worse but they don't care about that they just want to run around pulling statues down and erasing history because that will make today's problems go away.

Some say, they want their "evil" history to be forgotten. Others say, they want history to be repeated but with the race roles reversed. And say they are just goofing around like kids would if they were in grown up's body. Meanwhile I wonder what drugs, these people are on?

And what am I supposed to do with my male and female connectors?
I'm going to have to start using gender neutral or trans DB9 connectors?

Normally I would suggest that somebody says these things as a great prank joke.
But unfortunately there are people out there who take the idea seriously.

Call them Partner A and Partner B.

Aah, Usb, you were so great, until you weren't. Now everything is USB C but if you accidentally plug that usb c device into that usb c port, they will blow up.

our local council once decided to encourage more Indians to work for them to better represent the population of the town. I thought WTF? they can apply for office jobs at the council the same as anyone else. Positive discrimination is still discrimination. All you need to do in treat people equally. If positive discrimination carry's on for too long it becomes racism the other way around, so rather than trying to fix the so called problem in an instant you implement the solution, equal treatment.

Should sue em, unless that council in Indian :p then it's nothing but  swadeshi efforts.

Genuinely interested in what terms we should use in systems to replace MASTER/SLAVE?

What terminology are the big boys (Keysight/Tek etc..) using? What accurately conveys the relationship between equipment or parts of a system?

What about appropriating BDSM terminology, surely that won’t offend anyone – DOM/SUB? Or perhaps just change to MASTER/SERVANT.

Could black and white lists be changed to RED and GREEN, or do they have other meanings in computing?

Can we call black people dark browns instead?

Adafruit are replacing Master/Slave and other terms in all their documentation:
https://www.adafruit.com/blacklivesmatter

(Attachment Link)

Not surprised at all :p

Adafruit are replacing Master/Slave and other terms in all their documentation:

Got to say that in their case the alternative 'microcontroller out, sensor in' does make sense and is more descriptive. Of course, it's bollocks for the protocol proper, but since Adafruit generally make micro-controlled stuff this would no doubt save an entry in their FAQ.

What if you're using it to let 2 different micros talk and share info?

i have come across SPI stuff that uses DI and DO and it confused the hell out of me. I don't think it was written like that because of sensitivities but poor English and understanding of SPI along with the fact that the screen never returns data to the master.

me too. usually I remark em

I'm not into that "maker" subculture so I always judged Adafruit by the first three letters of their name alone and didn't even care to know anything more.

I kinda hate the name. "Lady Ada" is not even nearly as great as Ada Lovelace. If she can rename herself like that, call me Enstine

I'm still unsure of how much of a push there is from actual people of colour for this change, and therefore how much a of a need for it there is - but since it's so easy to do, and has some precedent in the community now

It's not "easy to do". There are generations of course material, datasheets, app notes, and tutorials etc, not to mention the countless teachers and engineers who don't give a rats arse about modern identity politics. Adafruit and a few others wouldn't even represent a fraction of a percent of the material and sentiment out there.
And not teaching the accepted industry standard terms is disadvantageous to any students.

Good luck trying to find a person who was actually a colored slave who also works with electronics.

Shouldn't we think of something better / more effective to help those people, than changing some words?

People like a nice easy thing so they can "do something" without actually having to do very much. There are many things that can be done to actually help people and prevent some of the situations people are upset about but the actions that are effective are not easy or fast. I'm reminded of the marches for breast cancer and such, it has never made sense to me, marching around does nothing to fight cancer, everyone is already aware so there's no need to raise awareness, and if you want to raise money why not do something useful/productive and donate the proceeds to an organization that actually researches cancer treatment? It's much simpler to just go join a march though and feel like you're making a difference.

[/quote]
I wonder how much money raised by them actually goes towards paying the scientists. And hasn't breast cancer problem, already over? It's on you to get yourself x-rayed/screened regularly (same as any other cancer).

After blocking comments on the article, Hackaday also deleted almost all of the 200+ comments on the facebook thread: https://www.facebook.com/hackaday.io/posts/3518305734849345
It's interesting that of the 200+ comments that were there, only 16 are left. The community has spoken, but the hackaday fascists want to impose their way denying free speech. They have no respect for people, but want people to respect their ideology.

Publishing on hackaday almost feels like a participation price when it's filled with posters like these-https://hackaday.io/frankm23
No quality screening at all.

[EEVblog]

And because there are people that will search for and find every word I say on this forum as "ammunition" against me, let me say for the record that I have no problem with individuals wanting this stuff and doing it themselves. The most you'll get from me is an eye roll, do whatever you want.
So it's ok for individuals on the board at places like OSWH association and the like to push for this personally. But I think it's a step too far to have organisations promote this, and bring identity and group politics into an organisation where there should not be any. And with quite antagonistic language at that.
Again, they are free to do that, but I think it's a big mistake. Group and identity politics just destroys everything it touches, and it never ends.
This is why I refuse to support this kind of thing, it's the principle of not allowing identity politics to infest engineering and create division and bad blood.
There are people, including fellow content creators who hate me for my stance on refusing to participate in identity politics. And some of them even want me "cancelled" as a result. Yet I don't hate them or have any ill will at all toward them for what position they hold on this, I don't care in fact, as long as it doesn't impact others. The animosity seems to flow all in one direction, from those demanding things, to those just rolling their eyes and wondering what the problem is.
Those opposing this are just saying it's silly to even consider it a problem, why bother, it achieves nothing. Yet they will get attacked and coerced into either complying or shutting up about it. I think this is highly disruptive and nothing but detrimental to relationships in the community, for practically zero value.
It makes me sad when people get so invested in this stuff that they are willing to attack people and destroy relationships over it. Again, usually it's all a one way street.

[Simon]

People want to look around and see things as they expect them to be. That means nothing different they have to adapt to, it's easier for them, fuck every one else who have to meet their demands. And they are demands! rude and arrogant ones an that. I find it worrying how the open bollocks association equate the use of the word slave to disrespecting people. So we basically can't say slave anywore, well that's fine, the open hardware bollocks association has just eliminated the existing crimes of slavery. All the people currently enslaved are not actually enslaved and there is nothing wrong with them because these assholes have just removed their status as slaves as they have unilaterally removed the word for the world. Police forces may now stand down and stop wasting money on freeing modern slaves because the problem has just gone away. I cannot find suitable words to describe these pricks!

It's no surprise that they locked their comments right after my post on their site reminding them of modern slavery, they are not different to any other oppressive organisation. In the name of freedom they have issued a new edict of oppression.

[EEVblog]

Sparkfun are leading the charge on this according to the hackaday article, yet they sell t-shirts with "Master" on them:
https://www.sparkfun.com/search/results?term=master

[Simon]

They think just talking about it will fix it. Actually changing everything is harder than they think. Just look at all the problems in comms standards out there but once out they are out, no going back.

[magic]

Oh wait, I do...The problem isn't that we aren't letting it change it...The problem is they are getting paid to create problems where there are none since all of them have already been solved.

No way that all of America's racism problems have been solved, dude.

The way American diversity is, I'm surprised why it hasn't fallen yet.

A dirty little secret of America is that merely 50 years ago they were over 80% white and christian.

"working for racism"? is there any racism left?

4chan.org
 

Meanwhile, most of the electronics are made in countries with real slavery specially China, they might try to hide it but they can't. Even in India, my neighbors own servants who serve them in exchange for using their land/building as a shelter (no salary). If it isn't slavery then what is it?

They don't get it, they don't know it, they don't care.

And slavery is not even the real problem, nazis are. If you have that sort of servants or if you earn a living by being some pimp or human trafficker, you clearly are doing it for the money, probably out of some difficult life circumstances and it's not your fault. We will give you Universal Basic Income and you will stop doing it (Or otherwise we will send you to a gulag, but only after all our systemic changes failed to reform you). The problem is the people who oppose social progress. What's their motivation? Why can't they see that our solutions are helpful and are needed? Why can't we build a SYSTEM where oppression doesn't make monetary sense or isn't even possible at all? Logic and science are on our side. Dunno man, but to me it looks like they might be closeted nazis, that's why. And remember: first they come for the blacks, then they come for us.

That's the state of young American leftists for you, in one paragraph. Or go to the orange forum and see identical posts from people who work at places like Google. And dead serious, unlike me.

[donotdespisethesnake]

It makes me sad when people get so invested in this stuff that they are willing to attack people and destroy relationships over it. Again, usually it's all a one way street.

I think that is a good point. Probably 99% of the responses to renaming master/slave have been negative. So they have united a community, but not in the way they wanted. Although one of the companies was already on my boycott list, I'll be adding the others.

I think the blogger here has a good take : https://pappp.net/?p=24661

Article note: The activist left's (which has, essentially, devolved into a continuous replay of the "Judean peoples front vs. People's Front Of Judea" Monty Python sketch while the actually-in-power capital class rides off with complete victory) tendency to respond to having to no real power by increasingly exercising petty power for media purges (more mud-mask == blackface purges in the feed today, lol), nomenclature battles, and personal harassment, is undermining their ability to ever attain any real power with their bullshit. I don't much care either way about this and the dozen other recent "Master/Slave can only be understood the light of U.S. History" linguistic manipulation stories, but I'd like to live in a country with a functioning healthcare system and infrastructure, and that will require some consolidated power on the left. Social movements live and die on their ability to demonstrate power and restraint, and this shit is demonstrating the lack of both, at a time when all you need to do to be the responsible adult is not be an _obvious_ petty jackass.

To change things you need to be in power, and this sort of radical nonsense alienates voters. Meanwhile the rich stay in power, and because social mobility is so low, the poor and POC alike are stuck at the bottom.

Sure, companies will whitewash their marketing [if that word is still allowed?], but in practice try to avoid controversial topics, and behind the scenes enact no real change.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/vice-urges-advertisers-stop-blocking-black-lives-matter-related-keywords-n1232103

In one instance, an ad agency “representing a large entertainment corporation” sent Vice a blocklist that included “Black people” and “Black Lives Matter,” according to Cooke. She didn’t identify the company but said “it was sent the very same week that the corporation issued a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.”

[magic]

I think that is a good point. Probably 99% of the responses to renaming master/slave have been negative.

You see what you want to see.
The Hackaday comments section linked a few days ago is like a 50:50 back-and-forth between the two camps.

To change things you need to be in power, and this sort of radical nonsense alienates voters.

Don't worry about politicians finding voters. That's what they do for a living. See the point above

edit
Just to have some numbers, the first twenty names that appear in Hackaday comments, default sorting order (chronologically?) for me at the moment:

9 against the resolution:
Vexar, Jan Ciger, fonz, everlastingphelps, Will, Luke, Alex Rossie, a Jaded Hobo, Ren

8 in favor of the resolution:
mark, Chris Combs, the_3d6, sid1950, Andy Clark, Sykobee, Mike Szczys, Duckula

3 not clear:
Dennis (maybe in favor)
J (a truly Zen nitpicker)
Kyle K (not sure)

[donotdespisethesnake]

You see what you want to see.
The Hackaday comments section linked a few days ago is like a 50:50 back-and-forth between the two camps.

I know you are trolling, but you need to try harder. Why do you bother with this shit? You don't fool anyone.

A lot of negative comments were deleted, before the thread was locked. Most of the pro comments were from a few vocal supporters, a lot of the negative ones a single post like "this is stupid". It's a similar picture on other sites. Your stats are BS. You are a troll.

[Zero999]

More irony...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53245501

The head of human resources at sportswear giant Adidas has resigned amid a row over the firm's corporate culture and lack of diversity.

Karen Parkin is a British citizen who had worked at Adidas for more than 20 years.

Her exit follows protests by Adidas staff over a comment she reportedly made at an internal meeting last year.
...
Ms Parkin, who is leaving the role with immediate effect, was the only woman on the company's board.

Her resignation means that the company's executive board is now made up entirely of white men. Adidas has previously said that it would take action to address issues of diversity and inclusion.

Shoot the messenger, but still no real change.

It gets worse.

The company has promised to ensure that at least 30% of its new employees in America will come from black or Latino backgrounds.

It also set a target of those groups filling 12% of its US leadership roles within five years.

When the quota system is introduced, it would be perfectly understandable for colleagues to believe that every new black or Latino employee only got the job to meet the target. What an excellant way to promote respect for ethnic minorities in the workforce. 

I'm fortunate to work in a company who's ethnic diversity fairly closely represents the local area. There are a good number of South Asians where I work, but perhaps Afro-Caribbean is slightly under represented, but I wouldn't think anything of it if someone of that background where hired and no one would treat them any differently. Now if the managers decided to set quotas, this would inevitably change, especially if a useless person of the targetted ethnicity gets the job.

[xrunner]

Just saw this reading news -

JPMorgan drops terms 'master,' 'slave' from internal tech code and materials

Reuters - 6:48 PM ET 7/2/2020

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM ) is eliminating terms like "blacklist," "master" and "slave" from its internal technology materials and code as it seeks to address racism within the company, said two sources with knowledge of the move.

The terms had appeared in some of the bank's technology policies, standards and control procedures, as well in the programming code that runs some of its processes, one of the sources said.

Other companies like Twitter Inc and GitHub Inc adopted similar changes, prompted by the renewed spotlight on racism after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis in May. https://twitter.com/TwitterEng/status/1278733303508418560

The phrases "master" and "slave" code or drive are used in some programming languages and computer hardware to describe one part of a device or process that controls another.

"Blacklist" is used to describe items that are automatically denied, like a list of websites forbidden by a company's cybersecurity division. "Whitelist" means the opposite - a list of items automatically approved.

Floyd's death has sparked a re-examination of words that might carry racial overtones. For example, some realtors are no longer using the term "master bedroom," and Universal Music Group's Republic Records stopped using the word "urban" to describe music genres and internal departments or roles.

JPMorgan ( JPM ) appears to be the first in the financial sector to remove most references to these racially problematic phrases, and it comes after the bank has said it is taking other steps to promote Black professionals and anti-bias culture training for staff.

Columbia Business School programming professor Mattan Griffel said such terms have long been controversial and can be difficult to change.

The technology that underpins bank operations is often a spaghetti-like mess that results from merged companies, decades-old code and third-party systems, and any change can have cascading effects that are difficult to predict, Griffel said.

Changing these terms within the bank's code could take millions of dollars and months of work, Griffel said.

"This is not a trivial" investment by the bank, Griffel said. "This kind of language and terminology is so entrenched. It has to (change) and now is as good a time as any."

https://www.fidelity.com/news/article/top-news/202007021839RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_KBN2433E4-OUSBS_1

[PlainName]

I wonder what the next bandwagon will be du jour will be.

[SilverSolder]

Just saw this reading news -

JPMorgan drops terms 'master,' 'slave' from internal tech code and materials

Reuters - 6:48 PM ET 7/2/2020

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co ( JPM ) is eliminating terms like "blacklist," "master" and "slave" from its internal technology materials and code as it seeks to address racism within the company, said two sources with knowledge of the move.

The terms had appeared in some of the bank's technology policies, standards and control procedures, as well in the programming code that runs some of its processes, one of the sources said.

Other companies like Twitter Inc and GitHub Inc adopted similar changes, prompted by the renewed spotlight on racism after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis in May. https://twitter.com/TwitterEng/status/1278733303508418560

The phrases "master" and "slave" code or drive are used in some programming languages and computer hardware to describe one part of a device or process that controls another.

"Blacklist" is used to describe items that are automatically denied, like a list of websites forbidden by a company's cybersecurity division. "Whitelist" means the opposite - a list of items automatically approved.

Floyd's death has sparked a re-examination of words that might carry racial overtones. For example, some realtors are no longer using the term "master bedroom," and Universal Music Group's Republic Records stopped using the word "urban" to describe music genres and internal departments or roles.

JPMorgan ( JPM ) appears to be the first in the financial sector to remove most references to these racially problematic phrases, and it comes after the bank has said it is taking other steps to promote Black professionals and anti-bias culture training for staff.

Columbia Business School programming professor Mattan Griffel said such terms have long been controversial and can be difficult to change.

The technology that underpins bank operations is often a spaghetti-like mess that results from merged companies, decades-old code and third-party systems, and any change can have cascading effects that are difficult to predict, Griffel said.

Changing these terms within the bank's code could take millions of dollars and months of work, Griffel said.

"This is not a trivial" investment by the bank, Griffel said. "This kind of language and terminology is so entrenched. It has to (change) and now is as good a time as any."

https://www.fidelity.com/news/article/top-news/202007021839RTRSNEWSCOMBINED_KBN2433E4-OUSBS_1

Jesus wept.  Millions of dollars and tons of work, without helping a single black man, woman, or child in need.