I do think dropping master is absurd, since it in no way implies slavery or any such thing. master mostly has uses that are entirely inoffensive, unless post-graduate degrees are racist, for example.

But I do think there is some merit in moving off the idea of white is good and black is bad. There are some good arguments that we shouldn't bestow magic powers upon words, but there is also a lot of merit in the idea that these words affect our perception in negative ways and there is really nothing lost by shifting to equally good alternatives.

[–] Kir@feddit.it 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The idea of "black list" has nothing to do with black people, to my understending

[–] whatsarefoogee@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It does to people who are absolutely obsessed with race and see it everywhere they look.

[–] gornar@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

If the terms were reversed, you might think differently! We're not always aware of our own bias, but we can strive to examine how we think about things instead of making snap judgements

[–] sping@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That's not the issue. The issue is inherently seeing white as meaning good and black as meaning bad.

[–] Kir@feddit.it 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This has absolutely nothing to do with racial features.

[–] The_Infinite_Monkey@lemdit.com 2 points 2 years ago

I don’t think you understand the pervasiveness of racial animosity.

[–] clehaxze@reddthat.com 1 points 2 years ago

Maybe it's my culture. I think of master as the "master of kung-fu/art/sword/". Something or someone that have earned respect and is at the core of it's field.

[–] lemann@lemmy.one 1 points 2 years ago

unless post-graduate degrees are racist

this gave me a good laugh

[–] Kushan@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

In the wider context of computing and technology, "master" has historically often been paired with "slave" as well, such as old IDE hard drives that had to be switched from master to slave depending on which cable they were plugged into on which port of the motherboard. I realise that's a bit of an odd example, but there are numerous ones.

Anyway, while I don't think many people have ever used a branch name of slave, it's entirely feasible to argue that any branch that isn't master is in some way subservient to it as opposed to the master branch being the most experienced. The point isn't to debate that the way you view it is incorrect, your view is entirely reasonable and rational but in order to be inclusive we should take all other views into account and in a very simple way, rather than debate the meaning of the word master in this specific context and telling people that they're "wrong" for feeling a certain way about it, it's easy to change the word and thanks to the excellent design of git, there isn't really any downsides to it.