On Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 12:02 PM Matthew Miller <mattdm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 07:47:10AM -0500, Richard Shaw wrote: > > "...it is a good-evil metaphor and therefore entirely based in racism." > > > > Right there the writer directly connects good/evil with race without > > further justification and I don't think it is justifiable. > > I think part of this disconnect is due to a difference in how people use the > word "racist". Specifically, there is a narrow definition where racism is > specific, overt prejudice or negative action based primarily on race. But > people also use it in a broader sense, with a focus on the -ism. That is, as > a system. Without even getting into facts or beliefs about racism as this > larger social construct, just simply people talking past each other causes a > lot of stress when I think actually common ground could be found. > > It's easy to read the above as referring to the first, and basically an > individual call-out saying, effectively, "if you've ever used 'black and > white' as a metaphor for negative and positive, you are clearly a bad person, > a racist". But it can also simply mean: the association of black and white > with negative and positive is intractably linked with social constructs that > perpetuate racial injustice. > > Now, you might disagree with the latter. But I hope it wouldn't make you > personally upset. And, I think there's compelling reasons to believe that, > regardless of any original intentions, it's time to move on from this > particular analogy, especially in tech where we have lots of other > expressive ways to describe the same concepts more clearly and directly. Well said. We don't want to ascribe ill intent to how these terms came about, or to people using them. We simply have an opportunity to make an incremental improvement in our overall inclusivity at trivial or no cost, and should take it. -- Paul _______________________________________________ Fedora Magazine mailing list -- magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to magazine-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/magazine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
