3 ms·

This is "retarded" all over again. Slavery in humans is bad. Slavery in software applications it not.

• taylorfinley 8y ago
  At a family dinner I once jokingly described my gluten-free girlfriend as "glutarded," which was our inside joke way to refer to her dietary restrictions. I forgot that my aunt's husband, who has some congenital language issues that leave him with a speech impediment, had grown up being bullied and called 'retard,' until he gasped when he heard my words. I felt horrible, and have since been more conscious with my words. I share this story here because I think it points to a similar issue--the tech world is often a homogenous environment without much representation for African Americans. Can you imagine walking into a classroom full of African American students and casually throwing around the phrase "master and slave" without evoking discomfort in that audience? If we continue to use this language comfortably it implies to me that we aren't inviting to the table the community for whom slavery is still very much an open wound.
  • reaperducer 8y ago
    You seem to be under the impression that black people imported to America were history's only slaves. Good luck finding a country with people of any color that hasn't experienced some level of slavery.
    • paulgb 8y ago
      No part of taylorfinley's argument implies or requires that the American/African slave trade was the only ever instance of slavery.
  • m1sta_ 8y ago
    The focus should be on building environments where those pasts can be discussed and the sounds healed. I can absolutely imagine correctly using the terms master and slave in an environment where some of the people have a darker skin tone than I have. Correct use of words is important if those words have been misused in the past.