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The term 'Hacker' is a lot like the n-word. It's okay when we call each other hacker, but when someone outside our community does it, we get offended. It's tim

• jimmaswell 12y ago
  Ironic how you're on Hacker News
  • jamra 12y ago
    It's not ironic at all. Nor is it hypocritical. Going to a news site called Hacker news is not the same thing as defending a word that has been misconstrued and then absorbed by the general public to mean something entirely different. The more you defend the word, the more you separate yourself from general society.
• elangoc 12y ago
  The n-word is the modern legacy of a history of 400 years of racism and enslavement. Its modern usage originates from using the word to reinforce the same economic and social oppression. That context exists for the n-word beyond your 'baseline' racial epithet. 'Hacker' is different because it's a term that originated with a somewhat positive connotation within and by a community, and got misinterpreted negatively later by the outside. Yes, the duality in assigning meaning to 'hacker' internally/externally does share some similarity with a group/race-based slur that has been 're-claimed', but obviously not entirely. The n-word seems like a particularly bad choice of example, though.
  • jamra 12y ago
    I was making a parallel between using a word within a community when that word has a different meaning from outside the community. The exclusion that comes from using the word is the only point I was trying to make. I was hoping that the history and origin of the word would not create some kind of epithet of racism. The discussion of something related to race is not racism in and of itself just the same as the discussion of feminism is not misogynistic.