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So what about dark skinned Americans calling themselves anti-blacks? Or perhaps feminists calling themselves anti-women? It promotes a point of view that is inc

So what about dark skinned Americans calling themselves anti-blacks? Or perhaps feminists calling themselves anti-women? It promotes a point of view that is incorrect. Just because someone uses a lock pick to break into a home does not make all locksmiths criminals. I think using the term "anti hacker" in place of "white hat hacker" is indicative that a "hacker" is bad when in fact the "anti-hacker" is a "hacker".

dragonwriter 12y ago
> So what about dark skinned Americans calling themselves anti-blacks? That would often be true, though not in a way analogous to the topic under discussion. Blacks aren't the only darker-skinned people in America, and Black vs. White isn't the only divide along which racism occurs in America.
jakobegger 12y ago
You are missing my point. The issue is that there are two different meanings of the word hacker. Nobody disputes the meaning of "woman" or "black". To the general public, a hacker is someone who breaks into a computer system with bad intentions. We are offended because the general public doesn't understand that we mean something different with the term "hacker". I'm suggesting to just adopt the meaning of the word that the general public uses, especially when talking to the general public. This way we can avoid misunderstandings. However, it would be even better to just use more specific terms. "Hacker" is such a catch-all term with different meanings for everyone. For example: If someone performs an elaborate practical joke, call them a "prankster" instead of "hacker". When you talk about a lab with a bunch of 3D printers, call it a "makerspace" instead of "hackerspace". And when you quote someone about the latest vulnerabilities in OpenSSL, just call them a "security expert". No one will be offended, everyone will understand what you are trying to say, problem solved. But I understand that many hackers like to call themselves hackers, and they like the secretive-undergroundish tone that comes with it, and they will continue to use it and they'll continue to be offended when mainstream media use the term in a different way.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > Nobody disputes the meaning of "woman" or "black". Well, except that the meanings of both "woman" and "black" are very much debated. In both cases, the main debate is between personal self-identification and some form of externally imposed, notionally objective rule (for "woman" gender identity versus various definitions of "biological sex" [in quotes because while they are various biological sex-related features, they don't all actually necessarily line up with each other], for "black" racial identity versus external ancestry-based criteria like the "one-drop rule".)

dragonwriter 12y ago

> So what about dark skinned Americans calling themselves anti-blacks? That would often be true, though not in a way analogous to the topic under discussion. Blacks aren't the only darker-skinned people in America, and Black vs. White isn't the only divide along which racism occurs in America.

jakobegger 12y ago

You are missing my point. The issue is that there are two different meanings of the word hacker. Nobody disputes the meaning of "woman" or "black". To the general public, a hacker is someone who breaks into a computer system with bad intentions. We are offended because the general public doesn't understand that we mean something different with the term "hacker". I'm suggesting to just adopt the meaning of the word that the general public uses, especially when talking to the general public. This way we can avoid misunderstandings. However, it would be even better to just use more specific terms. "Hacker" is such a catch-all term with different meanings for everyone. For example: If someone performs an elaborate practical joke, call them a "prankster" instead of "hacker". When you talk about a lab with a bunch of 3D printers, call it a "makerspace" instead of "hackerspace". And when you quote someone about the latest vulnerabilities in OpenSSL, just call them a "security expert". No one will be offended, everyone will understand what you are trying to say, problem solved. But I understand that many hackers like to call themselves hackers, and they like the secretive-undergroundish tone that comes with it, and they will continue to use it and they'll continue to be offended when mainstream media use the term in a different way.

dragonwriter 12y ago
> Nobody disputes the meaning of "woman" or "black". Well, except that the meanings of both "woman" and "black" are very much debated. In both cases, the main debate is between personal self-identification and some form of externally imposed, notionally objective rule (for "woman" gender identity versus various definitions of "biological sex" [in quotes because while they are various biological sex-related features, they don't all actually necessarily line up with each other], for "black" racial identity versus external ancestry-based criteria like the "one-drop rule".)