3 ms·

Ignorance about names doesn't support an accusation of any kind of prejudice, much less racial (not cultural) prejudice. I am glad EFF knows better than to misu

Ignorance about names doesn't support an accusation of any kind of prejudice, much less racial (not cultural) prejudice. I am glad EFF knows better than to misuse a word that would have people stop taking them seriously due to gratuitous KKK/Nazi undertones.

ahelwer 12y ago
To define identity in such a way that it rejects something as fundamental to a culture as names is certainly racist against that culture. I'm curious what you would call it instead. I'm sure you can understand on your own why saying something is racist is not literally the same as comparing it to the KKK/Nazis, so I won't delve further into that topic.
- prodigal_erik 12y ago
  There is no word for prejudice against a culture because we don't have the same consensus that's axiomatically evil. And if we did the developers would not be guilty of it. The policy is insensitive, capricious, heavy-handed, and stupid, but it's not driven by developers' opinions about native american bloodlines or even names. Calling it "racism" is an accusation of a uniquely dangerous kind of malevolent prejudice.
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    There is no distinct word for prejudice against a culture, because ethnicities (which are cultures) and races (which are culturally imposed constructs, though they are portrayed as biological distinctions) are often treated interchangeably, so prejudice against cultures (especially in the form of ethnicity) are generally described as racism. For instance anti-Hispanic bigotry is usually described as racism, though "Hispanic" describes an ethnicity -- that is, a culture -- not a race.
  - ahelwer 12y ago
    The developers are not racist. My entire original point is their attitudes and intents were irrelevant. The system they created is very much racist, completely independent about how they felt in creating it; I'm not sure how you can really dispute that. The venerable Jay Smooth describes a closely-related distinction here[0]. Also, when you describe a system as racist that's somewhat different from describing a person as racist, which might be a place we're talking past each other. Re: the culture/race/ethnicity terminology quagmire, the sister comment by dragonwriter explains it well. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc

ahelwer 12y ago

To define identity in such a way that it rejects something as fundamental to a culture as names is certainly racist against that culture. I'm curious what you would call it instead. I'm sure you can understand on your own why saying something is racist is not literally the same as comparing it to the KKK/Nazis, so I won't delve further into that topic.

prodigal_erik 12y ago
There is no word for prejudice against a culture because we don't have the same consensus that's axiomatically evil. And if we did the developers would not be guilty of it. The policy is insensitive, capricious, heavy-handed, and stupid, but it's not driven by developers' opinions about native american bloodlines or even names. Calling it "racism" is an accusation of a uniquely dangerous kind of malevolent prejudice.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  There is no distinct word for prejudice against a culture, because ethnicities (which are cultures) and races (which are culturally imposed constructs, though they are portrayed as biological distinctions) are often treated interchangeably, so prejudice against cultures (especially in the form of ethnicity) are generally described as racism. For instance anti-Hispanic bigotry is usually described as racism, though "Hispanic" describes an ethnicity -- that is, a culture -- not a race.
- ahelwer 12y ago
  The developers are not racist. My entire original point is their attitudes and intents were irrelevant. The system they created is very much racist, completely independent about how they felt in creating it; I'm not sure how you can really dispute that. The venerable Jay Smooth describes a closely-related distinction here[0]. Also, when you describe a system as racist that's somewhat different from describing a person as racist, which might be a place we're talking past each other. Re: the culture/race/ethnicity terminology quagmire, the sister comment by dragonwriter explains it well. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Ti-gkJiXc