Re: Rename offensive terminology (master)

From: Don Goodman-Wilson <don@goodman-wilson.com>
Date: Jun 14, 2020, 06:32 UTC
Message-ID: <CAGA3LAeXzYokcpU8RnFdF7N5vC-geOdJSY5_Mjc-yssvbpjmgw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <0dd6b6c2-4ea4-498d-4481-7f65988db293@gmail.com>

I am an American living in Europe. Let me offer an analogy. Like all analogies, this one is imperfect, but I think it will serve to make my point.

As an American, I don't understand French humor. It's simply beyond me. I've had it explained to me numerous times, but of course explaining a joke can't impart its inherent humor. But none of this should come as a surprise to anyone, as humor is a deeply cultural artifact, something that can only truly be understood by those raised within that culture. Even so, we can all appreciate the concept of humor generally. More to the point, I certainly don't go around denying that French humor exists, on the basis that I don't get it.

In the same way, something I've learned living in Europe is that many (if not most) non-native English speakers realize just how explosive certain English locutions can be to American native speakers. That's totally understanable as, like French humor, you have to have been raised in the culture to really understand that fact. Like humor, we all have a sense of what offensiveness means, and like humor, this explosive content is a deeply cultural artifact, something that can only truly be understood by those raised within that culture. The visceral feeling of explosive content will probably always be beyond grasping, just as French humor will probably never make me laugh.

But to deny that explosive content on the basis that you don't personally feel it, that you've never experienced it? To claim that it is "meaningless", that some people are "perpetually offended"? That's willful ignorance on your part, a bad-faith effort to engage in serious intellectual conversation about what is good and right, and has no place in a discussion about creating an inclusive space for all developers, let alone trying to bring about a more just world.

Don Goodman-Wilson

On Sun, Jun 14, 2020 at 2:50 AM Sérgio Augusto Vianna <sergio.a.vianna@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

>
> Then why create all this disruption by changing the default from master
> to "main" if you will offer a feature to set the default on creation?
> Americans were discussing trump's tiny hands last week and will have
> moved on to any other meaningless subject the next one. You can
> literally never please the perpetually offended. Taking this kind of
> slacktivism and creating problems for other people is a disgusting level
> of entitlement that only americans display. You really care about
> others? Remember there's other countries in the world.
>