
Python: Commit removing White Supremacy relics - mtnsaoeu
https://github.com/python/peps/commit/0c6427dcec1e98ca0bd46a876a7219ee4a9347f4
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gnusty_gnurc
Standard English is a Language of Wider Communication. This "centering
whiteness" discourse is absurdity.

There's no evidence that there's actual people "uncomfortable" about Strunk
and White being mentioned - aside from (in my experience) rich, liberal,
urbane whites projecting and trying to speak on behalf of minorities, treating
them as helpless, incapable of speaking in ubiquitous ways.

~~~
nabla9
> aside from (in my experience) rich, liberal, urbane whites

You cast too wide net. This is basically one young person or maybe small
groups of young people trying to better the world.

It's funny, but their intention is good.

~~~
gnusty_gnurc
It's a majority of the people I run into around the NYC area.

Puritanical Brooklyn gentrifier is the term I've settled on.

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coldtea
> _This accomplishes the same goal without upholding relics of white
> supremacy_

Modern 'murica for you. Can't help but make everything about some BS
ideology...

Not to mention the condescension (by the white dev who changed this) that
writing "standard english" somehow implies it is for whites only. Perhaps the
person thinks people of colour are not up to such a task?

And let's not get that this person only has a single commit (and it's this
one).

Of course in the current climate anybody saying anything about the inanity of
this would be quickly labeled a racist... (and no, I'm not a WASP, or even
American, and not even 100% white).

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nabla9
This is the very definition of bikeshedding.

Firstly, nobody enforces the rules in python documentation (as Guido says in
the comments) so it's moot point.

Secondly, Is there any advice in Strunk & White Standard English that is not
good advice in any other dialect of English? The book contains very generic
advice of style. I think that's good advice in all dialects and even in other
languages.

The book also has "Matters of Form" where the attempt is to standardize some
most basic things. Using standard, any standard, is IMHO good thing for
readability. I don't think there is anything 'white' in there but maybe
someone can point it out because I can't see it.

I think Strunk & White is recommended and popular because it's so basic and
universal. If you want to give absolute minimal advice, Strunk & White seems
good. It's even online.

[http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan/style-
revised.html](http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan/style-revised.html)

------
mtnsaoeu
> The Python Steering Council discussed this and we agree that even if it was
> easy to edit post-merge we would still leave the message as-is; we do not
> deplore the message.

> We also agree that commit messages are meant to convey the reasons why a
> change was made.

> We can't say whether we would have halted, edited, or done anything else to
> change the submission of the commit message.

[https://github.com/python/steering-
council/issues/34#issueco...](https://github.com/python/steering-
council/issues/34#issuecomment-675028005)

------
mtnsaoeu
Can somebody explain why this submission was flagged ? TYIA

------
twelloapi
Strunk and White are authors. The "white" in the initial commit is not
referring to "white" in the sense of the race. Its an authors name who wrote a
book on English grammar.

~~~
mytailorisrich
I don't think that they got confused by "White".

I think that their point is that requiring "standard English" as described in
Strunk & White is discriminatory and perpetuates "white supremacy".

This is beyond ridiculous, but here we are...

Edit:

Yes, there are many dialect of English, and there are even more people who do
not speak English as their first language (a fact that seems to have
completely eluded the author of that commit).

Requiring the use of standard English is the complete opposite of what the
author claims. It promotes inclusiveness because it ensures that the text is
'standard', which means it can be understood by everyone or easily looked up
in an English textbook or dictionary.

