For me, there are two priorities: get rid of any use of “slave”, and any use in a negative context. Blackbox testing doesn’t have negative connotations and it’s not contrasted with a better white counterpart, unlike blacklist/whitelist. Similarly, the degree below masters isn’t named black and a karate black belt is respected.
How do you feel about the term, "Blackbody"? E.g. Blackbody radiation.
Master's degree implies a superiority to the lower degrees, clearly establishing a dominance hierarchy. Is that much different from the master/slave terminology? Or is it just the use of the word "Master" combined with the word "Slave" which is the problem?
Master as in “master’s degree” is from a Latin word meaning teacher, and it’s the same root for mastery. I think most of the concern about tech usage comes from introducing the term “slave”, either directly in a pair or, as with Git, deriving from that usage. It’s that specific pairing along with the technical inaccuracy which makes master/slave considerably more likely to offend, in my opinion. If someone came to me and said, however, that they didn’t like the term and wanted to change it I wouldn’t object because it costs me so very little to be respectful of the fact that not everyone comes from the same place.
Blackbody radiation, black hole, etc. similarly doesn’t have the same pairing as you get with white/black-list - it’s a physical phenomena, not a problem. The concern isn’t using the word black but using it in a context which reminds the reader of racist use of the same words in other contexts.
Thank you for your good-faith replies! I'm trying to understand other perspectives on this topic.
On the use of "blackbody" - I'm sure some people with little or no background in physics would certainly take offense to it. It may be a physical phenomena but it was still named by fallible, biased humans - it shouldn't be exempt right? Surely you don't need a "white" version for a term to be problematic?
"Blackbody" seems as problematic as "blacklist" to me because the term it's paired with (radiation) has a very negative colloquial connotation (nuclear war, cancer, etc). Thoughts?
It's funny how "Blackbody" and "blacklist" can be seen as a problem, without ever questioning the application of black and white to people, who are normally neither black nor white. I suppose "coloured" was intended to remedy this, but it's fallen out of favour.
FYI - blackness has always had negative connotations in the same way darkness has: it's associated with the night, and not being able to see. I'm sure these sentiments are universal, and existed in the west before the influence of race.
These things are decided on a case by case basis by the people who implement them and no one will force you to replace all use of the word white or black with different words. You cannot be serious if you think this will meaningfully affect your life in a harmful way.
I’ve never heard those used in a context of one being good and the other bad, only being different tools. It seems far less likely to cause concern without a value judgement.
