The death of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter public protests have had a huge knock-on effect on all sorts of business, industries, traditions and lifestyles. What many people around the world have wanted to change is the everyday language we use. Specifically speaking, people want terms that can be deemed to be racially offensive to be replaced by terms that don’t have the same negative connotations. Linus Torvalds, Linux’s creator, has looked at the language used by Linux developers and highlighted some terms that, in 2020 and going forward, can be seen as offensive to people of colour.
Neutralising Language
There are several terms in particular that have been determined to be problematic: master/slave and blacklist/whitelist. In the software and technology world, these terms aren’t meant to be offen-sive, but obviously if you look at their more general meaning, it’s easy to see how the base meaning of these terms can be interpreted as being racially offensive. The terms ‘master’ and ‘slave’ obvi-ously have connections to the slave trade; as for ‘blacklist’ and ‘whitelist’, the former refers to a list of things that are unacceptable, while the latter refers to a list of things that are acceptable.
Back in July, developers at Linux were asked to stop using the terms master/slave and black-list/whitelist and instead use replacement terms from a list of options. The options for master/slave are:
controller/device
director/performer
host/worker or proxy
initiator/target
leader/follower
main/replica or subordinate
primary/secondary
requestor/responder
Alternatives for blacklist/whitelist are as follows:
- denylist/allowlist
- blocklist/passlist
Using the New Terms
Developers are free to use any of the terms in the new lists. These updated terms are being used for the Linux kernel’s new source code, as well as for any new documentation associated with the kernel. As for the older, original terms, they’re effectively being phased out. However, they are still allowed only in certain circumstances: for example, when updating coding for a protocol or piece of hardware that specifically mandates those terms, or when maintaining documentation or coding that used those terms. Even though the original terminology, now deemed offensive, is still techni-cally being used, it’s usage is as minimal as can be right now. It seems that Linux developers hope that they can get rid of these terms altogether and never have to use them ever again, but because these terms have been employed in the past, they still have to be used again to some degree in certain scenarios. Developers will, of course, be using the new terms on a day-to-day basis.
The Reason for the Changes
The team at Linux have proactively gone about adapting the language they use in order not to upset or offend people of colour. By erasing terms with negative racial connotations and replacing them with neutral, inoffensive terms, it’s hoped that people who may have been put off by the older terms will become more likely to use Linux and look upon it favourably.
If Linux decided not to change the older terms and continued to use them, it would likely face criti-cism and pressure to introduce changes. If Linux kept these terms in use, there’s a good chance that more and more people would view the operating system negatively and actively avoid using it. While people of colour who could be directly offended by the old terms might decide to boycott Linux, people not of colour could well decide to boycott it too in solidarity with those who feel mar-ginalised.
Is This Enough?
Linux isn’t the only software/technology organisation to have reviewed the language it uses. Many others, such as Twitter and Microsoft, have decided that certain terms aren’t appropriate any more and have come up with replacements to be used instead. While the move to improve language used in coding and documentation has been praised by some, it’s been criticised by others. Critics have argued that it’s simply not enough and that it’s just being done so that Linux can loo good - it’s an example of virtue signalling. They’ve also mentioned that changing a few terms isn’t going to help combat systemic racism in the long-term and that organisations such as Linux should be doing a lot more.
Whatever your thoughts on this matter are, the fact remains that the team at Linux have been re-sponding to the events of 2020 and have gone about making changes to improve inclusivity. Whether any further changes will be made at Linux remains to be seen.
