Feb 15, 2022. Updated: Jul 20, 2023.

Software Language Cleanup Movement

The software language cleanup movement aims to remove words such as "master" and "blacklist" from the software development industry because these words are perceived to be offensive, especially to the black folk.

Take as an example the endeavour to remove the word "blacklist" and replace it with "exclusion" or similar meaning words, because "blacklist" is perceived to be offensive to the black people. But the word has its etymological origins from the black book¹ that was used to list persons of interests mostly comprising of white people — note the irony.

Another example is the renaming of the "master" branch in Git to "main" because "master" supposedly has a master-slave connotation and this is perceived to offend the blacks. However, Git branches do not act as master-slaves; and "master" branch simply means the canonical source² from where new branches or copies are made. Git developers themselves³ have clarified that the word master refers to the main software repository.

It seems a possible interpretation of the word is why it is considered to be offensive, and this is strange because we are now subjecting the choice of words to a subjective metric. The offensiveness is a problem with one's perception, not with the word itself. Secondly, it is possible that we can perceive a word to be offensive based on any anchor (or incidents) — even person anchors. And so, it comes to a point where any word can be deemed as offensive. However, it is not practical to avoid these many words from an established and widely used language like English.

Anyone who gets offended by a word or name with no offensive connotation, but simply because of a possible interpretation, needs therapy to relieve themselves of their insanity. And I mean it. Such irrational hypersensitivity require therapy.

On the other hand, if these words themselves are the problem irrespective the connotation carried, we have a bigger problem because we are to stop using words such as "black belt" in martial arts, "masterpiece" as an adjective, "master recording" in music, "masters" for post graduation programs; or stop calling our teachers "masters"; or use the colour "black" in everyday lives. They could even ask us to not close our eyes because we see black. Are we to ban the blind because they always see black and blackness is offensive?

Therefore, I say to those in charge of such clean ups movements that if you implement such irrational changes for the sake of "inclusiveness" or "welcoming culture", you will be making it worse for all of them by nurturing their insanity, hyper sensitivity and their sense of victimhood, until they are consumed by these very conditions. So be sensible — if not for the lack of logic in such changes, at least for the sake of the very people who you are trying to include.

Furthermore, if anyone wants to remove the very idea of masters and slaves from a common language simply because they don't like that relationship, may they understand that it is impossible. Words evolved to refer to something and removing them will not eliminate what the words refer to; new words will replace them. If they however think that they can reduce their usage by such idiotic arguments and movement, please note that the retaliation would ensure that these words will be in active use.

Git has settled on giving an option to change the default branch name. While this feature is great because it allows developers to rename their primary branch as per their development workflow, this feature must have come as part of value proposition, not as part of some idiotic emotional rhetoric. Also, the default branch name must remain master for the simple reason that it is the most semantically correct word for a "canonical source" from where copies are made.

There are exemplary groups that these hyper sensitive souls can learn from; such as us Indians, who have been colonised and treated pretty much as an economic slave by the Britishers for about 200 years. Yet, we hold no grudge against today's Britishers, or campaign for the removing of any mentions of British or English from our school curriculum, or the destruction of British architecture in our country⁴ saying that they remind us of our economic and political slavery.