A step-by-step guide for your company's Git master to main migration
blog.b12.ioI personally don’t care about this change (name your branches whatever the fuck you want), but I do care about flawed arguments.
> The terms we pick for our tools matter, and our current default branch name of master is problematic. The word master is too closely related to the word slave
I’ve heard this argument now several times and I’m still confused.
There are several definitions for the word master. The one that seems most appropo for source code management is:
> an original movie, recording, or document from which copies can be made
I don’t see how that one carries any kind of connotation of slavery.
I’ve heard a similar line of reasoning for blacklist/whitelist because “our culture has a connotation of black = bad, white = good” ignoring that that connotation isn’t racial and is cross-cultural. Black sheep are undesirable because you can’t dye their wool. The term blackball is referring to a historical voting practice that had nothing to do with race (and likely where blacklist comes from with whitelist naturally coming many years later).
Can someone please provide a logically valid argument here based on facts? I’m eager to educate myself.
Sadly it goes like this: 1) I see a word and it hurts my feelings 2) anything that hurts my feelings does me harm 3) we must prevent harm wherever possible 4) therefore you cannot say that word
Any question of how much harm is actually done, and whether that much harm is worth restricting speech, is never addressed. If you disagree you are called a bigot/homophobe /whatever who is silencing the voices of persons of color/gender/whatever and creating an unsafe environment. So you must lose your job and be cast out.
> Can someone please provide a logically valid argument here based on facts?
I don't think there is one. This push is entirely about ignoring context. The exact same misunderstanding is going through the Magic: The Gathering card game right now:
The five colors of magic are Black, White, Blue, Red, Green. Each is associated with a location (swamp, plains, island, mountain, forest) and have general themes strongly associated with them (corruption/death, order, knowledge/manipulation, destruction, life). Note how none of these have anything to do with race... except several cards have now been deemed racist because "black" and "white" are now being interpreted not as one of the colors of magic, but as a reference to race outside the game.
I understand your frustration. But the only fact that matters is that marginalized people face various levels of racism every day. This naming issue is a small, unintentional matter–I don't believe _anyone_ is saying otherwise. But some people don't get a chance to dive into etymology before making the connection with slavery.
I'm thinking renaming isn't so much the important bit, but it is an easy first step: what real, impactful changes can we as technologists make happen next?
How are you measuring impact?
My concern with this is it’s easy to write off as virtue signaling. Right now is a moment where you can get people who wouldn’t agree with you on board with deep important structural changes. Going after something like this feels like just a waste of energy and distracts from those problems, especially when you’re wrong on the facts
> How are you measuring impact?
And they'd say "why not do this change if it makes a feel people feel better".
> The word master is too closely related to the word slave, a practice that goes against B12’s values.
Isn't this is a bit of over correction? Check out the synonyms of the word 'master' https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/master. It has lot of other meanings which does not mean 'master-slave'.
Also by this weird logic, the company mastercard should change their name.
Apparently git copied the 'master' name from bitkeeper, where it was used in conjunction with 'slave' branches: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2019-May/...
That’s not true.
Follow this link to the Twitter thread where the guy (Pete Baudris) who picked the term as used in Git, explains his reasoning.
That makes sense, but master recordings also have the concept of slave reels [1]. He probably wasn't aware of it, heck I only found out about it a few days ago
Mastercard has a billion dollar ad budget. This guy's startup has to be more innovative to get press.
This is racism of low expectations. The notion of a master copy isn’t offensive. Master/slave is. Please assume that black Americans are as intelligent as anyone else and can tell the difference. There’s no need to change the master branch to something else.
From the post:
> "..., removing the problematic term master."
What about my Master of Science degree? Must that be renamed too?
The only thing that is problematic here is the virtue signalling. Please make it stop.
Of course!! Following the logic here, if we have Masters of Science we obligatory have Slaves of Science too.
Which must be the bachelors of science then.
This article would have been significantly better without the pervasive virtue signaling.
> this helpful writeup from the IETF
This isn't correct. The linked document is a draft submitted to the IETF, and as far as I know, there is 0 actual affiliation with the IETF itself.
If the terms master/slave are so offensive is the actual slavery also offensive to you? If it is, what are you doing to stop the slave trade in Libya?
If nothing, then all you're doing is empty virtue signaling.
Should we remove slavery from the history books? It's very offensive.
Just asking questions.
I rewrite history with git all the time.
Don't force push it.
“A step-by-step guide on how to revert your civilization from color-blind progress-loving one to witch-hunting ideologue-driven bloviating and virtue signaling one”.
Plot twist: in martial arts, black belts are masters and white belts are the dumbasses.
We need to change it too, right? There shouldn't exist a martial art master AND the highest levels should be black&white belts.
This is getting insane.
O tempora, o mores!
I'm so glad that US police brutality is now sorted out. Thanks Adam.