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Maniphest T3433

A review of the use of racist language in VyOS
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Description

Can we please review our codebase for racist language and begin its deprecation? During deprecation, both the racist and anti-racist terms will be supported, but the latter preferred.

Please consider whether this is a worthwhile task for the project. I can put together a patch which would support the deprecation similar to the one[3] I did to change the license of the AllJoyn codebase.

According to [1], work published in academic journals has argued that continuing to use racially-charged terms prolongs racial stereotypes.

From [2], the use of such terms does not merely reflect a racist culture, but also serves to legitimize and perpetuate it.

[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-team-approves-new-terminology-bans-terms-like-blacklist-and-slave/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6148600/
[3] https://github.com/alljoyn/extras-automation/blob/master/relicense/bin/do-relicense

Details

Difficulty level
Unknown (require assessment)
Version
1.4
Why the issue appeared?
Will be filled on close
Is it a breaking change?
Config syntax change (migratable)

Event Timeline

cjac created this task.Mar 25 2021, 7:27 PM
cjac created this object in space S1 VyOS Public.
pasik added a subscriber: pasik.Mar 25 2021, 9:49 PM
jack9603301 added a subscriber: jack9603301.Mar 26 2021, 5:14 AM
dmbaturin added a subscriber: dmbaturin.May 29 2021, 8:20 AM

For the record, people of all races are still being held in slavery. Calling it "racist" is an incredibly US-history-centric view.

Anyway, to the point, here's my position on the subject:

  • We will not change any terms that are codified by protocol standards. For example, the term "master" in the VRRP context comes from the RFC (however, there's no master-slave dichotomy there, it's master-backup).
  • There should be a specific task for every place where this kind of terminology exists.

If you find specific instances, please create a task for each one and we can discuss it there.

dmbaturin added a project: VyOS 1.4 Sagitta.May 29 2021, 8:20 AM
eronlloyd added a subscriber: eronlloyd.Feb 21 2022, 11:09 AM
dmbaturin closed this task as Resolved.Oct 21 2023, 1:15 PM
dmbaturin claimed this task.

I could not find any uses of "slave" in current VyOS versions. If anyone finds any, feel free to start a discussion. VRRP "master" terminology cannot be changed because it's a part of the protocol spec itself, and, as said above, its counterpart is "backup".