that article makes some great points, but
mainis still clearer thanmasterabout its purpose.it doesn’t make that much of a difference, also in my opinion master branch is more fitting. it doesn’t really change the fact that they’re being a hypocrite
i agree that Microsoft is all talk and no action, but
masterneeds explaining to new developers, whilemaindoes not. i, for one, feel that programming should be accessible to as many people as possible, and part of that is getting rid of jargon. the article seems to ignore that it’s not just GitHub that’s making the name changeyeah, I guess you got a point. although I don’t think the article was ignoring it. rather, he’s making github an example of a bad actor. getting that message delivered was the objective here. and if other companies are doing it too, then that useless trend should die. the fakeness of companies goes beyond plus ultra nowadays
Imagine if Microsoft used the amount of resources they’re using to fight privacy laws and the regulation of the technology industry to fight racial injustice in the US.
Changing the branch name to Main and putting BLM on their website, while good things when viewed in a vacuum, are still things that takes no effort. In the complete absence of doing anything more when they certainly have the ability to, it’s clear that they don’t actually care about racial justice. Actions speak louder than words: “main” and “BLM” are words.
Damn, this is the type of article that makes me actually feel bad for not reading most stuff past the title. I started being “aw, come on, not another person complaining about the name change” to “fuck man, the guy got it straight to the point”.
I went through the same thought process. I initially downvoted the article, then read it, then upvoted ;-)
Excellent points made. I wish companies would start to actually care and not just pretend. Changing the stereotypes of your brand’s name or sth is only for brand marketting, whereas the company still abusing power by manufacturing unethically, etc. will always be hypocritical. No matter if it’s a rice company, tech company or fashion retailer.
Yes the problem is a company cannot be “ethical” because private property and competition are at odds with benefiting humanity as a whole. So of course “green capitalism” or “fair trade” (or renaming your default branch to “main”) will remain PR facets and cannot change anything for the better.
I truly believe it is possible yet uncommonly done. German start-up Ecosia for example is putting their environmental goals above their financial goals. I think we as the common consumer have to either go bold ways of starting ethcal companies ourselves or support people with great intentions.
Guys for crying it out loud it’s just a simple name change for the sake of corporate propaganda. To make it look like they care to the mainstream social media’s braindead majority. It’s no big deal they do it all the time, have you ever read a PR statement? If you are really bothered by it host your own stuff at sourcehut or gitea or something. Or just host a classic git server, mail lists’n all.
This is great on so many levels, but I fear the accusation about lack of research around the name change leaves itself open to robust defense from Microsoft PR. The more salient points deserve their own article, book or even a movie with the github detail as an illustrative example. I love the idea of apprenticeships for coders with non-traditional éducation paths.
The more salient points deserve their own article
I think there’s plenty of those. I’m not the most familiar with english-speaking sources, but the talking points of a company polishing its image by appropriating real-life struggles is a very common critique. Likewise, white people signaling to other white people they’re not racist while maintaining the very racist social structures around them, is also a very common critique.
True social change cannot come from private corporations or nation States, or from the goodwill of oppressors (in this case, white people like me). Such points have been made time and time again, see Voltairine de Cleyre, Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, bell hooks, Angela Davis… And that’s just for the US-based anarchists (not sure they all identify with this label) but there’s plenty more across the planet.
Thanks for the pointers, for real. I am interested in reading more on the topics.
In this case, I was talking about this writer who has imo a great energy and ability to create images. The scene in London City with the cops forcefully detaining him on a public street and then finding his work badge captured my imagination. Sometimes one refined social critique sounds just like so many others and this one stood out. Cheers.
I was talking about this writer who has imo a great energy and ability to create images.
Agreed! Cheers
I especially dislike about this change, that it is borderline stupid. Not even abolishing the word “slave” will abolish actual slavery, let alone racism.
And that is important, because not everyone is a hero. There’s a whole number of people who’ve never seen or felt the impact of racism. They won’t know what this fight is about. They’ll get the impression that it is about petty, illogical shit like not using the word “master”. That the whole movement is overreacting and that racism isn’t actually a big deal.
Worst case, they drift off into more and more extreme groups that at first just joke about truly dumb shit like this, but may eventually consider it a funny meme to be actively racist.
We need those people to at least not become racist. But getting them to fight the good fight is also a lot easier when you don’t have shitty corporations subjecting the whole movement to ridicule.
Still, Medium takes forever to load on my phone :-/ Good post, though!
