Is it really the proposal that the word 'Indian' should not be allowed when referring to someone or something from India? Context is important. Innumerable words can offend if used with that intent, but we don't banish them because they have common standard meaning. Words which serve only as reminders of historical or present wrongs are rightly abandoned.
As this started with colours: should the word 'coloured' be banned? It is rightly deeply offensive to use this in referring to a person and such usage should be unequivocally admonished. If I ask on this forum for advice on better ways in which my data plots could be coloured for clarity I think that's ok. Lastly, in the example I fail to see how the name R-assist is offensive. It's no doubt a faux pas and I would change the package name since it conveys the wrong indication of its purpose. But the word 'racist' in itself is not offensive. The act of being racist is offensive and wrong. Purging the word 'racist' won't help rid the world of racism. On Thu, 19 Nov 2020 at 23:16, Andrew Robinson <a...@unimelb.edu.au> wrote: > > I see a lot of reasoning in this thread that I consider specious at best. > > What seems clear to me, writing as a cis-gendered grey white male, is that we > need to make more room. How do we do this? We do it by listening, > reflecting, and responding. If words that we use are hurtful, then we must > change them. This process will not be perfect. It will be messy. Our > feelings may be hurt, our principles outraged. Treasured words may disappear. > That is how we make room. > > I find appeals to etymology to be irrelevant. History is rife with examples > of innocent symbols and words being co-opted. We abandon those symbols and > words, rightly, because the taint clings to them, rightly or wrongly. > > I find appeals to broad usage to also be irrelevant. Change starts where and > when we all decide that it starts. The R community is its own thing. > > Finally, I find appeals to stakeholder group size to be irrelevant. The point > is not to count the people who won't be offended. > > Here's a personal example: more than 10 years ago, a co-author and I > submitted a package to CRAN that was designed to make R a little easier to > use. We called it R-assist. It sailed through all the checks, and was > published on CRAN. We were then besieged with complaints from native German > speakers. So we changed the name. > > Best wishes, > > Andrew > > -- > Andrew Robinson > Director, CEBRA and Professor of Biosecurity, > School/s of BioSciences and Mathematics & Statistics > University of Melbourne, VIC 3010 Australia > Tel: (+61) 0403 138 955 > Email: a...@unimelb.edu.au > Website: https://researchers.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~apro@unimelb/ > > I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land I inhabit, and pay my > respects to their Elders. > On Nov 20, 2020, 9:28 AM +1100, Heinz Tuechler <tuech...@gmx.at>, wrote: > UoM notice: External email. Be cautious of links, attachments, or > impersonation attempts > > inline - David Wright wrote on 19.11.2020 12:39: > Appropriation of Indian Red as 'Chestnut' (or other alternative) will > be viewed by some as 'making appropriate' the label for a colour, and > no doubt by other groups as cultural theft by excising reference to > its origin. > > Seems the best option is to recognise the actual etymology carries no > semblance of offense whatsoever, and leave well alone. > > > One may remember that people who might feel offended by "Indian Red" > (Native Americans) make up less than 0.5 percent of all "Indians". > It is hardly the fault of the people of India that Native Americans were > called Indians by an Italian navigator who thought he had landed in India. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
