IBM: The Word “Master” is Rude (Except When We Use It Ourselves)

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2020-10-13 15:51:59 UTC
Modified: 2020-10-13 15:51:59 UTC

One of many (endless) examples of IBM's double standards

Master@IBM: Study at the HECTOR School & foster your career with IBM

Summary: Pointing out that IBM's (and Red Hat's) push to eliminate mostly innocuous words (the word "master" does not imply presence of slaves or a relationship like slavery) doesn't match the words and behaviour of IBM itself

THE racist past of IBM isn't something that can be magically purged; IBM tried to purge black people in the days eugenics was a big thing in the US (IBM at least helped implement or assist such ambitions of racial 'purity', for profit). Without doing these nefarious things IBM would have likely remained a startup, never to grow, only to perish. It would not exist today.

"The bottom line is, IBM is playing manipulative perception games."Fast-forward one century. The "master race" giant IBM basically says to us that “master” is a “bad word” (or something along those lines, never mind words like "headmaster" or "Master's Degree"), but IBM still uses the word a lot, even as recently as 3 months ago (IBM Master Data Management Update and Roadmap - YouTube) and IBM's official video from a few years ago has "Master" all over the place. The first 15 seconds of this video:

Lots of women in this promotional video (far more than their proportion inside IBM itself). The bottom line is, IBM is playing manipulative perception games. Language sanitisation is part of that. ⬆

Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation: The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform: The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying: For about a month we showed that becoming a slopfarm - for several weeks - resulted in utter failure and ruin for BetaNews
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers: Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?: Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures: Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android: Links for the day
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace: slides
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact: "The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025: IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025
Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft): It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.): Microsoft is in effect collapsing
Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat": we're on the right track
Links 11/07/2025: Censorship Worsening, 3D Printing Success Stories, UK and France Unite Around Nukes: Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Zorin OS and Scriptonite Updates: Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China: Links for the day
Links 11/07/2025: Intel Collapsing and Microsoft Resorts to Bribery to Push Slop Via Obligatory Education: Links for the day
The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves: They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
"Nat [Friedman] and [the Serial Strangler From Microsoft] Were Always Exceptionally Close," Says Former Housemate and Colleague: Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence: The "age of AI" or "era of AI" or "AI revolution" mostly boils down to rebranding, just like "the cloud"
New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth': Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
Abuse of Process: 5RB is employing people who help violent men
What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common: "Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
Microsoft and IBM Don't Have Much of a Future (They Mostly Pretend at This Point): IBM and Microsoft are in some ways alike but in many ways different
It's Not Just Twitter (or X.com) That's Dying, Microsoft's Equivalent is Dying Also: Unable to find a business model
GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype: Some publicly available information suggests that even for each paid subscriber for plagiarism (LLM 'coding') GitHub Copilot still loses more money than it makes
Wayland is Bad for the Planet: If you use Wayland, it'll take you longer to accomplish tasks and you will consume more energy (or battery life)
Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You: Microsoft is a very malicious company
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025: IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
On Microsoft Layoffs: we might be looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs since 2023
EPO Management Already Breaks Its Own Promise (Lie) on "Bringing Teams Together": This gut-punching move happened just 2 days ago
Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Occupation of 2025 and "Old Man Yells At Soundcloud": Links for the day
Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse: That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.
Tomorrow is the Last Day of the Fund-Raising Campaign of the Free Software Foundation (FSF): They will probably extend the date, as usual
Fixing Patents in Europe, Little by Little (by Transparency and Reporting of Suppressed Facts): Tomorrow and throughout the weekend we shall focus some more on the EPO
The Two Lies Microsoft is Telling in "the News" This Week (to Distract From Layoffs and Decreased Interest in Slop/Chaff): Microsoft is run by liars and frauds who SLAPP critics
Tux Machines Already Destroyed SLAPPs: Attacks on the mere publication of GNU/Linux news won't be tolerated
PCLinuxOS is Available for Download Again: PCLinuxOS is important to us also because its founder, back then the partner of Susan, helped create Tux Machines more than 21 years ago
Links 10/07/2025: Microsoft E-mail 'Services' Collapse Again, "Yet Another Strava Privacy Leak": Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Automating Git Repo Updates and Small Web 'Zine': Links for the day
GNU/Linux Leftovers: mostly Linux stuff
Audiocasts/Shows: Going Linux, FLOSS Weekly, and RHEL Clones: 3 new picks
We Are Already Fighting - With Considerable Success - SLAPPs in the UK: we intend to tell the full story
Bullies With Pens and Papers (or Apple Macs With Templates): Not all barristers are evil, but there are perhaps "rotten apples"
Slopwatch: webpronews.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com: a pile of trash disguised as 'articles'
Links 10/07/2025: Linda Yaccarino Divorces MElonazi Site, Wildfires Hit Syria: Links for the day
The History and the Policy of the EPO's Stance on Breastfeeding (Corporate Monopolies Versus Babies' Health): "The Case for Introducing a Breastfeeding Policy at the EPO"
Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Inventing Chords and "Nightmare Boss": Links for the day
Igor Ljubuncic Once Again Shows That for Technical Reasons Wayland Still Sucks, Performs Considerably Worse Than What Existed for Decades: That is aside from compatibility factors and other crucial factors
Links 10/07/2025: "Apple Vs The Law" and Twitter Became Full Nazi Bar: Links for the day
Unable to Find Anyone to Work as Their Media Lawyer, Brett Wilson LLP Will Continue Losing Female Staff: What sort of sick person would wish to join Brett Wilson LLP to carry this baton?
Microsoft-Sponsored Propaganda Site Has Removed False 'Hit Piece' About Dr. Stallman (With Fake and Misrepresented Imagery) But Only After 4 Years: So they only removed that page some time around 2025, i.e. about 4 years after it had been published
Always Check Your Inputs: Garbage in, garbage out. Or wrong assumptions, wrong corollary.
Dan Neidle Said That Tax Evasion Facilitator Mr Zahawi (Working to Silence Bloggers Through Brett Wilson LLP) Targeted Not Only Him (But The Others Kept Quiet): "Mr Neidle said after repelling Mr Zahawi he was contacted by bloggers and tweeters who had received similar threats. They deleted their work “and in most cases never commented publicly on anything again”."
SLAPP Funding Transparency Urgently Needed in the UK and Elsewhere (in Practice, Not Just in Theory): Writing about crime - including Microsoft crime - is not a crime
Over at Tux Machines...: GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 09, 2025: IRC logs for Wednesday, July 09, 2025
Elodie Bergot Still Doing Illegal Things at the EPO, Based on the Local Staff Committee Munich: They keep taking away from the staff while compelling the staff to do illegal things

IBM: The Word “Master” is Rude (Except When We Use It Ourselves)

Recent Techrights' Posts