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. ⬆

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