[Jake]

'Master' and 'slave' computer labels unacceptable, officials say

Wednesday, November 26, 2003 Posted: 3:24 PM EST (2024 GMT)



LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Los Angeles officials have asked that manufacturers, suppliers and contractors stop using the terms "master" and "slave" on computer equipment, saying such terms are unacceptable and offensive.

The request -- which has some suppliers furious and others busy re-labeling components -- came after an unidentified worker spotted a videotape machine carrying devices labeled "master" and "slave" and filed a discrimination complaint with the county's Office of Affirmative Action Compliance.

In the computer industry, "master" and "slave" are used to refer to primary and secondary hard disk drives. The terms are also used in other industries.

"Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label," Joe Sandoval, division manager of purchasing and contract services, said in a memo sent to County vendors.

"We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment components that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature," Sandoval said in the memo, which was distributed last week and made available to Reuters.

The memo did not include any suggestions for alternative labels.

Dennis Tafoya, director of the affirmative action office, said in a separate memo that an "exhaustive search" had been undertaken to find all such labels and replace them with more "appropriate" ones. A form was sent to all departments to identify equipment carrying the labels "master" and "slave" or any other offensive terms.

Faced with an avalanche of complaints from vendors and the general public, Sandoval told Reuters in an interview that his memo was intended as "nothing more than a request" and not an ultimatum or policy change.

"I do understand that this term has been an industry standard for years and years and this is nothing more than a plea to vendors to see what they can do," he said. "It appears that some folks have taken this a little too literally."

Sandoval said that he had already rejected a suggestion that the county stop buying all equipment carrying the "master" and "slave" labels and had no intention of enforcing a ban on such terms with suppliers.

"But we are culturally sensitive and we have 90,000 employees," he said. "We have to take these things seriously."

Sandoval added that in addition to the e-mails he's received "telling me how stupid I am and how I should be fired" he has gotten a positive response from some companies willing to reexamine their labels.

In June, the Los Angeles city council unanimously passed a law requiring that any companies doing business with the city disclose profits they may have made from slavery in the 19th Century. In 2000, the council supported federal legislation seeking reparations for descendants of slaves.


http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/11/26/master.term.reut/index.html

[Don Gwinn]

:scrutiny:

[Mark Tyson]

It's good to know they're worried about the important things.

[tyme]

They can ask anything they want. A law banning such terms won't happen.

This is amusing, but is it on topic?

[Andrew Rothman]

I imagine that LA will further surmise that referring to electronic plugs and jacks as "male" and "female" is offensive to transgender individuals.

I would love to see this:

Dear Los Angeles,

Grow up.

Love,
Toshiba, Teac, Sony, et. al.


[edited for an embarrassing sspelliingg goof.]

[Standing Wolf]

I, uh... assume the article is a satire from http://www.onion.com right? Right?

[HABU]

Its not like its called "Massa".:rolleyes: Gimme a break.

[jimpeel]

This is amusing, but is it on topic?Yes, it is. This is an issue that will impact all of us as they try to take control of industry and subjugate the Commerce Clause. As goes California goes the nation. If you don't want this type of activity in your business you should speak out.

[jimpeel]

I, uh... assume the article is a satire from http://www.onion.com right? Right?Nope. This is from the L.A. Daily News at http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1791069,00.html

Rush had some things to say on this today and you may listen to his diatribe at http://mfile.akamai.com/5020/wma/rushlimb.download.akamai.com/5020/clips/03/11/112603_5_masterslave.asx

For those who lack a sound card, an abridged transcript of his comments is at http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_112603/content/stack_c.guest.html

Here is the text of the L.A. Daily News story:County deletes 'master-slave' PC term
By Troy Anderson , Staff Writer

Los Angeles County officials have gone PC (politically correct) on PCs (personal computers) -- banning as potentially "offensive or defamatory" the words master and slave from computer hard drives and video equipment where they are used to describe primary and secondary circuits.

Under orders from the affirmative action office, county departments have surveyed about 1,000 pieces of equipment and taped over "master/slave" and put "primary/secondary" on the equipment, officials said.

Joe Sandoval, division manager of purchasing and contract services in the Internal Services Department, started the flap with a memo to electronic equipment vendors saying the county wants master and slave labeling removed from computer equipment it buys.

"The County of Los Angeles actively promotes and is committed to ensure a work environment that is free from any discriminatory influence be it actual or perceived," he wrote in the Nov. 18 memo.

"One such recent example included the manufacturer's labeling of equipment where the words 'Master/Slave' appeared to identify the primary and secondary sources. Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label."

County spokeswoman Judy Hammond said she has received e-mails from around the world by people outraged that the county would take such an action.

"I got e-mails from Switzerland," Hammond said. "People evidently saw it on the Web and have been sending e-mails expressing their outrage that we would do such a thing."

In one e-mail from "Ashamed to be a Native Californian," the writer said, "This has Beavis and Butthead written all over it. Please, Mr. Sandoval, do us all the favor of endeavoring to get a life."

Sandoval said a Probation Department employee complained to the Office of Affirmative Action Compliance that video equipment had the terms "master/slave" written on it.

As a result of the investigation, the affirmative action office said he should see whether the county could stop buying electronics with those labels on them.

"What we are doing is soliciting vendors who regularly do business with the county to look at their equipment and help us where they can," Sandoval said. "It's not a policy decision or mandate, but that's what folks took it as."

Dennis A. Tafoya, director of the affirmative action office, said an African-American employee who filed the complaint felt it was employment discrimination because the employee was working on video equipment with the label written on it. The office investigated and determined that the complaint did not involve employment discrimination, but the official recognized that the term could be perceived as offensive.

"The issue was the employee had to operate this equipment and look at the term 'slave and master,' and given their background as an African-American person, I imagine they had different feelings about it," Tafoya said.

"We found the terms were antiquated and offensive to individuals and that a more reasonable term could be used. I think that's what we should do. If it means culture change, then we have to begin someplace.

"This has got some people's hair up on the back of their neck. They believe it's a question of being politically correct. It's not that at all. It's an issue of valuing diversity, respect and dignity for the individual who comes to work here every day. The issue that resonates in different people's minds is a very negative connotation."

Herman L. DeBose, a sociology professor and expert on racial and ethnic diversity at California State University, Northridge, said he thought the controversy was funny.

"I wouldn't say it's political correctness run amok. It may hurt somebody's feelings," DeBose said. "Maybe it's just me, but I think it's something the county may need to address and then let go of."

Troy Anderson, (213) 974-8985 troy.anderson@dailynews.com

[jimpeel]

Under orders from the affirmative action office, county departments have surveyed about 1,000 pieces of equipment and taped over "master/slave" and put "primary/secondary" on the equipment, officials said.So what will they do about the manuals that reference these now impossible-to-find labels; or are they going to spend another fortune on changing those as well?
"The County of Los Angeles actively promotes and is committed to ensure a work environment that is free from any discriminatory influence be it actual or perceived," he wrote in the Nov. 18 memo. Oh, I think this one is quite perceived Herr Sandoval.
... It's an issue of valuing diversity ...Just how much more "diverse" can one ask than "Master" and "Slave"? Now THAT'S diverse!

[c_yeager]

This one is so old it has wiskers on it. I heard this gag about 6 years ago. Sometimes even mainstream press gets taken in with this stuff. Then again it IS california so maybe the jokes are just one step ahead of their policies.

[c_yeager]

Oh my god it actually checks out. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/master.asp I guess they really ARE taking their policies from the funny pages.

[Azrael256]

Oh boy, next they'll be after ISC BIND. That's the software that does DNS translation for most of the internet (it translates www.thehighroad.org to an actual internet address, etc.). The problem is that master/slave can't be replaced with primary/secondary because those terms are already taken in the DNS world.

[Dashunde]

I think I'm gonna :barf:

I cant wait for California to fall off and away from the rest of the country.
I hope that the normal folks out there make it back to shore, and that the people who create these kinds of news items drown in their own stupidity.

[ravinraven]

There is a file called a bastard. That has to be "insensitive" when some b*st*rd, real or preceived, is shopping for one.

Does anyone remember a few years ago when some chick called the Secretary of the Interior and complained that the name "Grand Tetons" on those mountains out in whatever state was offensive to women with grand tetons. They spent millions trying to estimate what it would cost to change signs, maps, tourist traps, etc.

Turned out she was only funnin' them.

In the world of HTML the terms "parent" and "child" are used where one item descends from another. This has to be offensive to anyone writing HTML who is a parent or a child. This should be cleaned up.

Is this on message? Damn right. In the stagecoach days there was a driver and a "shotgun." The shotgun was the second, and last, man on the crew. Subservient. Therefore the name of that beloved hunting weapon should be changed lest we all be offended.

Small minds push these kinds of things because they do not have the mental wherewithall to create anything substantial such as a computer system or a car or a steel industry. They get their glory by getting government backing to destroy what others have created and this makes everything we buy more expensive for no reason except to feed the selfish, deadly hogs who bring up such things.

To conquer a people, wreck their culture. What grander way to wreck a culture than to wreck their language by such tactics as got this thread started. The 2A is one of the founding principles of this culture. If we get used to laying back and doing nothing as iritating little things such as I've listed are foisted upon us, who is going to stand up when the "diversity" police say "End the gun culture."

Anyone having anything to do with pushing Multiculturalism [read Antikulturalism], diversity, pc and about 99% of the "sensitivity" agenda, is anti-liberty and therefore anti-American and a danger to the future of the real America.

ravin[rantin]raven

[trooper]

"The County of Los Angeles actively promotes and is committed to ensure a work environment that is free from any discriminatory influence be it actual or perceived," he wrote in the Nov. 18 memo.

Waitwaitwait... help me out on this one. English it not my first language. Did I get this right?

The County will not tolerate things that are perceived to be discriminatory by an individual? Like, button x on the machine y is white and therefore discriminates my caucasian cultural heritage? Even if it's not a actual discrimination?

Woohoo, this is SO American (sorry guys, but it is)

How could they label the hard disks then? Hmmm... superior and subordinate? No, that's waaaay to derogatory. How about cooperative-team-leader and coworker-who-has-no-leadership-tasks-but-is-just-as-valuable-and-will-eventually-reach-the-same-level-of-responsibility...

I shake my head in disbelief.


Regards,

Trooper


[Edited to add:
um, it is American like in "liberal mainstream America". No offense...]

[ravinraven]

How about that item in a computer commonly called "floppy drive." That is VERY insensitive to old phartz like me.

rr

[Kharn]

So now computers with four IDE drives have primary primary, primary secondardy, secondary primary and secondary secondary drives? Which designates which IDE cable the drive is on, and which designates its master/slave status?

In this application, master and slave are appropriate, as the the controller for the master drive does all the work, the slave's controller does nothing but follow instructions from the master.

Kharn

[greyhound]

Tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism - the axis of leftist.

(Just so I'm clear, those are all good things when they become naturally part of the culture - I'm all for it. They are a disaster when they are forced and mandated by the government. Only exception may be tolerance, and even then should pertain to actions not thoughts).

[ojibweindian]

What about male-to-female and female-to-male 9 pin and 24 pin connectors? Shouldn't there be more diversity in connectors?:evil: :D

[semf]

Any body remember back in the late 70s when the feminist movement wanted hurricanes to be called himicanes, didn't happen but they are called by male names now. They had a lot of other stupid ideas too that changed our language so I expect this will gain some steam also.
When are these big companies gonna get some cajones and tell Cali and rest of these extreme liberal PC states to lighten up. There was a issues with school books not too long ago that forced book companies to change there textbooks and affected the rest of the country too, because Cali is an important customer and it would be too costly to print two versions.

And your right Trooper this so American it's sickening.

Nothing in our constitution protects the right of hypersensitive wackos from being offended

[bobs1066]

Top 5 Things I do at work that sound as if they were naughty:
5. Bumping the registry
4. Adding chunks
3. Runing the dibbles
2. Doing a cold boot
1. Whacking the interfaces

[ravinraven]

Speaking of doing dirty things at work. How about going "balls to the wall." Now that's fast. After spending time wondering how you could go fast in that position, I found out that they were talking about those little balls on the top of the throttle levers in airplanes. Push them all the way forward to the firewall for max speed. Balls to the wall.

Then there's that famous point on the old cannons. Wow! If the pc crowd had been around in 1776 we could have never had cannons.

Other pc crowd stupidities I have heard of: herstory instead of history. The guy who got fired for saying that some sum of money was niggardly. That word has no connection with the n- word, but that didn't deter the politikally korrect krowd from working him over.

Then there's the KKK. Klinton Kounter Kulture.

God! This is fun! Whoops. Secular Humanism! This is fun!

PETA is meeting at my daughter's place in about an hour for T'giving dinner.
PETA=People Eating Tasty Animals--turkey in this case.

Where did all this start? I've heard it was started by the Frankfurt School of Kommies. Hitlary Klinton's political ancestors.

I guess it started with calling janitors sanitation engineers then moved to calling bums The Homeless and lawyers The Ethically Challenged.

ravinraven

[trooper]

I heard somebody saying "mobile ethnic minority" instead of gypsy...

[Dashunde]

"mobile ethnic minority" LOL!

[XLMiguel]

I have a german car and it's very proud to have two Master cylinders (brake & clutch) and multiple slave cylinders :D Jahwohl, and it's a goot ting!

This reminds me of the silliness in teh DC City Coucil when someone (Parks & Recreation Supervisor?) used the term "niggardly" to describe their budget. Amazing how many illiterates find their way into public office, and let me add, to keep it gun related, that if you shot one of 'em in the head, there's likely be little damage, certainly wouldn't notice any difference in IQ.

[Bigjake]

utter bull shi..... er, excrement...:fire:

[TarpleyG]

Kaulifohnia, esp. LA, needs an enema!!!

GT

[HogRider]

This is just another example that shows where this country is going. Stupidity lawsuits and Idiotic political Correctness are just a few signs.

Regular common sense seems to be lost completely. And the worst thing about all this is, that there is a whole new generation growing up in this environment that thinks this is normal.

:cuss:

[Nightfall]

*sigh*

For crap sake...

[jimpeel]

What about "motherboards" and "daughterboards"? Isn't that insensitive to barren women who can never be mothers? What about families who have tried and tried to have a girl but have ten boys? What about their feelings in this? I perceive that this could be insensitive.

What about the Sun? It is too close to "Son" and could offend those who have been unable to have a boy child. We should change the name to "Big yellow ball in the sky".

Whoops! That might be taken as racist so maybe it should be "Big ball in the sky".

Whoops! That may be taken as sexist so maybe it should be "Big light in the sky".

Whoops! That might offend the "Mother Earth, Father Sky" types so maybe it should be "Big Light".

Whoops! That might be taken as a negative comment against little people so maybe it should be "Light".

Any dissenters? Anyone? Anyone have a problem with "Light"?

Okay, "Light" it is.

Hereinafter we will have "Lightglasses", "Light screen", "Light shades", "Light roofs", "Lightshine", "Light rooms", and "Light tans".

[Zedicus]

I think jim hit the nail on the head, "Paranoia" and "hair splitting" over "Political Correctness" has gotten out of control.

America (spacificaly kalli nj & ny) needs to get back in touch with reality....
As do many other countrys who are falling victim to the persuasions of Alarmist Blissninnys and the Tactless reporting of the news by mega media groups in there pathetic little raitings wars...

just my $0.02....

[BenW]

How could they label the hard disks then? Hmmm... superior and subordinate? No, that's waaaay to derogatory. How about cooperative-team-leader and coworker-who-has-no-leadership-tasks-but-is-just-as-valuable-and-will-eventually-reach-the-same-level-of-responsibility...
Thanksgiving is one of the few times a year I drink a beer, and now it's all running down my monitor. Thanks a lot Trooper..... :D

[trooper]

You're welcome... ;)

[WvaBill]

Okay, "Light" it is.

No can do. We are already awash in the legacy of too many dead white guys. :cuss: