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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » LA Wants to End 'Master' and 'Slave' Equipment (Page 1)

 
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Author Topic: LA Wants to End 'Master' and 'Slave' Equipment
Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

- posted 11-27-2003 03:09 AM      Profile for Paul Mayer   Author's Homepage   Email Paul Mayer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
There are times when I'm ashamed to admit I'm a native Angelino... [Roll Eyes]

L.A. Wants to End 'Master' and 'Slave' Equipment
Wed November 26, 2003 08:04 AM ET

By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (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.

© Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved.

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

- posted 11-27-2003 03:28 AM      Profile for Daryl C. W. O'Shea   Author's Homepage   Email Daryl C. W. O'Shea   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Wow. Maybe they should use Cable Select. [puke]

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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

- posted 11-27-2003 03:45 AM      Profile for Carl Martin   Author's Homepage   Email Carl Martin   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
while i'm not in favor of taking established things and renaming them either because they are potentially offensive or else in honor of someone who just died, i have to chuckle that those terms were ever adopted in the first place. these days, we all have pc-alarms (i.e. political correctness, not personal computer) in our heads that would go berserk if we even thought of that. but it's better to let sleeping dogs lie than to introduce new confusing terminology. though in the future, if anyone stumbles on the current terminology, at least it's obvious what it means.

carl

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Bob Maar
(Maar stands for Maartini)


Posts: 28608
From: New York City & Newport, RI
Registered: Feb 2001

- posted 11-27-2003 07:06 AM      Profile for Bob Maar   Author's Homepage   Email Bob Maar   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I am personally offended and so is my slave.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

- posted 11-27-2003 08:58 AM      Profile for Steve Guttag   Email Steve Guttag   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Do we really need LA? I mean the people that run that town are just beyond stupid...if you are a person so weak that seeing the term Master and Slave offends you...it is YOU who needs theropy to FIX your inferiority complex.

As to reparations...from whom would they collect? Furthermore, the businesses that "profited" from slavery were doing legal business for the day. There is a term for this called "EX POST FACTO" and it has been tried by the Supreme Court and has been found Un Constitutional. You can not apply 2003 rules to 1803. Any black person that is trying to collect reparations is merely looking for a handout and this is yet one more scam. I submit that no living black citizen in America is owned or has ever been owned by a non-black citizen in this country in their lifetime. So who is their beef with? The closest thing we have to slaves now are those that are working at legitamate jobs and yet still fall below the poverty line...you know, theatre managers and employees! [Wink]

Steve

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

- posted 11-27-2003 09:30 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Link to BBC story.

quote:
Technology firms supplying Los Angeles County with hardware have been asked to avoid using the words "master" and "slave" to describe their products.

The request follows a complaint by one LA County employee who considered the description offensive. The worker filed a discrimination complaint after seeing videotape machines labelled with the words. Hi-tech firms supplying the county are being asked to avoid unacceptable labels and instead use alternatives.

Term assurance

Technology firms were asked to use different terms in an e-mail sent to them on 18 November by Joe Sandoval, division manager of purchasing and contract services for LA County's Internal Services Department. In the message Mr Sandoval wrote: "Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label."

The terms "master" and "slave" are used frequently throughout the hi-tech world to describe a configuration in which one piece of hardware controls another. In an interview Mr Sandoval said the e-mail message was no more than a request and was not intended as an ultimatum.

"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."

The tale came under scrutiny by the Snopes Urban Reference website which attempts to find the truth behind many contemporary tall tales. Mr Sandoval said he had already rejected a request to stop buying equipment labelled with the potentially offensive terms. The complaint about the labels on the videotape machines was made in May by a worker in the Probation department and who told the county's Office of Affirmative Action Compliance about their grievance.

Within LA County an exhaustive search has been mounted to find all equipment labelled with the offending descriptions. In many cases the labels have been replaced or taped over with others reading "primary" and "secondary".
A council in one of the more notorious loony left London boroughs once banned the use of the terms 'male' and 'female' when describing electrical connectors, on the grounds that it is misogynist. How the PC thought police managed to dream that one up I'll never know...

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Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.

Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 11-27-2003 11:45 AM      Profile for Adam Martin   Author's Homepage   Email Adam Martin       Edit/Delete Post 
In the spirit of the great thinkers in Los Angeles County, I have relabeled my hard drives "dominatrix" and "strap-on".

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Robert E. Allen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1078
From: Checotah, Oklahoma
Registered: Jul 2002

- posted 11-27-2003 12:14 PM      Profile for Robert E. Allen   Email Robert E. Allen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
One of the many reasons I no longer live in Los Angeles county.

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

- posted 11-27-2003 12:34 PM      Profile for Michael Schaffer   Author's Homepage   Email Michael Schaffer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
If they feel offended by that, they also have to rename the city. The meaning of the name is The City of Our Lady of the Angels. This could be seen as an offense to those people who are not catholic or who do not believe in Angels.

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

- posted 11-27-2003 01:13 PM      Profile for Paul Mayer   Author's Homepage   Email Paul Mayer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yes, apparently some places do consider the gender identification of connectors to be offensive. I haven't been able verify this, but a poster on another forum discussing this story mentions that at the PBS facility where he works, such terms are banned. At PBS (the whole network or just that facility I wonder?) the terms "+" and "-" are used to identify connectors. Oh how PC... [Roll Eyes]

Sorry, I am not re-labeling my box of gender-benders, broadly organized as either male-to-male "homo" or female-to-female "lesbo". Guess that means I won't be taking any more work calls in LA County... [Big Grin]

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Ron Keillor
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 166
From: Vancouver, B.C. Canada
Registered: Jul 2003

- posted 11-27-2003 01:51 PM      Profile for Ron Keillor   Email Ron Keillor   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My suggestions for follow-up: ban the expression "left behind" as it degrades those who are not right-handed, and the word "shepherd" containing two female terms (she - her) in a word implying control and domination.

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

- posted 11-27-2003 02:04 PM      Profile for Thomas Procyk   Email Thomas Procyk   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I am offended by black and white TV's as there's often too much of one color on the screen, thus offending me in some way.
And forget Color TVs... NOTHING should be labled as "colored" anymore.

Seriously, though, this "diversity" bullshit is getting out of hand. How can anyone claim to be for Diversity AND Equality at the same time? And when am I going to see some reparations for all those offensive Polock jokes??

I heard some home building companies don't use the term "Master Bedroom" anymore, because that implies that's where the Master sleeps and the Slaves sleep in the smaller rooms. [Roll Eyes]

The components are labled MASTER and SLAVE because that's what they do. One is slaved to another. One does not beat the other. It's not like they're called "Redneck" and "Negro" [Smile]
And as for the Male and Female things, if you're old enough to be working and getting a paycheck legally, then you're old enough not to giggle at the connectors' gender.

=TMP=

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

- posted 11-27-2003 02:18 PM      Profile for Michael Schaffer   Author's Homepage   Email Michael Schaffer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thomas is right - people of slavonic descent should receive compensation too. After all, the word slave derives from Latin sclava, meaning slavonic captive, and referring to people who had been reduced to a servile state after being conquered.

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Andrew Lee
Film Handler

Posts: 99
From: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Jun 2002

- posted 11-27-2003 02:21 PM      Profile for Andrew Lee   Email Andrew Lee   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
No doubt a major lawsuit will be launched in the near future because of the stress incurred by seeing the words "master" and "slave" used in 2003. The State of California can then pay for court expenses and damages thereby increasing it's debt. Must be an interesting place to live......if your a lawyer. [Roll Eyes]

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

- posted 11-27-2003 02:25 PM      Profile for Joe Redifer   Author's Homepage   Email Joe Redifer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
What about that new Russell Crowe movie? Doesn't it have "Master" in it? And what about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe? To whomever thought all of this up: I hope you get eternal explosive diarrhea! An your entire family as well! And then I hope you all drown in it!

Political correctness will kill us all. It has no place in this world!

I like Adam's response the best!

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