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Ethics: Are we misusing the terms "master-slave". Do we even have a community / forum in which we can discuss this?

Philip Oakley
The recent world wide considerations of the diversity challenges in our society has highlighted that we in Engineering can be perpetuating some of the derogatory terms implicit within our use of "Master-Slave" for purely inanimate technical control scenarios. [1 - N]


We have policies on slavery that every volunteer, staff member and Trustee must read and abide to, but it appears we haven't noticed, to any significant extent, our own continued use of "slave" in our writings.


Do we even have a community or forum in which we can discuss this ethical, and publishing issue?


Philip Oakley

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53273923

[2] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3243656.stm

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53050955

[4 ] http://www.jstor.com/stable/40061475   "Broken Metaphor: The Master-Slave Analogy in Technical Literature"

[5] https://www.theiet.org/involved/volunteering-for-the-iet/volunteer-hub/our-policies/anti-slavery-policy/


Aside: Is there some tick box to get notifications of replies sent?
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    Gordon Beauchamp:

    Sorry Philip I agree with OMS, I have never seen the terms as derogatory and having worked with folk of colour on site they have also used these terms showing no sign of issue in doing so. We use master and slave when installing voice outlets, not so much now to be honest as systems have changed but they are still available. What I am seeing is, this is in no way aimed at you personally, a lot of white folk finding issue with words and terms that can be seen as derogatory to folk of colour but not all folk of colour will have that same issue as they can easily see it is simply a term and not someone pointing a finger and calling them names. Our society seems to be losing focus on the real issues and seems desperate to be seen to be doing "something" to stop the offended claiming society isn't doing anything, trouble is the "something" isn't ever going to solve the real problem.

    If a company feels that the terms are inappropriate then fine, stop using them in its systems, does it need to announce it publically that this is what they intend to do? Does that help anyone or anything other than the PR image of that company?

     

    We have the same issue with many updated safety practices where those with years of custom and practice experiences feel that what they do doesn't hurt or injure anyone. It's only later, after the small changes that, sometimes, they appreciate where the improvement occurred and why there was an issue with the old customs. real issues are resolved by the slow steady improvement in the environment. There's not a silver bullet solution.


    I'd be happy to hear of your other improvements and solutions to the 'real' problems.
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  • 0
    Gordon Beauchamp:

    Sorry Philip I agree with OMS, I have never seen the terms as derogatory and having worked with folk of colour on site they have also used these terms showing no sign of issue in doing so. We use master and slave when installing voice outlets, not so much now to be honest as systems have changed but they are still available. What I am seeing is, this is in no way aimed at you personally, a lot of white folk finding issue with words and terms that can be seen as derogatory to folk of colour but not all folk of colour will have that same issue as they can easily see it is simply a term and not someone pointing a finger and calling them names. Our society seems to be losing focus on the real issues and seems desperate to be seen to be doing "something" to stop the offended claiming society isn't doing anything, trouble is the "something" isn't ever going to solve the real problem.

    If a company feels that the terms are inappropriate then fine, stop using them in its systems, does it need to announce it publically that this is what they intend to do? Does that help anyone or anything other than the PR image of that company?

     

    We have the same issue with many updated safety practices where those with years of custom and practice experiences feel that what they do doesn't hurt or injure anyone. It's only later, after the small changes that, sometimes, they appreciate where the improvement occurred and why there was an issue with the old customs. real issues are resolved by the slow steady improvement in the environment. There's not a silver bullet solution.


    I'd be happy to hear of your other improvements and solutions to the 'real' problems.
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