Tech folks, over the next few months we are going to witness a lot of projects—or at least their communities suggesting to—change their default branch name away from “master”. If you are wondering why does any of this matter, or how to participate, here are my thoughts.

Those who write code or documentation have experienced first-hand that naming is hard due cognitive and emotional cost of coming up with a term for every single thing. Renaming established terminology is even harder and will inevitably be disruptive. Sometimes it's necessary.

The tech world did not invent the “master/slave” analogy for referring to a device that controls another device, but—like other industries—it adopted it for its accuracy. While accurate, the term is also problematic; it's just that no one back then cared enough to examine it.

The fundamental privilege of whiteness is the luxury of NOT having to examine the potential impact that what we say or consume might have on other people. When eventually asked to consider the humanity of others, we might lash out because we sense an attack on that luxury.

But the “master” branch in git is not a reference to the master-slave dynamic, some might point out. It's more of a “master copy” kind of thing, right?

Even an unintentional connotation with “slave” would still be problematic. Sadly, it's intentional https://twitter.com/tobie/status/1270290278029631489

So is some code with a “master” branch inherently racist? Is a project with “cop” in its name inherently violent?

In most cases, no. It's just that these words can be a signal to others that you were not willing to put in the work of examining how your choices might hurt others.

A safe space is not some kind of ensurance policy that no one can ever get offended or hurt. Instead, creating a safe space is a commitment to listening and understanding. Like consent, it's an activity; it's a conversation. It's about showing that you care when others didn't.

Those who will tirelessly debate about etymology of words or whether some tech term is racist or not are missing the point completely. The conversation was never about words per se; it was about whether you would show that you are willing to take action to accommodate others.

You might not see any point in renaming a default branch in a repository because that, by itself, does not fix any current societal issues. That's true; it's not that simple. But nobody asked you to restore justice in the world— they asked you if you could change a single word.

There is lots you can do to help! You could start generally referring to the “master branch” as the “default branch”, support projects you use making the change, and being open to learning about other problematic terms.

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

What us whites should absolutely NOT do:

• weigh in with our opinions about whether something is racist;
• moan about politics emerging from a space we thought it didn't exist;
• believe that we're somehow in the clear after we make this small concession.

Code was where a younger me escaped the world when I did not understand nor could I deal with most of it. People similar to me did the same, so we collectively made what felt like a safe space. But if our safety comes from keeping other people out, then I don't want it anymore.