Re: Renaming the Debian Project
larocca@larocca.io writes:
> On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 02:03:40PM -0800, benjamin barber wrote:
>> It's unfortunate that Debian is named after Debra and Ian, because
>> having the project named after a white supremacist, who used his
>> ex-wifes name as an trophy. Being that the current year is almost 2016
>> and is 20 years after Debian started, we should look to the future and
>> not the past. We shouldn't tolerate the project being named after a
>> person who uses the N word, or marginalizes women who've been sexually
>> assaulted. Instead I think we ought to rename the project "Euphemia",
>> which means "good speech" and represents our code of conduct, as well
>> as being the name of Euphemia Lofton Haynes the first African American
>> woman who earned a math PHD.
> The neo-tribalist, pseudo-leftist, anti-materialist form of ideology
> that took shape during the famed '80s Culture Wars--"identity
> politics"--seems to have had a slight resurgence in the past few
> years. So much for those who take it up.
> "First as tragedy, then as farce."
Speaking as someone who proudly supports something that you probably call
identity politics, the above was nothing of the sort. It was pure
shit-stirring from someone who (generously) hadn't heard about subsequent
events after Ian's last public words or (much more likely) decided to use
them to try to spark exactly the sort of reaction that you're posting and
a subsquent big fight over it.
There will be plenty of time to argue about social justice, identity
politics, and so forth as it pertains to Debian. It doesn't need to be
done based on this particular fodder, today. Please have some respect for
the recently deceased, who gave a great deal to the broader community
and built some amazing things.
Thank you, Ian, for everything that you built for all of us.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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