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Linux 6.19 Gets Rid Of The Kernel's "Genocide" Function (www.phoronix.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/linux@programming.dev
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While the Linux kernel has inclusive terminology guidelines for the past five years to replace phrases like master/slave and blacklist/whitelist, there has surprisingly been a "genocide" function within the kernel that was questioned when it was first submitted for inclusion but now removed in Linux 6.19.

Introduced to the Linux kernel back in 2023 was the d_genocide() function as part of various dcache updates to the kernel. The genocide name was questioned when the patches were first posted by longtime Linux developer Al Viro

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[–] 41 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I know it doesn't matter, and is fully a side issue to this post, but I hate that "blacklist" gets brought into this. It's never been used to be "a list of black people" or something; that wasn't the original meaning, and that's not the modern intention. It's just a word that sounds like maybe it could have been racist in origin, but it wasn't. And that one makes me grumpy just as an annoying word person.

The real hot take was that we used the term black and white for people at all! If we could go back to the past and make it so we call it, like, Affo and Euro or something, whatever, it would have cleared up a lot of unrelated term confusion.

I mean, if we could go back and change things there's maybe some other stuff that would be more important to change... but among the changes I would make are those!

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  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago

    I did have a very real work experience where people went "a what list" when I mentioned we had a black list of software built. I am kind of glad to move past black is bad, white means good phrasing tbh because some people are turned off by it.

    If we could just end racism, as in the fucking stupid idea of race at all, it wouldn't matter. People are even black and white...

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  • [–] 21 points 11 months ago

    The problem is “black” being used in a negative context while at the same time “white” is being used in a positive context. It reinforces racial stereotypes specifically because that is the language we also use for race. Language and psychology are inseparable.

    “Block list” and “allow list” are clearer and less ambiguous anyway, and just make more sense.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    It always mildly annoyed that we call them "black people" and "white people" because "black people" are more brown than black, and "white people" are more tan than white. And brown can be viewed as a shade of tan. Not very descriptive.

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