Replacing Offensive Terminology, Building a More Inclusive Community

The fight against offensive and exclusionary terminology in the computing world continues to gain prominence—and advocates for its removal.

This recent article from IDG Connect points out that coders are pushing back against offensive terminology. At the same time, the article notes that groups such as the Inclusive Naming Initiative, of which CNCF is part, and companies such as IBM and Bloomberg, are also working to replace offensive terms — while safeguarding the workflows dependent on interoperable computer code.

As the article states, the time is now to act on this. Language matters because it demonstrates our values and has the power to make people feel part of – or excluded from – a community.?

Offensive terms should have no place in the language of computing, and yet, they still do. IDG writes: “Encouragingly however, we’re seeing more people stand up and say the impact of offensive, racist terminology like this shouldn’t be minimized, and that it’s a barrier to inclusivity that the industry needs to remove.”

I also couldn’t agree more with Deb Bryant, Senior Director, Open Source Program Office at Red Hat, who is quoted along with me in the article. “Words that create an environment that’s less welcoming to a particular group of people, whether that be women, people of color or any other marginalized group, ensure that those people are less represented in our industry,” she’s quoted as saying. “This makes us all poorer, deny-ing ourselves the innovation, point of view and wisdom of entire sectors of the population.”

Please enjoy the rest of the article, and join us in this mission by participating in the Inclusive Naming Initiative. You are welcome to show up as an individual contributor or as a company looking to sponsor our effort. We look forward to working with you.