[erlang-questions] Coon - new tool for building Erlang packages, dependency management and deploying Erlang services

nx nx@REDACTED
Mon Feb 12 17:28:14 CET 2018


For what it's worth, the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of
this thread was "that is a racist slur". I've also never heard anyone call
a raccoon a coon.

The news that cowboy was named for "cowboys kill apaches" is disappointing.

On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:22 AM Fred Hebert <mononcqc@REDACTED> wrote:

> What I'm saying is that it does not matter how I interpret things. I asked
> and the author said publicly it was a raccoon. I'm okay with that
> explanation and I'm ready to believe it.
>
> My point is that other people won't ask the author, won't know who he is,
> and will pick an interpretation and stick with it. They won't need the
> context, they won't need anything. They'll just do it. The name can be
> interpreted in a racist way, and so it's pretty much guaranteed that it
> will be eventually interpreted that way. The author is free to go ahead and
> keep the name, and the users and onlookers will be free to read whatever
> they want in that name.
>
> That is 100% my point.
>
> On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:17 AM, Krzysztof Jurewicz <
> krzysztof.jurewicz@REDACTED> wrote:
>
>> Fred Hebert writes:
>>
>> > Anyone is of course free to name their software whatever they want.
>> Picking
>> > a racist name is however never going to be consequences-free as this
>> e-mail
>> > thread first shows on the first day of release, and adoption figures may
>> > also reflect it.
>>
>> Merriam-Webster online dictionary (naming itself as “America’s
>> most-trusted online dictionary”) says that there two meanings of “coon”:
>>
>> ⒈ raccoon;
>> ⒉ offensive — used as an insulting and contemptuous term for a black
>> person.
>>
>> I presume that context matters. What makes you think that in this context
>> this word means ⒉? Wikipedia in the article about raccoon says that is also
>> known coloquially as “coon”, so I guess this is not a very uncommon usage.
>>
>> Or are you saying that non-racist usages of words that have also racist
>> meanings should be eventually abandoned?
>>
>> (I’m not a native speaker, so bear with my eventual ignorance).
>>
>
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