From: Dan Stromberg <strombrg@nis.acs.uci.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 10:51:22 -0700 (PDT)
To: lacc@suburbia.net
Subject: Re: LACC: Re: Is hate code speech?
In-Reply-To: <199808252227.RAA004.35@geiger.com>
Message-ID: <35E44AD1.442F@nis.acs.uci.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


William H. Geiger III wrote:
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> In <Pine.SUN.3.91.980825155854.3483A-100000@baker>, on 08/25/98
>    at 04:19 PM, Xcott Craver <caj@math.niu.edu> said:
> 
> >On Tue, 25 Aug 1998, William H. Geiger III wrote:
> 
> >> <sigh> Now we have to worry about PC variable and function names. What a
> >> crock.
> 
> >       Oh, yeah, you really have to worry about *accidentally*
> >       calling your variables getwatermelons and somefriedchicken.
> >       Reminds me of this one guy in our neighborhood who was just
> >       jogging by our house, bent down to tie a shoelace, lost
> >       his balance and accidentally planted a huge burning cross
> >       in our front lawn.  Woops!  Those damn PC-mongers are
> >       making it a crime to jog!
> 
> Yes and if I want to name my variables getwatermelons and somefiredchicken
> who are you to tell me I can't?

A company worth working for will have a policy that tells you you
cannot.  (Ok, those variables are a fuzzy issue - Very bad taste. The
violent stuff mentioned in the original article is clear cut, however)

> >       One note:  I don't see why this lawsuit would be hard to win
> >       on the grounds that source code isn't necessarily "speech."
> >       If co-workers left a big wooden swastika on her desk it
> >       wouldn't be speech either, but I'd call that actionable.
> 
> But they didn't. There is no proof that any of theses variable names were
> written to be directed at her and the majority of them were written
> *before* she ever started working there!!

So what's your point?

Creating a hostile environment with the expectation that you'll never
hire someone who's black is "ok"?