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Hey maybe "let's solve *-ist language with a linter" isn't the best idea after all.
This is http://alexjs.com , a tool that purports to "catch insensitive, inconsiderate writing." It was written by the creator of popular markdown interpreter remark and is used by create-react-app and some other Facebook Open Source projects as a linter.
I think it's a noble goal, but the devil is in the details.
(Reconsider using devil, it may be profane)
Shut up, Alex
(Reconsider using devil, it may be profane)
Shut up, Alex
Alex has a list of rules dumped into "equality" and "profanities":
https://github.com/retextjs/retext-equality/blob/master/rules.md
https://github.com/retextjs/retext-profanities/blob/master/rules.md
It treats everything equally with little room for nuance. There is no differentiation between curse words, slurs, identity words.
https://github.com/retextjs/retext-equality/blob/master/rules.md
https://github.com/retextjs/retext-profanities/blob/master/rules.md
It treats everything equally with little room for nuance. There is no differentiation between curse words, slurs, identity words.
Furthermore, there is no *context* to why a word might be "profane", or the subtle differences between suggested alternatives (like "assigned X at birth" and "designated X at birth"). There is a —why command line flag but many explanations are missing.
Also, the author's biases are clearly apparent in suggestions.
"gay" and "lesbian" are "profane", but "straight" is not.
"panties" and "bra" are profane, but "boxers" and "briefs" are not.
"period" is profane.
"gay" and "lesbian" are "profane", but "straight" is not.
"panties" and "bra" are profane, but "boxers" and "briefs" are not.
"period" is profane.
The list of "profane english words" are taken not through discussion with marginalized people and advocacy organizations, but from some dude: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/resources/
… and the wikipedia article for "List of Ethnic Slurs"
… and the wikipedia article for "List of Ethnic Slurs"
And of course, it's an open source library so "contributions are welcome." meaning it again falls to the unpaid labor of marginalized people to correct the damage.
This tool speaks for the tendency in tech for people to want easy, automated solutions, possibly harming people in the end. Install linter, bigotry fixed!
But it's not so easy.
But it's not so easy.
It's similar to accessibility. Some people think you can just run a linter and "solve" accessibility issues. It's a start, but not nearly enough.
I consider @TatianaTMac 's @SelfDefinedApp to be the antithesis of Alex. It has education as a primary motivation and has detailed definitions (and sources!) for defined words and giving much room for nuance, rather than just dumping everything in a list called "profanities"
But that also reminds me of another thing: http://selfdefined.app is still a work in progress; lots of words don't have definitions yet, because Tatiana and the other contributors are putting painstaking work to make sure each entry is given the due-diligence it deserves.
With Alex? the creator scraped a wikipedia list and called it a day. It just reminds me of how marginalized folks take so much caution to represent themselves and each other while non-marginalized folks can just bulldoze their way into success without caring.
Anyway, @TatianaTMac is great and @SelfDefinedApp is great and you should definitely sponsor them and contribute definitions (I know I'm motivated to now!)
Addendum: I do think retext and remark cool technologies, and I'm using them for work. This is just an example of how a creator's privileges can lead them to cause harm even with good intent. https://twitter.com/tesseralis/status/1260435598302724097
ALSO I HATE THAT IT HAS THE SAME NAME AS MY GIRLFRIEND
MY ALEX IS 1000x BETTER
MY ALEX IS 1000x BETTER
