People of color: Should this company's name be a dealbreaker?
March 10, 2022 3:39 PM Subscribe
This question is primarily directed to people of color of Metafilter. We're a young biotech company in the process of choosing the fancy regulations-compliant software to store our documents. One of the top contenders is a company named Master Control. This name is... obviously less than ideal, to put it mildly. Would you personally feel uncomfortable working with this software, or knowing that others work with it? If you were in the position to choose the software, would the name be a dealbreaker?
For others reading, a recent example of a similar situation is how Git changed the name of their default branch from 'master' to 'main' to eliminate unnecessary references to slavery and use more inclusive terminology.
If you are not a person of color but you do have direct experience with a similar situation (e.g. where such a decision was made at your company), it would be useful to hear how that situation played out.
For others reading, a recent example of a similar situation is how Git changed the name of their default branch from 'master' to 'main' to eliminate unnecessary references to slavery and use more inclusive terminology.
If you are not a person of color but you do have direct experience with a similar situation (e.g. where such a decision was made at your company), it would be useful to hear how that situation played out.
"A Biotech company that releases a product called Master Control" seriously sounds like a subplot in a (bad) novel about secret Nazi corporations. Was "Final Solution" already taken?
I am white, and would feel uncomfortable working with software that meets your description, but rarely have any say over what software I work with. "Having dealbreakers" like what you're describing is a luxury for lots of folks.
I worked in a very white-male dominated industry in the past; when issues like this cropped up, I advocated for BIPOC or LGBTQ firms to handle the branding of the products or campaigns, AT LEAST as a consultant to go over the campaign or branding. You can appeal to capitalists by outlining how this may not be a problem immediately, but if/when it becomes a problem, it can become an extremely big problem extremely quickly. At that point it just shows that the design team didn't do a good job, and can't really be taken seriously, and is a real risk to reputation. And that it is totally avoidable.
posted by furnace.heart at 4:10 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I am white, and would feel uncomfortable working with software that meets your description, but rarely have any say over what software I work with. "Having dealbreakers" like what you're describing is a luxury for lots of folks.
I worked in a very white-male dominated industry in the past; when issues like this cropped up, I advocated for BIPOC or LGBTQ firms to handle the branding of the products or campaigns, AT LEAST as a consultant to go over the campaign or branding. You can appeal to capitalists by outlining how this may not be a problem immediately, but if/when it becomes a problem, it can become an extremely big problem extremely quickly. At that point it just shows that the design team didn't do a good job, and can't really be taken seriously, and is a real risk to reputation. And that it is totally avoidable.
posted by furnace.heart at 4:10 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Master Control is the villain in Tron. When tech-y companies are named after nerdy villainous things (Palantir, Soylent, etc), it raises alarm bells. I am a mixed race light brown American, but I'm not really reacting to the slavery aspect. It's more that you sound very much like silicon valley monsters.
posted by Snijglau at 4:17 PM on March 10, 2022 [32 favorites]
posted by Snijglau at 4:17 PM on March 10, 2022 [32 favorites]
Response by poster: To clarify:
We (the biotech company) are not releasing this product. We are using this product, much like we might use Microsoft Word.
Master Control is headquartered in the UK, with biotech and pharmaceutical customers worldwide. The words "master" and "control" likely have somewhat different cultural connotations in UK vs. US English.
posted by Questolicious at 4:23 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
We (the biotech company) are not releasing this product. We are using this product, much like we might use Microsoft Word.
Master Control is headquartered in the UK, with biotech and pharmaceutical customers worldwide. The words "master" and "control" likely have somewhat different cultural connotations in UK vs. US English.
posted by Questolicious at 4:23 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am a non-Black woman of color (on preview, editing to add that I am American, but in a startup, you're likely to have to face the issue from a global set of perspectives including American within a couple of funding rounds anyway) in a tech-adjacent industry, and I've been seeing the tides very, very slowly shifting on this since the early 2000s, the Github example being a more recent example. (In fact, a government agency moving away from using "master" terminology was previously discussed on MeFi back in *2003*; I hope that some of the participants in that thread have reconsidered their earlier stances, as it's been nearly 20 years, and even *houses* being sold now are talking about "primary" rather than "master" bedrooms.)
The name wouldn't take them entirely out of the running for me, but if the decision came down to that company and another platform that suited our needs equally well, it might be what made the difference. I would, of course, be documenting all of these comparisons quite carefully, knowing that any non-technical factor I included in my decision could be used against me in the future. (This, of course, presumed that I had the final say on software selection, and the political capital to spend on choosing another option, and as a WOC in tech, it is quite likely I would not have either; if I were a white guy, I'd consider it my responsibility to point it out.) Even knowing how long it takes for enterprises to make certain types of shifts, especially in regulated areas, I'd still wince at choosing to go with a company with that name, I might try to get a sense of whether or not said company was thinking about a name shift in the near future, and I would probably be very sarcastic about how I referred to said software among peers who I trusted.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 4:23 PM on March 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
The name wouldn't take them entirely out of the running for me, but if the decision came down to that company and another platform that suited our needs equally well, it might be what made the difference. I would, of course, be documenting all of these comparisons quite carefully, knowing that any non-technical factor I included in my decision could be used against me in the future. (This, of course, presumed that I had the final say on software selection, and the political capital to spend on choosing another option, and as a WOC in tech, it is quite likely I would not have either; if I were a white guy, I'd consider it my responsibility to point it out.) Even knowing how long it takes for enterprises to make certain types of shifts, especially in regulated areas, I'd still wince at choosing to go with a company with that name, I might try to get a sense of whether or not said company was thinking about a name shift in the near future, and I would probably be very sarcastic about how I referred to said software among peers who I trusted.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 4:23 PM on March 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
My reading of this Ask is that this is not about YOUR company's name - your company is choosing between several vendors, one of which is named Master Control, and you're wondering whether using this vendor will be a liability later.
If that's a correct reading, I would agree that the word "master" is on its way out; the tiny startup I worked for recently changed all of their 'master' branches to 'default', to follow Google's lead, and the tech behemoth I work for now has employee murmurings about it too. I would assume that the vendor is out of touch, since a brief Google shows that changing 'master' to 'main' has been talked about in the mainstream for a few years, minimum, and I would wonder if the reluctance to change their name would be a sign of an inability to respond to other issues such as security, privacy, legal restrictions, data leaks, etc. etc. etc.
posted by rogerroger at 4:24 PM on March 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
If that's a correct reading, I would agree that the word "master" is on its way out; the tiny startup I worked for recently changed all of their 'master' branches to 'default', to follow Google's lead, and the tech behemoth I work for now has employee murmurings about it too. I would assume that the vendor is out of touch, since a brief Google shows that changing 'master' to 'main' has been talked about in the mainstream for a few years, minimum, and I would wonder if the reluctance to change their name would be a sign of an inability to respond to other issues such as security, privacy, legal restrictions, data leaks, etc. etc. etc.
posted by rogerroger at 4:24 PM on March 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
I'm definitely not crazy about the name, but in case this reference isn't familiar, "master control" is a longstanding name for the central operations area of a TV station, which I imagine is what this company is referring to in their name. The term "master" is still problematic, of course, and based on the responses here the reference is probably not well known - but I thought it might be helpful to share this context.
posted by Ms. Toad at 4:28 PM on March 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Ms. Toad at 4:28 PM on March 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
As it is the EDMS, it touches all areas of your business. Users will refer to the software by name many many times a day…for years. If absolutely has to be implemented, hopefully you could influence the adoption of a nickname.
posted by gryphonlover at 4:29 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by gryphonlover at 4:29 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Somewhere around the year 2000 at Cisco Systems we yanked out all reference to "master" and (yeesh) "slave" components. At the time it was done because international markets demanded it, but I am amazed that companies would be screwing that up domestically at this late date.
Were I in your shoes they would have to have a spectacular offering to overcome the incompetence of their marketing. And as an employee I would want to know who signed the P.O.
(White American view)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:31 PM on March 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
Were I in your shoes they would have to have a spectacular offering to overcome the incompetence of their marketing. And as an employee I would want to know who signed the P.O.
(White American view)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:31 PM on March 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
Not a person of color, but I am a white woman in tech. The "master" term has long, deep roots in the tech industry, unfortunately. The industry is working to change that (the aforementioned git changes, for example), but it's going to be a long process. My particular employer has done a ton of work to rename problematic terms throughout our decades-old tech ecosystem, but we have some things that are so entrenched in the systems it's literally impossible to rename everything without significant, significant cost and probably downtime. I wish my org paid similar attention to the gender-offensive terms that are also floating around, but one battle at a time.
If that company was an older company that has been around for years/decades, I'd probably think they fall under that same type of umbrella, where there is a lot of untangling necessary required to change things and take that into account when evaluating them. I would probably ask them about the name and see how their sales folk react - is it something they are at least aware of and have talking points for? However, if the company is newer, well, then I would probably agree that they are at best tone deaf and potentially have issues with that.
posted by cgg at 4:41 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
If that company was an older company that has been around for years/decades, I'd probably think they fall under that same type of umbrella, where there is a lot of untangling necessary required to change things and take that into account when evaluating them. I would probably ask them about the name and see how their sales folk react - is it something they are at least aware of and have talking points for? However, if the company is newer, well, then I would probably agree that they are at best tone deaf and potentially have issues with that.
posted by cgg at 4:41 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am not a person of color, but my organization mandates use of this particular software for managing our formal quality documents. Even without the questionable name, I would recommend against it because it is truly painful to use. I call it MC in my head and feel gross every time I have to say the full name out loud.
Further, we use a different regs-compliant system for study-specific documents. This collection of documents is named Trial Master File, a term which is thoroughly embedded in clinical trial work. Argh.
(White, US, biotech)
posted by esoterrica at 4:58 PM on March 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
Further, we use a different regs-compliant system for study-specific documents. This collection of documents is named Trial Master File, a term which is thoroughly embedded in clinical trial work. Argh.
(White, US, biotech)
posted by esoterrica at 4:58 PM on March 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
I'm a white American, and I'm a fiction copy editor. In my professional work I'm pushing back against "master" in many contexts nowadays. (It comes up a lot re: "master bedroom"; this NYT article lays out the argument for changing that to "primary bedroom" and the like.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:54 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:54 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am a person of color and my reaction is similar to Alensin's.
posted by brainwane at 6:45 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by brainwane at 6:45 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Only Black people were enslaved by white people calling themselves "masters". The opinions of nonBlack people of color are therefore not relevant to this question. Please don't say "people of color" when you mean "Black people", it's erasure and actually perpetuates white supremacy to mash everyone together as if all our experiences are identical and interchangeable.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:24 PM on March 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:24 PM on March 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Because I don't presume to know how people self-identify, particularly if they have multiple racial backgrounds, and the company in question has customers around the world.
Black folks and POC, please correct me if I'm wrong here! Thanks in advance. And thanks for your perspective, nouvelle-personne.
posted by Questolicious at 8:38 PM on March 10, 2022
Black folks and POC, please correct me if I'm wrong here! Thanks in advance. And thanks for your perspective, nouvelle-personne.
posted by Questolicious at 8:38 PM on March 10, 2022
Only Black people were enslaved by white people calling themselves "masters". The opinions of nonBlack people of color are therefore not relevant to this question.
Uh, we didn’t remove master/slave references at Cisco in response to American historical context. Of the 20 million people living in slavery right now 90% are Asian. If you meet someone who has/had a master there is a very good chance they will be "nonBlack."
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:55 PM on March 10, 2022 [19 favorites]
Uh, we didn’t remove master/slave references at Cisco in response to American historical context. Of the 20 million people living in slavery right now 90% are Asian. If you meet someone who has/had a master there is a very good chance they will be "nonBlack."
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:55 PM on March 10, 2022 [19 favorites]
I have used software for doc control that is called “master control” at a former company and it was one of the awfuller types of software in this category I’ve ever used ( I have experience with four or five different ones).
Hope you are not thinking of buying the ‘Maste Control I knew and hated, apart from its name.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 9:36 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hope you are not thinking of buying the ‘Maste Control I knew and hated, apart from its name.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 9:36 PM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I certainly wouldn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable, so I would go with the consensus, but I've yet to hear any push back about getting a master's degree or attaining mastery of a language, say. If you look at Merriam-Webster online, you'll note that a slavery-related definition is ranked 2g out of five different sets of definitions all of which have multiple subdefinitions, and the word itself comes in three grammatical forms: noun, verb, adjective.
posted by Violet Blue at 9:57 PM on March 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Violet Blue at 9:57 PM on March 10, 2022 [4 favorites]
I am black-mixed from the UK (England specifically) and I honestly didn't understand what was wrong with the name. Nobody over here would view that as anything other than technical. It sounds like a star trek type of name tbh, like it was named by someone with ancient analogue equipment with big levers dating back to 1957. I don't have much of a sensitivity to the American psyche nor do I have that lived racial experience, so just speaking from our side of things.
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 11:05 PM on March 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by ihaveyourfoot at 11:05 PM on March 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
I used this a long time ago for something else (document control) and it was terrible software. I thought the name was related to the idea of a "master" document, similar to a "master" key, meaning an original.
posted by pinochiette at 4:54 AM on March 11, 2022
posted by pinochiette at 4:54 AM on March 11, 2022
I'm white, queer, trans, and in tech. I hesitated to post becuase I figured someone else would say what I was thinking better, but I'm posting now because nobody has.
As a kind of corrolary to the Al Capone Theory of Sexual Harassment, I expect companies that are thoughtless about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to be thoughtless and/or incompetent in other ways.
But the name of this organization isn't the only DEI signal that I've been encouraged to pay attention to, so I glanced at a few others. Assuming it's this Master Control we're discussing, pretty much nothing on that site looks promising from a DEI perspective.
1) The actual written copy values page doesn't make me feel like this company genuinely has values other than "make a lot of money." Nor does it give me the slightest inkling of hope that these people would hesitate to work with dictators or those engaged in human rights abuses.
2) I am cynical about their marketing photos. The header image on that values page looks like it's a skinny white guy with a prosthetic breaking into a run and the image on that first link I provided of the employees appears to show them hiking on a trail. This really doesn't fill me with confidence that this place welcomes employees at all levels of mobility and athletic inclination who are skilled software developers. On the contrary, it looks from here like they have a homogenous "sporty" or "bro-ish" culture. The employee photos on their website look very white and very male. Maybe they're really welcoming in real life and just picked out bad pictures, I don't know.
3) Their leadership team in particular doesn't look diverse. Appearances can be deceiving, I know I can't necessarily tell how many of these people are indigenous/American Native/otherwise marginalized from photos, but this is one more hint about how Master Control operates that, taken in context with the others, suggests they're not a great organization.
So, overall, it doesn't look like a place committed to the success of all kinds of people. I don't know a single thing about their product, but given how skilled they seem to be at choosing an inclusive company name, writing values/DEI copy on their website, choosing welcoming marketing photos, and recruiting a diverse leadership team, I am filled with doubts about this company's ability to develop good software.
If they were my prospective vendor or employer I might look at their Glassdoor and LinkedIn. I might also explicitly inquire about things like employee resource groups, maternity and paternity leave, trans-inclusive healthcare, and other indicators that they recruit the best employees regardless of identity and treat them well, but I have already spent about as much time on this place as I can be bothered with.
Maybe the product is good and all these other signals are bad, but I doubt it, you know?
posted by All Might Be Well at 6:22 AM on March 11, 2022 [7 favorites]
As a kind of corrolary to the Al Capone Theory of Sexual Harassment, I expect companies that are thoughtless about DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) to be thoughtless and/or incompetent in other ways.
But the name of this organization isn't the only DEI signal that I've been encouraged to pay attention to, so I glanced at a few others. Assuming it's this Master Control we're discussing, pretty much nothing on that site looks promising from a DEI perspective.
1) The actual written copy values page doesn't make me feel like this company genuinely has values other than "make a lot of money." Nor does it give me the slightest inkling of hope that these people would hesitate to work with dictators or those engaged in human rights abuses.
2) I am cynical about their marketing photos. The header image on that values page looks like it's a skinny white guy with a prosthetic breaking into a run and the image on that first link I provided of the employees appears to show them hiking on a trail. This really doesn't fill me with confidence that this place welcomes employees at all levels of mobility and athletic inclination who are skilled software developers. On the contrary, it looks from here like they have a homogenous "sporty" or "bro-ish" culture. The employee photos on their website look very white and very male. Maybe they're really welcoming in real life and just picked out bad pictures, I don't know.
3) Their leadership team in particular doesn't look diverse. Appearances can be deceiving, I know I can't necessarily tell how many of these people are indigenous/American Native/otherwise marginalized from photos, but this is one more hint about how Master Control operates that, taken in context with the others, suggests they're not a great organization.
So, overall, it doesn't look like a place committed to the success of all kinds of people. I don't know a single thing about their product, but given how skilled they seem to be at choosing an inclusive company name, writing values/DEI copy on their website, choosing welcoming marketing photos, and recruiting a diverse leadership team, I am filled with doubts about this company's ability to develop good software.
If they were my prospective vendor or employer I might look at their Glassdoor and LinkedIn. I might also explicitly inquire about things like employee resource groups, maternity and paternity leave, trans-inclusive healthcare, and other indicators that they recruit the best employees regardless of identity and treat them well, but I have already spent about as much time on this place as I can be bothered with.
Maybe the product is good and all these other signals are bad, but I doubt it, you know?
posted by All Might Be Well at 6:22 AM on March 11, 2022 [7 favorites]
(Master Control is not headquartered in the UK, but in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA)
posted by richb at 8:18 AM on March 11, 2022
posted by richb at 8:18 AM on March 11, 2022
This probably comes down to:
What is the new/alternative terminology for remastering a recording?
After a quick Google:
...Is there even one?
This isn't just a tech issue, or with git, because this is still the terminology in music, sound and video recording? A master copy, mastering, etc?
The control center for 'main copies' is honestly a bit too ambiguous in this sense, because main vs master have different meanings. I would think that main is the *mainly used* copy, which might be an old but popular version, vs the master copy, which would be understood as the best copy, best practice.
Someone give me some alternative terminology, because I would happily switch.
Relevant because, if there were widely used alternate terms, I would expect a company to rename/rebrand. If they didn't rebrand, then I'd think they were making 'a point', and would think about not supporting them.
However, if we don't have alternate terminology, and that's still the industry standard, then I wouldn't think that a company was being problematic by continuing to use industry terminology in their name, at least not to the point where I would feel I was supporting a problematic company by having them as a vendor.
posted by Elysum at 4:23 PM on March 11, 2022
What is the new/alternative terminology for remastering a recording?
After a quick Google:
...Is there even one?
This isn't just a tech issue, or with git, because this is still the terminology in music, sound and video recording? A master copy, mastering, etc?
The control center for 'main copies' is honestly a bit too ambiguous in this sense, because main vs master have different meanings. I would think that main is the *mainly used* copy, which might be an old but popular version, vs the master copy, which would be understood as the best copy, best practice.
Someone give me some alternative terminology, because I would happily switch.
Relevant because, if there were widely used alternate terms, I would expect a company to rename/rebrand. If they didn't rebrand, then I'd think they were making 'a point', and would think about not supporting them.
However, if we don't have alternate terminology, and that's still the industry standard, then I wouldn't think that a company was being problematic by continuing to use industry terminology in their name, at least not to the point where I would feel I was supporting a problematic company by having them as a vendor.
posted by Elysum at 4:23 PM on March 11, 2022
Of the 20 million people living in slavery right now 90% are Asian. If you meet someone who has/had a master there is a very good chance they will be "nonBlack."
- the word nonBlack doesn’t require scare quotes.
- People in Asia probably don’t use the English word “master” to describe the person who is abusing them.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:01 PM on March 11, 2022
- the word nonBlack doesn’t require scare quotes.
- People in Asia probably don’t use the English word “master” to describe the person who is abusing them.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:01 PM on March 11, 2022
Please do not purchase this user-unfriendly software with the idiot name. I have consistently been disappointed my experience trying to get information into or out of it, and I want to brush my teeth every time I have to refer to it.
Signed, someone who uses it every day.
posted by Vatnesine at 10:30 AM on March 15, 2022
Signed, someone who uses it every day.
posted by Vatnesine at 10:30 AM on March 15, 2022
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posted by Alensin at 3:54 PM on March 10, 2022 [2 favorites]