{"id":1271,"date":"2016-06-18T11:13:19","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T18:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galencharlton.com\/blog\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2016-06-18T11:13:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T18:13:19","slug":"naming-and-responding-to-hate-yapcna-and-ala-annual-in-orlando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galencharlton.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/naming-and-responding-to-hate-yapcna-and-ala-annual-in-orlando\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming and responding to hate \u2014 YAPC::NA and ALA Annual in Orlando"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow we will drive to Orlando, as next week I’m attending two conferences: the Perl Conference (YAPC::NA<\/a>) and\u00a0the American Library Association’s Annual 2016 conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0professional concern shared\u00a0by my colleagues in software development\u00a0and libraries is the difficult problem of naming. Naming things, naming concepts, naming people (or better yet, using the names they tell us to use).<\/p>\n

Names have power; names can be misused.<\/p>\n

In light of what happened in Orlando on 12 June, the very least<\/em> we can do is to choose what\u00a0names we use carefully. What did happen? That morning, a man chose to kill 49 people\u00a0and injure 53 others\u00a0at a gay bar called the Pulse. A gay bar that was holding a Latin Night. Most of those killed were Latinx<\/a>; queer people of color, killed\u00a0in a spot that for many felt like home<\/a>. The dead have names<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Names are not magic spells, however. There is no one word we can utter that will undo what happened at the Pulse nor\u00a0immediately construct a perfect bulwark against the tide of hate. The software and library professions may be able to help reduce hate in the long run… but I offer no platitudes today.<\/p>\n

Sometimes what is called for is blood, or cold hard cash. If you are attending YAPC:NA or ALA Annual and want to help via some means identified by those conferences, here are options:<\/p>\n