# LA City Council bans "master-slave" hard drive terminology as culturally insensitive **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 26, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-city-council-bans-master-slave-hard-drive-terminology-as-culturally-insensitive/215468 "2003-11-26T22:51:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-city-council-bans-master-slave-hard-drive-terminology-as-culturally-insensitive/215468/1 "2003-11-26T22:51:10Z")
I honestly had to double check and see that the date was not April 1st when I saw this story. [County deletes ‘master-slave’ PC term](http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1791069,00.html) > [@](#): > > By Troy Anderson , Staff Writer > > Los Angeles County officials have gone PC (politically correct) on PCs (personal computers) – banning as potentially “offensive or defamatory” the words master and slave from computer hard drives and video equipment where they are used to describe primary and secondary circuits. > > Under orders from the affirmative action office, county departments have surveyed about 1,000 pieces of equipment and taped over “master/slave” and put “primary/secondary” on the equipment, officials said. > > Joe Sandoval, division manager of purchasing and contract services in the Internal Services Department, started the flap with a memo to electronic equipment vendors saying the county wants master and slave labeling removed from computer equipment it buys ---
**Author:** ![BuckleberryFerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-city-council-bans-master-slave-hard-drive-terminology-as-culturally-insensitive/215468/2 "2003-11-26T23:08:10Z")
There’s a Pit thread [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225611) if you’re interested. Personally, I find the concept incredibly childish. I don’t think there’s anything even remotely offensive to it. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-city-council-bans-master-slave-hard-drive-terminology-as-culturally-insensitive/215468/3 "2003-11-26T23:36:39Z")
The term is also used for intercoms. I guess that will be next… ---
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-city-council-bans-master-slave-hard-drive-terminology-as-culturally-insensitive/215468/4 "2003-11-27T00:55:29Z")
Just curious…why are the circuits called master/slave instead of primary/secondary in the first place? I’m not offended by the terminology applied to inanimate objects, but this nomenclature sems a bit peculiar. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-city-council-bans-master-slave-hard-drive-terminology-as-culturally-insensitive/215468/5 "2003-11-27T01:05:11Z")
Moving this to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/la-city-council-bans-master-slave-hard-drive-terminology-as-culturally-insensitive/215468/6 "2003-11-27T01:20:37Z")
There is also a master cylinder and slave cylinders in the brake systems of most cars. Master and slave are not necessarily the same as primary and secondary. In a lot of systems, the secondary unit can function independently if the primary system goes out. A slave unit cannot function if the master system goes foo. I hope they void their warranties when they re-label equipment. This is every bit as silly as deleting the word sewage from sewage - oops, I mean wastewater - - treatment. That was done decades ago. (It’s just been a few years since they banned the word sludge because it had ‘negative connotations.’ Don’t get me started.)