[R] Inappropriate color name

Mitchell Maltenfort
Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:25:04 -0000

What about just amputating the final "n?"

"Indian" might mean one of two things, but "India" is pretty
distinct.



On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 4:10 PM T. A. Milne via R-help <r-help at
r-project.org>
wrote:

>
> Apologies to the list for continuing a thread which is clearly off-topic.
> However, contacting the maintainer of an R package to complain about this
> specific color name seems ill-considered.
>
> 1)  The name "indian red" is a part of widely-used color schemes
> everywhere, not just in R.  It's the color defined as:
>
> "The color indianred / Indian red with hexadecimal color code #cd5c5c
is a
> shade of red. In the RGB color model #cd5c5c is comprised of 80.39% red,
> 36.08% green and 36.08% blue. In the HSL color space #cd5c5c has a hue of
> 0? (degrees), 53% saturation and 58% lightness. This color has an
> approximate wavelength of 611.37 nm."
>
> https://encycolorpedia.com/cd5c5c
>
>
> 2)  The "indian" in the color name refers to ferric oxide,
historically
> sourced from India.  Per Wikipedia:
>
> "The name Indian red derives from the red laterite soil found in
India,
> which is composed of naturally occurring iron oxides.[citation needed] The
> first recorded use of Indian red as a color term in English was in
1672.[3"
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_red_(color)
>
>
> Given the name refers to the locus of the ferric oxide source, It isn't
> obvious that any particular group should be offended by the name.
>
>
> --  T. Arthur Milne
>
>
> > On Nov 16, 2020, at 5:46 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner at
auckland.ac.nz>
> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 17 Nov 2020 07:54:01 +1100
> > Jim Lemon <drjimlemon at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Hi Elaine,
> >> There seems to be a popular contest to discover offence
everywhere. I
> >> don't think that it does anything against racism, sexism or
> >> antidisestablishmentarianism. Words are plucked from our vast
lexicon
> >> to comfort or insult our fellows depending upon the intent of the
> >> user. It is the intent that matters, not the poor word. Chasing
the
> >> words wastes your time, blames those who use the words harmlessly,
> >> and gives the real offender time to find another epithet.
> >>
> > Jim:  This is superbly expressed.  I wish that I could have said
> > that! Your posting should go down in the annals of brilliant rhetoric,
> > alongside Dr. Johnson's "Letter to Lord Chesterfield".
> >
> > cheers,
> >
> > Rolf
> >
> You know, I wouldn?t have continued this thread (which has now wandered
> off topic from the original somewhat-more-technical question), but I feel
> now like it?s necessary to do so (and only fair, if anyone is considering
> moderating me after letting these posts by):
>
> That is a view commonly held by white people, and even more overwhelmingly
> by white men. Our field is already not as diverse as it should be for a
> variety of reasons, and this ?pretending no one else on earth exists? kind
> of stuff is at least some part of the reason. The question at issue here
> aside, white men complaining about people finding racism or sexism
> everywhere they look doesn?t pass the sniff test. Most or all of these
> things that people are reporting as offensive are being reported by people
> you?re clearly not listening to.
>
> Further, impact is what matters. If I step on your foot, I apologize,
> regardless of whether or not it was intentional, because it?s the right
> thing to do. If someone tells you ?that thing you?re saying is offensive or
> is hurting me? and you say ?I didn?t mean it,? and then keep right on doing
> it, what does it say to the person on the receiving end of it? All anyone
> that is being ?blamed,? as you put it, is being asked to do is to try to do
> better next time.
>
> --
> #BlackLivesMatter
> ____
> || \\UTGERS,     |---------------------------*O*---------------------------
> ||_// the State  |         Ryan Novosielski - novosirj at rutgers.edu
> || \\ University | Sr. Technologist - 973/972.0922 (2x0922) ~*~ RBHS Campus
> ||  \\    of NJ  | Office of Advanced Research Computing - MSB C630, Newark
>      `'
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]