Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

As I understand it, "clanker" was a term created in star wars for people to refer to droids in a deliberately derogatory way. It is quite literally a racial slur created in a fictional universe, which people are now using against AI programs. Even I don't like it, and I'm pretty heavily anti-LLM


Can you help me understand what about this original usage is racial, and how it then extends to black people?


"Droids" could be considered a race in star wars, and it doesnt directly apply to black people, its used in a similar way

reply


Racism is a bias regarding humans, not machines. "Machine" is not a race.


There are many races in star wars, not all of which are humans. You could be racist against Gungans or Twi'lek if you wanted. Droids in star wars could be interpreted as fairly close to human in some cases, but are used as a slave race in probably a majority of cases


Nah, I don't think it extends to robots




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: