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A comment on Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names like ‘Dick’ and ‘Cummings’. Parent comment

Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by coldcode on Sunday January 12, 2020 @09:13AM (#22026341)
Caucasian is a funny word to apply to Europeans since its a part of the area around present day Georgia and is a highly diverse ethnic mix of people which most people would classify as Central Asian (like Turks and Armenians for instance). Not exactly what you would think would be "white" which is what many Americans assume it means.
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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by isquared23 on Sunday January 12, 2020 @10:50AM (#22026773)
It does mean white/of European origin in American English. Just like entree means main dish. Both don’t correspond to the original meaning of the words. You can find similar shifts in meaning in other languages too (e.g., German calls a mobile/cell phone “Handy” which makes no sense to a native English speaker).

I question the wisdom of telling native speakers that their language uses a word wrong/that doesn’t mean what “they assume it means”. Stuff in AE (and other language) means exactly what AE speakers (and speakers of other languages) assume it means.

Cau·ca·sian /kôˈkāZHən/ NORTH AMERICAN white-skinned; of European origin.

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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by kps on Sunday January 12, 2020 @11:32AM (#22027153)
‘Handy’ comes from the WWII ‘handie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to hold in the hand¹, which followed the ‘walkie talkie’, a transceiver small enough to walk around with².

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portable_radio_SCR536.png

² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scr300.png

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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by Izkata on Sunday January 12, 2020 @06:13PM (#22030386)
Meanwhile, at least in the modern US, "walkie talkie" is the name of the handheld unit and "handie talkie" would get weird looks because it's not really known.
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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by detaro on Monday January 13, 2020 @02:57AM (#22032665)
Same in Germany when you're talking about radios.
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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by marton78 on Sunday January 12, 2020 @12:45PM (#22027685)
I find that highly doubtful, since around 50 years passed between WWII and the advent of mobile phones. I heard that "handy" was some early model by Motorola.
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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by mygo on Sunday January 12, 2020 @12:59PM (#22027796)
And why did Motorola name it the “handy”?
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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by woah on Sunday January 12, 2020 @01:38PM (#22028140)
Probably because it was handy.
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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by choward on Sunday January 12, 2020 @12:50PM (#22027724)
I wonder if "Cauc" would be flagged.
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Re:Lyft’s algorithm is trying to block people with names lik... by dylan604 on Sunday January 12, 2020 @10:08AM (#22026566)
> Not exactly what you would think would be "white" which is what many Americans assume it means.

Because that's exactly how some people teach the definition to mean.[0] I've always been told that to the people in Persia, the people that came across the Caucasus were much more pale skinned. Teachings also say those same people helped populate Europe. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people

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