Dean Jonathan Holloway (who is African American) lent some critical historic context to this question in his welcome address to freshmen this year: http://yalecollege.yale.edu/open-conversation/yales-narrative-and-yours
musicprnt, I see a huge difference between that particular term and the clearly specious arguments about the association between darkness and badness having its origin in racism. The term “master-slave” obviously does have its origins in conceptions about the relationship between master and slave (duh!), even if not intended as a specific reference to American slavery. Here’s an article on the issue that I find persuasive: http://courseweb.lis.illinois.edu/~katewill/fall2009-lis590co/eglash%202007%20broken%20metaphor.pdf. If other languages can manage without that particular term, then so can English.
You assume that other languages have no equivalent usages? Why? Do they ban those usages?
Good God, Lergnom, do you think I’m an idiot? If not, please don’t address me as if you do. I don’t assume anything; the article to which I linked gives the terms commonly used in several other languages. It has nothing to do with “banning.”
The women Masters at Yale are also called Master, not Mistress. (As in “Master Smith.”) And they are referred to using that title. (My D worked in one’s office.)
The word “master” is used so frequently in so many different contexts. Like “masters” swim clubs for the older athletes, etc. The old, outdated meaning of the word never crossed my mind, but of course there is no reason why it would for me.
Yes, I can see a case for eliminating the word “slave” from all these other usages, but the word Master has widespread and mostly positive meanings in so many different contexts.
I wasn’t treating you like an idiot. I was engaging your comment. Sorry you took it that way.
Actually, they are addressed as “Master” all the time. It’s a title, just like Professor, and if you are going to address Master Smith, that’s what you’ll call him or her.
I had a long discussion about this with my daughter, who is a Yale student now. My view is that the term has nothing to do with master/slave, and that any sexist connotation should have been dissipated by the fact that there have been female residential college masters for decades–there was one in my college in the late seventies. We addressed her as “Master Skinner.” My daughter is more sympathetic to those who’d like to change the term, but mostly because people from outside Yale react negatively to it.
My suggestion was that it could be replaced by a non-gendered term, like “Overseer,” but she didn’t think that would fly.
I will go only so far as to say that if I were setting up a new system today, I’d probably use a different title. But my somewhat harsh response to this controversy is that people who are offended by the use of “Master” in this context don’t need accommodation; they need education.
Technology uses the term master/slave all the times and there is no complaint yet.
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/3022/en/
For me, the image that always came to mind upon hearing of “Master Smith” at Yale, was the scene and song from Les Miserables: “Master of the House”…keeper of the zoo… It was about the innkeeper and his customers. It seemed perfectly applicable. 
Master…
Masters of the Universe…
Men: He-Man
Women: She-Ra
Examples:
“Requesting permission to enter, He-Man Huxley.”
“May I turn the channel, She-Ra Smith?”
Many network protocols used on the Internet use master/slave terminology. Everyone who is offended should stop using Internet. Every time you open a CC page you most probably send traffic through the master or slave devices. By simply reading this forum you support these racist technologies.
Here is one of the glowing examples. Note how many times they use and repeat these bad words. And this is only one document but Cisco website contains hundreds of them!
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/6_x/nx-os/unicast/configuration/guide/b-7k-Cisco-Nexus-7000-Series-NX-OS-Unicast-Routing-Configuration-Guide-Release-6x/n7k_unicast_config_hsrp.html
Is anyone else sick to death of the PC language police?
No, because accusations of “political correctness” are usually just another right-wing rhetorical device; a way of saying “I’m outraged that my ability to insult people with impunity by using grossly offensive language is being hampered,”
No problem, Lergnom. As I said, the explanation is in the article I cited.
I think twisting some previously inocuous words into something offensive is ridiculous.
That may be true, but “political correctness” is more often used, in my opinion, to attack legitimate complaints by marginalized people about the insulting rhetoric used against them.
“Is anyone else sick to death of the PC language police?”
Language is frequently used as a weapon. It is used to perpetuate stereotypes. It is used to de-legitimize marginalized peoples. It is used to denigrate groups who have long fought for equality (“feminazis”, for example). It is used to confuse political issues (“migrants” vs “refugees”; “undocumented” vs “illegal aliens”, etc.)
If anything @tatinG we need MORE attention to the way language is used, IMO.
Donald Trump is a buffoon, but I think the reason he is popular now is that he doesn’t filter his language. I think people are tired of this mental filtering, afraid that was they say, even innocently, is going to be branded as ‘offensive’.
I often get tired of behaving politely.