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Comment by deelowe | Hacker News Reader

Dixie cups aren't named after the south. They aren't even a southern company. They are named after the Dixie doll company of New York.

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OP never said they were named after the South. Just implied that having the same name could still be a problem. Github master branches have nothing to do with slavery but they still got rid of the term to avoid any possible connections one may make.

Fair enough. I guess some consider things like this progress, but it seems pretty silly to me. There are still plenty of females out there named Dixie. I guess they should start submitting their requests for a name change just in case, ya know, some ignorant person tries to accuse her family of racism...

In the current climate, that latter scenario doesn't seem that far-fetched.

They could pull a "Lady A" and rename them "D Cups", but that has connotations, too.

I think that kind of name change would require a novelty shape of cups...

I mean, you should see the replies to Red Hat ads on twitter. Origin really doesn't matter.

Twitter (and "social media" in general [0]) is an extreme outlier.

Cancel culture is real, and a bit of real progress might be happening too, but judging it simply based on twitter is like judging anything based on what the most abrasive drunks throw at each other in pubs.

[0] the big problem of twitter and FB is that really anyone can talk to anyone, just comment whatever their completely unsolicited opinion happens to be. there's no moderation. there are likes, but there's no downvote. at least on reddit each community can set and try to keep their norms. and HN has dang :)

According to this [1] the name Dixie Cups was intentionally chosen as a reference to the South

[1]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-unnatural-hi...

That's not at all what that states.

It references the Dixie doll company, "dixies" (ten dollar bills in Louisiana whose origin comes from "dix"), and "Ice Cream Dixies."

If you disagree, you can provide a direct quote.

The article states that its a reference to the steadfastness and reliability of Louisiana currency. My understanding is that that's where the term "Dixie" in the South came from. Some people believe that the shared etymology should be enough to cancel the term.

It's a bit tenuous, but it doesn't seem any less tenuous than the association between the "master" branch on git with the subjugation of slavic people.

Pretty sure Dixie comes from the Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania and Maryland.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie#Region

That's one theory, and another is that it came from Louisiana currency. My understanding is that the precise origins of the term are unclear.

ah, yes, farther down that wikipedia page that is mentioned... Never heard of it before.

This is worth a read: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/06/what-dix...

Dixie was a popular term around this time and has a few different origins. Again, in Louisiana, it was due to "dix" being the French word for 10. It states this in the article you linked. Eventually, Louisiana became known as "Dixieland" and the term ultimately was used to refer to all of the south. Dixie also came to be because of the Mason Dixon line, but this is not referenced anywhere in Dixie Cup's history. Again, they were a northern company.

Are you confusing them with Dixie Crystals?

Sorry I don't know what Dixie Crystals are. Just wanted to point out the shared lineage between Dixie Cups and the confederacy because it seemed topical

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