fortune in the default Ubuntu install contains racist terms

[Phil Thurmon]

Binary package hint: fortune-mod

The fortune package in the default Ubuntu install contains entries that are considered highly racist. These entries have no legitimate purpose that I'm aware of.

Examples from /usr/share/games/fortunes/riddles && riddles.u8:

riddles:Q: Why is it that Mexico isn't sending anyone to the '84 summer games?
riddles:A: Anyone in Mexico who can run, swim or jump is already in LA.
riddles.u8:Q: Why is it that Mexico isn't sending anyone to the '84 summer games?
riddles.u8:A: Anyone in Mexico who can run, swim or jump is already in LA.
fortunes:Beware of a tall black man with one blond shoe.
fortunes.u8:Beware of a tall black man with one blond shoe.
fortunes:Q: What do you call a half-dozen Indians with Asian flu?
fortunes:A: Six sick Sikhs (sic).

And numerous "WASP" (A racist term sometimes used to disparage white people) entries

[Phil Thurmon (perdurabo)]

As a point of perspective, it should be noted that this issue was discovered when a hispanic student had the above "Mexico" joke pop up on their screen.

[Andreas Simon (andreas-w-simon)]

I can confirm that these fortunes are in fortunes-min.
They probably should belong to fortunes-off

[Bruce Cowan (bruce89-deactivatedaccount)]

I have another to add to this list:
Q: Why don't Scotsmen ever have coffee the way they like it?
A: Well, they like it with two lumps of sugar. If they drink
 it at home, they only take one, and if they drink it while
 visiting, they always take three.
Mind you, this is fair assessment of East Coast Scots.

[Phil Thurmon (perdurabo)]

I concur with Bruce on his assessment. Although as a Scottish-American, I would deem this an observation and not a joke!

But in all seriousness, the "jokes" I submitted this bug about do harbor deep resentment for their respective races, at least in America. Due to Ubuntu's excellent usability, it tends to be used by many children, and these really have no place here by default.

But I'll shut up as I don't want to get too politically-correct. The Ubuntu folks are handling it.

[Christopher Monahan (foreverwatcher)]

Point in case:

Q: What's the contour integral around Western Europe?
A: Zero, because all the Poles are in Eastern Europe!

Addendum: Actually, there ARE some Poles in Western Europe, but they
 are removable!

Since when does the international operating system of Ubuntu support nazism?

[trojjer (trojjer)]

This is not fixed! I've just seen the "Six six Sikhs" one featured as an MOTD in Linux Mint's Terminal, and it's the most recent version based on Ubuntu 9.10. Apologies if this is genuinely fixed in Ubuntu, but I suspect that it's still there too despite this thread opening in 2007...

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

It appears this bug as defined was resolved in 2009, when fortune-mod was removed from the default Ubuntu install (by me, as it happens, for reasons unrelated to this bug report).

The linked Debian bug was also resolved in 2009.

For further current discussion about offensive fortunes in this package, please see LP: #1996682.