History continues to be written by Anglos and it's just as apparent in Wikipedia..and add a male dominated voice, and well...that's history.
The same goes for topics about Native American subjects. I say it in my lecture about Indigenous peoples working with Wikipedia - it's just like any other history, it's primarily written by white males, and that has to change (followed with a picture of Kevin Costner). (I'm sure the same goes for other communities/races/ethnicity/skin colors articles, whatever you prefer, as well, these are just two areas I tend to write in..)
Malcolm X described history being "bleached," and I couldn't agree more.
And here is one of my favorite Onion slaps: http://www.theonion.com/articles/white-history-year-resumes,139/
Having dialogue like this is a great start - I'd love to see it develop into a larger community discussion, like the gender gap publicity did. There is a lot of work to do, but, if we can develop successes with women, I like to think we can develop opportunities with more specific communities - and perhaps both at the same time.
-Sarah
On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 7:28 PM, Brandon Harris bharris@wikimedia.orgwrote:
On 9/19/11 4:26 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
Here is an example of Caucasian bias: the en:WP article on [[hair straightening]].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_straightening
Despite the fact that this is a topic of great practical interest to black women, many of whom either have straightened their hair or have
thought about doing it, the
article makes no mention of afro hair, and the only two images are of
Caucasian women.
Topical to this, there is a documentary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Hair That points out that hair straightening (Relaxer) is a billion
dollar industry. This is a clear bias; I'm actually flabbergasted by this.
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