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.org> wrote:

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.

_______________________________________________
Gendergap mailing list
Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap

--
GLAMWIKI Partnership Ambassador for Wikimedia
Wikipedian-in-Residence, Archives of American Art
and
Sarah Stierch Consulting

Historical, cultural & artistic research & advising.
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sarahstierch.com/