Here is the deletion log, for reference, regarding "African American women" it looks like the desire was to have it used as a main category and then have sub categories added to it, and I think that makes sense, but I also understand some aren't categorized.
How come Kara Walker, who identifies strongly as a black female artist, is generalized as an "African American woman" when I'd rather see her as an African American female artist. I guess that's too detailed, but, for me, as a researcher who writes primarily about African American and Native American artists, I desire categories like this to make my research easier. Instead I get a generic list of African American artists which is so incomplete: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_African-American_visual_artists I also get told I desire to "categorize in a way too detailed manner" and that my own writing style is "too high brow for Wikipedia" then I find my articles getting simplified in a manner that pains me to read. :P And that's writing about art.
Some of the rationale is interesting, and honestly, as a white person who writes about African American artists, the need for non-white people to contribute to Wikipedia is as important as closing the gender gap in general. I know quite a few people who would disagree with statements like this, not only does it read poorly for the sake of policy, it reads poorly in general. It offends me, and I'm anglo. Who the hell wants to contribute to a website when you read people stating that your own culture and community is not 'worthy of.."
"Being African American is not in itself worthy of categorisation, so the articles at the top level should be removed"
I also found these entertaining:
Someone else argues that "Oh yes, African American women's history is a valid scholarly field." The fact that even needs to be argued makes me scratch my head (I feel sorry that the person has to waste their breath to explain that!)
Another states that it's sexist if there isn't a category for "African American male artists" or whatnot.
WOW someone brings up the concept of the term African American being "moot because of the One Drop Rule" are you kidding me? If African American is moot how come so many people identify as "black" or "African American" in America? /facepalm
It's situations like this where we desperately need the input of not only African Americans, or non-white individuals, but, also people with scholarly backgrounds who are educated in these topic areas. Just the fact that the guy would bring up the one drop room and declare African American moot is enough to make my revisionist self foam at the mouth.
I don't know much about female sports and Asian American tennis players to provide much of an opinion. :-/
Sorry you've been put through so much and disappointed by policies regarding categorization. This mailing list is a safe place to share your thoughts and feelings!