On 5/20/06, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
What if they are famous rather than infamous? Is it ok to give the ethnicity a bit of a "boost"? One such issue I recall seeing was on [[Freddie Mercury]] - how important are his Indian or Persian origins?
I don't mind if the rules are different for "positive" vs "negative" articles - it's a bit of a violation of NPOV, but not a major one.
I personally don't mind if it's a positive association, or a very interesting one, though again you have to be careful. Pointing out that someone is a British Muslim mathematician sounds a bit odd. And we wouldn't say a person was a Celtic scientist, so why a Jewish one?
I prefer to add it only when it's relevant to their bio. For example, saying that Freud was a Jewish psychoanalyst would be okay because his background in Judaism played a large part in the development of his ideas (though the current intro doesn't mention it).
Sarah