On May 20, 2006, at 7:06 AM, Steve Bennett wrote:
"John
Allen Muhammad (born John Allen Williams on December 31, 1960)
is an American serial killer. Together with his younger partner Lee
Boyd Malvo, he carried out the Beltway sniper attacks in an apparent
attempt to extort $10 million dollars during his shooting spree."
Out of curiosity, why do you think nationality ("American") is
relevant, but
not race, place of birth etc?
Well, it's a prima facie indication of where the person's
gallivanting around took place. "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an American
basketball player" tells us, okay, he's in the US, which is big on
basketball, if he was a Canadian basketball player, that would be a
little different, even if he did play in America. ("Stephen John Nash
(born February 7, 1974 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a Canadian
All-Star National Basketball Association player for the Phoenix
Suns." makes it clear that he did play in America.)
Always cite nationality in the first sentence; if the person had a
significant-place-of-gallivanting-around other than their home
country, cite that place-of-gallivanting-around in the first sentence
as well. "Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO, Legion
of Honour (August 16, 1888 – May 19, 1935), professionally known as
T.E. Lawrence and, later, T.E. Shaw, but most famously known as
Lawrence of Arabia, gained international renown for his role as a
British liaison officer during the Arab Revolt of 1916 to 1918. "
establishes he's British, but he did a lot of gallivanting-around in
Arabia.
Can we formalise some guidelines? When is race
relevant? Presumably if someone is the victim of a race hate
crime...but
when else? I don't think in an encyclopaedia we can ever refrain from
mentioning something like that, but we can take "not relevant" to
mean "not
in the lead".
"Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972),
became the first African American Major League Baseball player of the
modern era in 1947." is a good example of citing race where relevant.
--
Philip L. Welch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Philwelch