Thanks Anasuya. +1 to all of this!
For the backlog of specific change proposals like this that have been made
and not yet addressed/rebutted or implemented: how should these be sorted?
(Ditto for the possibility of implied revisions in the recent announcement)
Perhaps we could use more parallel drafts in order to compare specific
revisions.
šššš
On Fri., Apr. 8, 2022, 1:38 p.m. Anasuya Sengupta, <
anasuya(a)whoseknowledge.org> wrote:
Tl;dr Urgent need to address the note denying race and
ethnicity as
āmeaningful distinctions among peopleā in the Universal Code of Conduct
(UCoC). The current wording is highly problematic and can result in
endorsing systemic and individual discrimination and violence on the basis
of race and ethnicity, rather than preventing it.
Dear Wikimedians,
We are writing this letter as the Whose Knowledge? user group, both to
Wikimedia-l, as well as adding it to the talk page for the UCoC.[0] We
endorsed the UCoC in the community voting process because we are committed
to its principles and intentions (indeed, some of us have been expressly
working towards it within the movement for a very long time, in multiple
ways).
However, we continue to be deeply concerned about the current wording of a
specific note in the UCoC: under Section 3.1 about Harassment, the note
under Insults states that āThe Wikimedia movement does not endorse "race"
and "ethnicity" as meaningful distinctions among people. Their inclusion
here is to mark that they are prohibited in use against others as the basis
for personal attacks." (emphasis ours)[1]
This is both manifestly incorrect and entirely against what we believe to
be the principles and intentions of the UCoC. Other Wikimedians have
already pointed out the deeply contradictory nature of this statement,
including WJBScribe on the talk page in May 2021,[2] but their comments
appear not to have been considered yet.
By stating that "The Wikimedia movement does not endorse "race" and
"ethnicity" as meaningful distinctions among people," those responsible
for this text do not seem to fully grasp that:
-
Even though the concept of āraceā as a biological distinction has been
refuted, āraceā as a social construct has been fully accepted by modern
scholars.[3] Even more importantly, we know historically that the concept
of āraceā was created and developed to serve and justify European
colonialism in its quest to enslave, marginalize, oppress, dominate and
exterminate black, brown and indigenous peoples in the lands they
colonized. This form of āracial scienceā was also responsible for the
genocide of Europeans who would otherwise be racialized as white outside of
Europe, in particular during World War II. Since then the concept of āraceā
has been used to develop and create some of the most wide ranging systems
of power and privilege that currently marginalize and oppress the majority
of the world.
-
By denying or not āendorsingā the existence of race as a āmeaningful
distinction among peopleā, the Wikimedia movement is not doing non-white
people any favors or helping to end racism or racist demonstrations, such
as insults based on race. As weāve said before, being silent about racism
doesnāt make it go away. It only creates the perfect environment for the
continued existence of the deep structural powers and privileges that
created it in the first place.[4]
-
Additionally, it is equally manifestly important to acknowledge the
ways in which the concept of āethnicityā is used to create āmeaningfulā -
including violently discriminatory - ādistinctionsā amongst people,
including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism as two obvious examples. It is
equally obvious that the concepts of āraceā and āethnicityā are not
equivalent and/or interchangeable, and cannot be used so.
-
By including such a problematic statement, the UCoC contradicts the
movementās commitment to knowledge equity, clearly stated and approved as
part of our Wikimedia Movement Strategy for 2030. The Universal Code of
Conduct of a movement that doesnāt āseeā race or ethnicity or acknowledge
the historical and current effects of our racialized and ethnically-driven
world, cannot and will not be able to āfocus our efforts on the knowledge
and communities that have been left out by structures of power and
privilege.ā[5]
-
Leaving this wording in, also negates the ongoing efforts by
individuals and organizations across the movement who work with passion and
commitment towards knowledge equity in different ways, including through
challenging racist and ethnically discriminatory behavior in our projects.
As long-time members of our movement, we assume good faith, and recognize
that this current wording may have happened through honest intentions gone
badly wrong. As Wikimedians who believe in shared improvements through
collective editing, we hope that this mistake too will be immediately
acknowledged and removed from the UCoC. We are not entirely sure who is
ultimately responsible for this change, but if the Wikimedia Foundation
Board is in charge of reviewing the policy, we believe it is incumbent upon
the Board to share with us what possible next steps they will take, towards
this.
We look forward to a UCoC that lives up to its principles and intentions,
and we commit to its practice as Wikimedians.
With love, respect, and solidarity,
Adele and Anasuya with the Whose Knowledge? team, advisors, and friends
[0]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Universal_Code_of_Conduct#Open_Letter_ā¦
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct#3.1_%E2%80%93_Harā¦
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Universal_Code_of_Conduct#%22The_Wikimā¦
[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_categorization)
[4]
https://whoseknowledge.org/media-section/creative-commons-global-summit-201ā¦
and
https://whoseknowledge.org/media-section/toward-a-wikipedia-for-and-from-usā¦
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017#Our_strateā¦
--
*Anasuya Sengupta*
+44 7367 868585
*Reimagining and redesigning the internet to be for and from us all*
http://whoseknowledge.org
*We just launched the first ever State of the Internet's Languages report
<http://internetlanguages.org>!*
*There can be no love without justice... The moment we choose to love we
begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose
to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate
ourselves and others.*
*(bell hooks)*
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