Hello,
What does the incriminated sentence actually mean?
"The Wikimedia movement does not endorse "race" and "ethnicity"
as
meaningful distinctions among people."
Does this mean that
* the WM is against; or
* that the WM is neutral on the topic?
And, after reading the English Wikipedia article about [[Ethnic
group]] (redirect from "ethnicity"), it seems that "ethnicity" can
mean many things.
Personally, I am very sure, if I asked e.g. the [[Sorbs]] in Eastern
Germany, that most of them are quite convinced that they form an
ethnic group.
Kind regards,
Ziko
Am Mo., 11. Apr. 2022 um 18:42 Uhr schrieb Dan Szymborski
<dszymborski(a)gmail.com>om>:
>
> It's almost as if ratifying an incomplete document based on vague framework and
future changes is a terrible idea.
>
> That this is coming up now is not the least bit surprising. It was brought up, along
with many things, during one of the arbitrarily endpointed "discussion" periods
that involved people in the Wiki movement asking questions and receiving next to no
substantive communication from people who were writing the document. You'd have better
luck asking the wishing well what it did with your penny.
>
> Dan
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 11, 2022 at 1:06 AM Peter Southwood <peter.southwood(a)telkomsa.net>
wrote:
>>
>> Definitions of terminology makes sense in any document that is intended as an
enforceable guide to behavior. Without them, whose definition applies? Cheers, Peter
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Lane Chance [mailto:zinkloss@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Saturday, April 9, 2022 11:17
>> To: Wikimedia Mailing List
>> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Re: Open letter on negating race and ethnicity as
"meaningful distinctions" in the UCoC
>>
>> It would make the UCoC easier to understand if there was a glossary on
>> the same page. A chosen definition of "race" or "ethnicity"
being used
>> in the context of this policy document may not be the same as exists
>> in the reader's head, how they describe their own identity, or as
>> might be used on their local language Wikipedia. This could then be
>> the place to distinguish the relevance to the policy of race versus
>> racism.
>>
>> In this thread we see stated as a fact that Jews are an ethnicity but
>> not a race, which could cause a big argument in its own right. See the
>> "Whoopi Goldberg" incident.
>>
>> Lane
>>
>> On Sat, 9 Apr 2022 at 01:19, Zachary T. <zach.ryan.tur(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Hi everyone,
>> >
>> > I think there's a misinterpretation here. Saying that race and ethnicity
aren't meaningful distinctions among people doesn't mean that racism doesn't
exist. That's a lot of negatives, but the way I see it, it's just recognizing that
race is in fact a social construct, and thus because of that it isn't truly
meaningful. I would suggest using inherently meaningful to clear up the confusion here,
because I think that more clearly expresses the sentiment.
>> >
>> > On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 4:23 PM Maggie Dennis <mdennis(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hello, Anasuya and Whose Knowledge.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> (Context for those who don’t know me: I am the Vice President of
Community Resilience & Sustainability, and among others I oversee the team shepherding
the UCoC process.)
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Thank you very much for raising this issue. Foundation staff have been
discussing this as well with the same points that you have raised, and it is something
we’ve been thinking about how to address.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> As probably many of you know, the plan all along had been to get the
UCoC policy, to get the enforcement approach, and then to see how they work together in
operation. Our plan has been to review the policy and enforcement approach together a year
after the ratification of Phase 2. However, we decided to prioritize a slower approach to
Phase 2 to make sure it was functional out the gate especially for the functionaries and
volunteers who enforce it, as a result of which the timeline we had imagined for Policy
review has been considerably pushed back. If we had made our preliminary time plan, we
would have started testing these out months ago. The Policy and Enforcement Guidelines
would have been ripe for review sometime around November 2022.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> As you all know, the vote has just concluded on the UCoC Phase 2. In the
vote, community members were asked if they supported it as written or not, with the
ability to provide feedback either way - with the notion that the feedback would help us
focus on major blockers to the enforcement approach. I have already spoken to several
members of the Board about some of the concerns that have been raised about the
enforcement guidelines; we’ve spoken about this passage in the Policy, too. I know from my
conversations with the Board that they want to get this done right, not just get it done -
and they are very open to understanding these major blockers.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> The project team is compiling a report for the Board on the challenging
points surfaced during the vote. We think the enforcement guidelines are a very good first
draft for the enforcement pathways, but–based on the comments we’ve seen–we are very aware
there may be more work ahead before we reach a Board ratified version of those guidelines.
As this passage in policy is not necessary to achieve the goal of the UCoC - which is to
forbid harassment and attacks based on personal factors including race and ethnicity - our
intention has been to recommend to the Board that the passage in question be reviewed
simultaneously with any further Phase 2 enforcement workshopping, instead of waiting for
the “year in operation” review intended.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> I still think it makes sense to review how the enforcement guideline and
policy work together to see how they are functioning once they have a trial period. But I
ALSO don’t think it makes any sense to hold off on reviewing a passage from policy that
community members (including some community members who are Foundation staff) strongly
agree may be actively harmful just because Phase 2 is taking longer than anticipated.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> I also want to say that I have spoken to some of the individuals who
were involved in writing the UCoC and understand fully that the intent of the composers
was to avoid any implication that racism and ethnic bias are valid. As you said, Anasuya -
honest intentions. I have spoken to many individuals who have felt personally hurt and
erased by the phrase in denying their lived reality. I have also spoken to others who have
feared that it makes it more difficult to talk about the actual harms of racism and
ethnocentrism by implying that such topics are taboo to discuss.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> We ourselves are learning from all of these perspectives and concerns to
ensure that people feel the representation they deserve. These conversations are hard, and
I’m grateful to the people who are willing to have them and doing their best to listen and
engage with empathy and respect. <3
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Best regards,
>> >>
>> >> Maggie
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 1:38 PM Anasuya Sengupta
<anasuya(a)whoseknowledge.org> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> Tl;dr Urgent need to address the note denying race and ethnicity as
“meaningful distinctions among people” 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 “The 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 ‘race’ as a biological distinction has
been refuted, ‘race’ as a social construct has been fully accepted by modern scholars.[3]
Even more importantly, we know historically that the concept of ‘race’ 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 “racial science” 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 ‘race’ 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 ‘endorsing’ the existence of race as a “meaningful
distinction among people”, 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 we’ve
said before, being silent about racism doesn’t 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 ‘ethnicity’ is used to create “meaningful” - including
violently discriminatory - “distinctions” amongst people, including Islamophobia and
anti-Semitism as two obvious examples. It is equally obvious that the concepts of ‘race’
and ‘ethnicity’ are not equivalent and/or interchangeable, and cannot be used so.
>> >>>
>> >>> By including such a problematic statement, the UCoC contradicts the
movement’s 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
doesn’t “see” race or ethnicity or acknowledge the historical and current effects of our
racialized and ethnically-driven world, cannot and will not be able to “focus our efforts
on the knowledge and communities that have been left out by structures of power and
privilege.”[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_…
>> >>>
>> >>> [1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Universal_Code_of_Conduct#3.1_%E2%80%93_Har…
>> >>>
>> >>> [2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Universal_Code_of_Conduct#%22The_Wikim…
>> >>>
>> >>> [3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(human_categorization)
>> >>>
>> >>> [4]
https://whoseknowledge.org/media-section/creative-commons-global-summit-201… and
https://whoseknowledge.org/media-section/toward-a-wikipedia-for-and-from-us…
>> >>>
>> >>> [5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2017#Our_strate…
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> --
>> >>> 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!
>> >>> 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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>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Maggie Dennis
>> >> She/her/hers
>> >> Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
>> >> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
>> >> _______________________________________________
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