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…
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)
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines
at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
>
>
> --
> Maggie Dennis
> She/her/hers
> Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability
> Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines
and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
To
unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org…
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave(a)lists.wikimedia.org