Nathan, I think that Raul Gutierrez, Maria Alameda and "Elizabeth" are all
the same person, somebody trolling the list. While we occasionally get
single-issue new posters starting topics, it's rare to see them pop up in
the middle of a topic just to attack one user. Something fishy is definitely
going on here.
2011/7/27 Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com>
On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 10:25 AM, Maria Alameda
<m-alameda51(a)hotmail.com>
wrote:
Hello all
I usually don't comment on mailing lists but a colleague of mine referred
me
here. I wanted to comment on the issues related to Native-american
research raised earlier by Ms. Stierch. I found her outlook completely
isolated from the realities.
I would rather attribute her naivety to her
limited view of the world as
a fresh graduate. Personally, it reminds me of a
somewhat racist outlook
common among predominantly white-american graduates and students. While I
agree there is a need for more research related to Native american culture,
I really can't agree with the implication that Native american culture is as
overlooked as some unknown tribe in New Guinea.
I should be thankful for her enthusiasm but this
is ridiculous. I'm happy
for her residency at National museum of American
Indian(s) and her thesis or
even efforts to change certain policies on Wikipedia, but none of that is
connected with the much-larger cultural and race issues she's referring to.
While I wish her the best, I would hope she not use her thesis as an excuse
to comment on the realities of those cultural issues. Oral citation is just
one small aspect of a much larger culture she learnt in school.
I might be too sensitive here, but if her
comments were to be applied to
african-american culture in the United States coming
from a female
white-undergraduate student pursuing her masters, her comments on the plight
and the issues of an entire race would seem rather patronizing. Perhaps, its
just me.
Maria AlamedaM.A, Ph.d (Native American studies)
This seems like an over-reaction to me. It doesn't seem horribly
unlikely that Sarah is, if not alone, then among a very small group of
academics studying the intersection of Native Americans and Wikimedia
projects.
Were her descriptions of the challenges facing Native American
communities inaccurate?
Are you aware of outreach efforts by the WMF aimed at Native
Americans? (There are certainly many aimed at many other groups around
the world; the seeming absence of focus on Native Americans would
support Sarah's statement that they are "overlooked" in this regard).
Could you explain the specific errors she made that led you to call
her e-mail racist, patronizing and naive? I think if you are going to
use such strong words, then more substantial criticism is required
than simply stating that she is female, young and white.
Nathan
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