[Foundation-l] A question for American Wikimedians

[Anirudh Bhati]

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 4:13 AM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 2:05 PM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>>> For some time I am a bit puzzled by the fact that I don't know any
>>> African American Wikimedian. For some time just because I am living in
>>> a European country without African population, so everything seemed to
>>> me quite normal for a long time.
>>>
>>> I tried to make a parallel between Roma people and African Americans,
>>> but it is not a good one. It is very hard to find a Roma with
>>> university degree. At the other side, two former State Secretaries are
>>> African Americans and present US president is almost, too.
>>>
>>> What are the reasons? Why American Wikimedian community is exclusively
>>> white?
>>>
>>> Maybe the answer to that question would give us an idea what should we
>>> solve to get more contributors.
>>
>> The short answer:
>
> <snip>
> this seems like a whole lot of unfounded (and fairly offensive)
> generalizations? If you're really making a class-based argument, then
> yes, I think the privileges of having free time, a decent education
> and good internet access are all class-correlated to some extent and
> are all likely prerequisites for becoming a Wikipedian -- and that's
> applicable everywhere. But class cuts across ethnicity and gender; you
> can make the same arguments about poor white people, or whoever. (For
> what it's worth, I grew up in a rural area that was lily-white but
> very poor, and very poorly educated; urban demographics aren't the
> only part of the U.S. to consider).

These generalizations would still apply had we been talking about the
Na'vi People. :)

What we are discussing is more of a social issue than an inherent
systemic bias in the guiding philosophy of the project or the
software.  The barriers to becoming a long-term Wikipedia contributor
are very low for a developed country like the United States viz.
education, electricity, computer and an internet connection.

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 3:35 AM, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>
> The short answer: Wikipedia editors are volunteers and African-Americans
> rarely volunteer.

Apart from the evidence Phoebe put up,* it could be that
African-Americans do not formally register themselves for volunteering
programmes.  However, they probably have more pressing needs and
priorities than contributing to Wikimedia projects.

*http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/assets/resources/FactSheetFinal.pdf

>
> The medium answer: African-American editors often edit only articles
> which relate to African-American and do that in a point of view way.

I am quite convinced, that is what I have personally witnessed over
the last few years.

>
> The long answer: large blocks of African-American are oppressed,
> unemployed, poorly educated, and computer illiterate. Those that are
> educated and prosperous tend to be too busy, and as said, are not in the
> habit of volunteering.

Absolutely, a large number of African-Americans are very poor and
semi-literate; they make up 14% of the US population and receive 37%
of its welfare payments.  This has got nothing to do with race, first
and second generation immigrants from Asia and even black immigrants
from countries like Jamaica are relatively better off than
African-American families that have been citizens for generations and
feeding off welfare without any change in their social circumstances.

The culprit is welfarism, not "black culture" (as some other
commentators refer to).  Cultures are often a symptom of the political
systems they exist in.

>
> All that said, we need to be as welcoming as possible, create good
> Wikipedia editing projects for them to plug into, and reach out when the
> opportunity arises.

Agreed. :)

On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 12:14 AM, Milos Rancic <millosh at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Inside of the other private email I've got an interesting data related
> to Twitter usage. American Twitter population consists 25% of African
> Americans, which is more than twice more than their population [13].

Contributing to our projects requires more than a computer and lulz.
Wikipedia is serious business. :)

What I mean to say is that we will tend to attract serious
contributors compared to any social networking website that is chiefly
used for entertainment.

anirudh