[Foundation-l] Oral Citations project: People are Knowledge

Wed Jul 27 23:39:54 UTC 2011

Thank you Sarah. I knew I owed a public apology to other members of this list, but did not want to bring up my conduct again. I found that the discussion had since moved on and I could convey my feelings to Sarah privately.
I would like to publicly apologize to other readers for my past comments. I do not edit Wikipedia. I have no idea about the context of discussions on this particular mailing list. An old student referred me to the email this morning, and I signed up instantly to this mailing list for only the purpose of replying to that email. I realized that my knee-jerk reaction at the time was out of place and a complete over-reaction to what was being discussed. 
I have since then apologized to Sarah privately, and I do really hope she accepted it. I sincerely hope I didn't affect her enthusiasm and passion with my comments. My comments were clearly an over-sensitive reaction to the perceived content of the last email, I saw them out of context and I sincerely apologize for my conduct to everyone who read them.
It has been a while since I have been called a troll, though I am old enough to probably be considered one. I don't feel I have anymore to contribute. There seems to be a much more active discussion here than what I was expecting. As such, this would be my last email to this mailing list, I will be unsubscribe after this email - Troll or not. 
I wish everyone the best in their endeavors. I have nothing but good things to say about Wikipedia and what it is doing to change our world.
Best wishes
Maria Alameda

> Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:40:49 -0400
> From: sarah.stierch at gmail.com
> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Oral Citations project: People are Knowledge
> 
> Maria Alameda is not a troll. She apologized to me in a very sincere manner
> offlist. Culturally this is a very sensitive topic, and I have learned to
> deal with the criticism, weariness and lack of trust that people have
> towards the work I do based on my skin color and name. This is not the first
> time I have experienced sentiments like that, and I take each one very
> seriously. It's unfortunate, but, plenty of people have paved the way for
> folks like Maria to have the response she did. :-/
> 
> The other two..I'm not so sure.
> 
> On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 5:34 PM, M. Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > 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 at gmail.com>
> >
> > > On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 10:25 AM, Maria Alameda <m-alameda51 at 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
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > foundation-l mailing list
> > > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
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> Art<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SarahStierch>
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