Here is an example of Caucasian bias: the en:WP article on [[hair straightening]]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_straightening Despite the fact that this is a topic of great practical interest to black women, many of whom either have straightened their hair or have thought about doing it, the article makes no mention of afro hair, and the only two images are of Caucasian women. This article seems to fail a demographic of millions; and by failing these millions, we are also curtailing our chances of recruiting editors from this demographic, because it is likely to leave them with the impression that Wikipedia is not written for them.
A.
--- On Mon, 19/9/11, Andreas Kolbe jayen466@yahoo.com wrote:
From: Andreas Kolbe jayen466@yahoo.com Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Black skins To: "Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects" gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Monday, 19 September, 2011, 13:59
My impression is that we have an appalling dearth of photographs of black people generally, just like our coverage of black topics in general is wanting, including such basic areas as hair care and skin care. Articles on black intellectuals are often either poor stubs, or get deleted for erroneous assertions of lack of notability. In my opinion, we need a major outreach to African studies scholars, and black media, because we are missing out on the knowledge people of colour could bring to the project. Andreas
--- On Mon, 19/9/11, Sydney Poore sydney.poore@gmail.com wrote:
From: Sydney Poore sydney.poore@gmail.com Subject: Re: [Gendergap] Black skins To: "Increasing female participation in Wikimedia projects" gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Date: Monday, 19 September, 2011, 13:28
Very interesting point.
Sydney
On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 8:06 AM, Arnaud HERVE arnaudherve@x-mail.net wrote:
On 17/09/2011 22:40, Emily Monroe wrote:
I remember accessing Wikipedia several times throughout my teenaged
years; we cannot expect all of our readers to be an adult with a
better understanding of anatomy.
Just a quick note here : I've been talking to a dermatologist and she
tells me one of the main issues is black women taking all sorts of meds
to lighten their skin.
It is often detrimental to health, and also it leads to considerable
money loss in impoverished families, and unnecessary sorrow.
I just thought Wikipedia should be aware of that. Here (fr)
dermatologist are recruiting black women in the medical sector to lead
campaigns against that.
I guess one of the ways would be to show dark black women pictures more
often, not just light brown.
Arnaud
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