[Wikipedia-l] Racialisme

Jimmy Wales jwales at bomis.com
Fri Jan 31 12:40:06 UTC 2003


It's very difficult to work with babelfish translations, or
with *any* translation, because the difference between POV and
NPOV can be lost in a particular translation.  Language is subtle,
and nuance matters a lot.

> "Historically, there are many reasons to justify the anti-semitism,
> including factors social, economic, national, political, racial and
> religious."

As written, this is POV, because it implies (but barely) that the
reasons were valid justifications.  It could be made more neutral by
saying "Historically, many reasons have been given by the anti-semitic
to justify their anti-semitism, including ..."

That's a fact, an unobjectionable one, which doesn't commit wikipedia
to implicitly endorsing or condemning anything.

> "The Jews are people of a race distinctly different from the other
> people.  The discrimination based on such a distinction is thus
> valid"

This is impossible to render in NPOV.  The best that could be done is
to indicate that _some anti-semites believe_ such-and-such.  It is
*not* the position of wikipedia to decide such issues as whether or
not Jews are "people of a race", nor (even more so) to ever claim
that discrimination based on such a distinction is valid.

> I apologize french wikipedians for there rudness with Philippe, but
> we don't tolerate this kind of sentences on the french wikipedia !

You are right not to tolerate this kind of sentence.  Absolutely
right.

But, not becaue of French law!  Because of NPOV.

--Jimbo



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