[Foundation-l] A question for American Wikimedians

Wed Nov 17 22:43:09 UTC 2010

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).

-- phoebe