[Wikipedia-l] Racialisme

Fri Jan 31 09:32:25 UTC 2003

After reviewing the matter, I do have a few observations.

1.  I believe that Phillippe was acting in good faith in his efforts, 
and willing to adjust his writing to conform with community standards. 
 It is quite common for the first draught of an article to show bias in 
some way.  That only means that it requires improvement, rather than 
deletion.  Just because it happens to be about a sensitive subject like 
race, and that it attempts to give some explanation of the term doesn't 
mean that the writer believes or supports the idea that he is describing.

2. Just because the Académie doesn't recognize a word, doesn't mean that 
it's not a word.  Language changes faster than the Académie.

3. The difference between racism(e) and racialism(e) can be a difficult. 
 British usage treats the two terms as identical, but American usage 
makes an important distinction between the two words.  Saying that 
blacks run faster than whites would be a racialist expression but not a 
racist one.  The proportion of blacks who have won Olympic medals in the 
100 metre run suggests that the statement is true; it's what we do with 
that information that makes it racist.  (Perhaps if there were more 
blacks in the Académie, it might run faster. :-) )

4. The issue of violating French law didn't help solve any problems.. 
 Even assuming that the writing does violate French law it would be the 
job of a French judge to make that decision, not some individual who has 
decided that French law will be interpreted and imposed based on his own 
idiosyncratic view of that law.

5. There is a need to avoid oversensitivity with these subjects.  Often 
what seems racist to some readers can have no such intention in the 
mouth of the speaker.

Eclecticology