On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 2:05 PM, Fred Bauder <fredb...@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 _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l