Racial bias on Wikipedia

The English Wikipedia has been criticized for having a systemic racial
bias in its coverage. This stems in part from an under-representation of
people of color within its editor base.[1] In "Can History Be Open
Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past," it is noted that article
completeness and coverage is dependent on the interests of
Wikipedians, not necessarily on the subject matter itself.[2] The past
president of Wikimedia D.C., James Hare, noted that "a lot of black
history is left out" of Wikipedia, due to articles predominately being
written by white editors.[3] Articles that do exist on African topics are, Edit-a-thon for Black History Month
according to some, largely edited by editors from Europe and North at Howard University, a historically-
America and thus reflect only their knowledge and consumption of black university
media, which "tend to perpetuate a negative image" of Africa.[4]
Maira Liriano of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture, has argued that the lack of information regarding black
history on Wikipedia "makes it seem like it's not important."[5]

Different theories have been provided to explain these racial

discrepancies. Jay Cassano, writing for Fast Company magazine,
argued that Wikipedia's small proportion of black editors is a result of
the small black presence within the technology sector, and a relative
lack of reliable access to the Internet.[5] Katherine Maher, executive
director of the Wikimedia Foundation, has argued that the specific
focuses in Wikipedia's content are representative of those of society as
a whole. She said that Wikipedia could only represent that which was
referenced in secondary sources, which historically have been
favorable towards and focused on white men.[6] "Studies have shown Edit-a-thon for Visual Artists of the
that content on Wikipedia suffers from the bias of its editors – [who African Diaspora at the Joan Mitchell
are] mainly technically inclined, English-speaking, white-collar men Center, hosted by Black Lunch Table
living in majority-Christian, developed countries in the Northern in New Orleans
hemisphere".[7]

In addition to the racial bias on Wikipedia, public encyclopedias are generally vulnerable to vandalism by hate
groups like white nationalists.[8]

Contents
Research findings and analysis
Responses
See also
References
External links
Research findings and analysis
A challenge for editors trying to add Black history articles to Wikipedia is the requirement that potential article
topics, such as historical individuals or events, meet Wikipedia's "notability" criteria.[7] Sara Boboltz of
HuffPost wrote that the Wikipedia notability criteria "…is a troubling problem for those fighting for more
content about women and minorities", because "…there's simply less [published] documentation on many
accomplished women and minorities throughout history -- they were often ignored, after all, or forced to make
their contributions as someone else's assistant".[7]

Maher stated that one issue is that "…content on Wikipedia has to be backed up by secondary sources, sources
that she says throughout history have contained a bias toward white men"; "…people of color have not been
represented in mainstream knowledge creation or inclusion in that knowledge," as "…encyclopedias of old
were mostly written by European men."[6]

According to Peter Reynosa, "there is an underrepresentation of Latinos who write for Wikipedia." He asks,

And what does it mean if there is a lack of Latinos editing and writing Wikipedia entries? What’s
the harm? The answer: many topics may remain uncovered, or at the least these topics will not be
given the attention they deserve. There is also the issue of bias: White males don’t always
accurately portray topics that relate to minorities.[9]

In 2018 the Southern Poverty Law Center criticized Wikipedia for being "vulnerable to manipulation by neo-
Nazis, white nationalists and racist academics seeking a wider audience for extreme views."[10] According to
the SPLC, "Civil POV-pushers can disrupt the editing process by engaging other users in tedious and
frustrating debates or tie up administrators in endless rounds of mediation. Users who fall into this category
include racialist academics and members of the human biodiversity, or HBD, blogging community... In recent
years, the proliferation of far-right online spaces, such as white nationalist forums, alt-right boards and HBD
blogs, has created a readymade pool of users that can be recruited to edit on Wikipedia en masse... The
presence of white nationalists and other far-right extremists on Wikipedia is an ongoing problem that is
unlikely to go away in the near future given the rightward political shift in countries where the majority of the
site’s users live."[10] The SPLC cited the article Race and intelligence as an example of the alt-right influence
on Wikipedia, stating that at that time the article presented a "false balance" between fringe racialist views and
the "mainstream perspective in psychology."[10]

In June 2020, Wikipedia was described in Slate as a "Battleground for Racial Justice" in response to criticisms
of neutrality, coverage of George Floyd and his murder, Black Lives Matter, and article deletion nominations
for the founders of Black Birders Week.[11]

Responses
Attempts have been made to rectify racial biases through edit-a-thons, organised events at which Wikipedia
editors attempt to improve coverage of certain topics and train new editors. In February 2015, multiple edit-a-
thons were organised to commemorate Black History Month in the United States.[12] One such edit-a-thon
was organized by the White House to create and improve articles on African Americans in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).[6] The Schomburg Center, Howard University, and
National Public Radio, also coordinated edit-a-thons to improve coverage of black history.[3] "Wikipedia
editors… have held 'edit-a-thons,'" to "....encourage others to come learn how to…contribute content on
subjects that have been largely ignored."[7] Liriano has endorsed Wikipedia edit-a-thons, stating that for
Wikipedia's content to "…be representative, everyone has to participate."
In 2015 and 2016, the Schomburg Center held a "Black Lives
Matters" edit-a-thon to coincide with Black History Month. Volunteer
editors added coverage about Black historical individuals and about
key concepts in black culture (e.g., about the Harlem Book Fair and
about Black costume designer Judy Dearing).[7] New articles about
Black history and Black historical individuals were also created. The
2016 edit-a-thon was organized by AfroCROWD.[13]

Wikipedia editors Michael Mandiberg and Dorothy Howard have

organized diversity-themed edit-a-thons to "…help raise awareness of Sherry Antoine of AfroCROWD
presents at WikiConference North
some of the glaring holes on Wikipedia, and the need for people with
America, August 2017
diverse backgrounds and knowledge to fill them".[6] Liriano stated
"It's really important that people of color know that there's this gap" of
coverage of Black history on Wikipedia "…and they can correct it"
by participating as editors.[7] In the US, the National Science Foundation has provided $200,000 to fund
research on the issue of bias in the coverage of topics in Wikipedia.[7] The National Science Foundation has
commissioned two studies of why there is bias in Wikipedia editing.[6]

The Wikimedia Foundation is trying to deal with the issue of racial bias in Wikipedia. In 2015, it was reported
that the Wikimedia Foundation made numerous grants "…to organizations in the "Global South"—including
Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East—with plans to improve [coverage of Global South topics in]
Wikipedia."[7] While Wikipedia supports these edit-a-thons, the organization has always stressed that adequate
citations must always be present and neutrality must always be maintained.[9] Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy
Wales has stated that the Wikimedia Foundation has "completely failed" to meet its goals of resolving the lack
of diversity amongst Wikipedia editors.[6]

See also
Criticism of Wikipedia
Gender bias on Wikipedia
Geographical bias on Wikipedia

References
1. Melamed, Samantha. "Edit-athon aims to put left-out black artists into Wikipedia" (http://articles.
philly.com/2015-03-26/entertainment/60480419_1_new-artists-american-art-philadelphia-muse
um). Philly.com. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160304092911/http://articles.philly.co
m/2015-03-26/entertainment/60480419_1_new-artists-american-art-philadelphia-museum)
from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
2. Rosenzweig, Roy (1 June 2006). "Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of
the Past" (https://academic.oup.com/jah/article/93/1/117/813367). Journal of American History.
93 (1): 117–146. doi:10.2307/4486062 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F4486062). ISSN 0021-8723
(https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0021-8723). JSTOR 4486062 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/44860
62).
3. Smith, Jada. "Howard University Fills in Wikipedia's Gaps in Black History" (https://www.nytime
s.com/2015/02/20/us/at-howard-a-historically-black-university-filling-in-wikipedias-gaps-in-colo
r.html). The New York Times. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150223151613/http://ww
w.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/us/at-howard-a-historically-black-university-filling-in-wikipedias-gap
s-in-color.html) from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
 4. Goko, Colleen. "Drive launched to 'Africanise' Wikipedia" (http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/tec
hnology/2013/09/23/drive-launched-to-africanise-wikipedia). BusinessDay. Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20150706190945/http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/technology/2013/09/23/d
rive-launched-to-africanise-wikipedia) from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 13 April
2015.
5. Cassano, Jay. "Black History Matters, So Why Is Wikipedia Missing So Much Of It?" (http://ww
w.fastcoexist.com/3041572/black-history-matters-so-why-is-wikipedia-missing-so-much-of-it).
Fast Company. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150510040813/http://www.fastcoexist.
com/3041572/black-history-matters-so-why-is-wikipedia-missing-so-much-of-it) from the
original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
6. Lapowsky, Issie. "Meet the Editors Fighting Racism and Sexism on Wikipedia" (https://www.wir
ed.com/2015/03/wikipedia-sexism/). Wired. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2015111403
3044/http://www.wired.com/2015/03/wikipedia-sexism) from the original on 14 November 2015.
Retrieved 13 April 2015.
7. Boboltz, Sara (15 April 2015). "Editors Are Trying To Fix Wikipedia's Gender And Racial Bias
Problem" (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/wikipedia-gender-racial-bias_n_7054550).
Huffington Post. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170821043311/http://www.huffington
post.ca/entry/wikipedia-gender-racial-bias_n_7054550) from the original on 21 August 2017.
Retrieved 20 August 2017.
8. Klein, Adam (1 November 2012). "Slipping Racism into the Mainstream: A Theory of
Information Laundering" (https://academic.oup.com/ct/article/22/4/427/4085743).
Communication Theory. 22 (4): 427–448. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2012.01415.x (https://doi.or
g/10.1111%2Fj.1468-2885.2012.01415.x). ISSN 1050-3293 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/105
0-3293).
9. Reynosa, Peter. "Why Don't More Latinos Contribute To Wikipedia?" (http://eltecolote.org/conte
nt/en/commentary/why-dont-more-latinos-contribute-to-wikipedia/). El Tecolote. Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20151208072102/http://eltecolote.org/content/en/commentary/why-don
t-more-latinos-contribute-to-wikipedia/) from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved
12 June 2020.
10. Ward, Justin (12 March 2018). "Wikipedia wars: inside the fight against far-right editors, vandals
and sock puppets" (https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/12/wikipedia-wars-inside-fight
-against-far-right-editors-vandals-and-sock-puppets). The Southern Poverty Law Center.
Retrieved 1 March 2020.
11. Harrison, Stephen (9 June 2020). "How Wikipedia Became a Battleground for Racial Justice"
(https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/wikipedia-george-floyd-neutrality.html). Slate. Retrieved
1 July 2020.
12. "Howard University Fills in Wikipedia's Gaps in Black History" (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/
02/20/us/at-howard-a-historically-black-university-filling-in-wikipedias-gaps-in-color.html).
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170821005819/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/u
s/at-howard-a-historically-black-university-filling-in-wikipedias-gaps-in-color.html) from the
original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
13. Allum, Cynthia (29 February 2016). "Women leading movements to champion equality on
Wikipedia" (http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/02/29/women-leading-movement
s-to-champion-equality-on-wikipedia/). The New York Times. Archived (https://web.archive.org/
web/20170810172433/http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/02/29/women-leading
-movements-to-champion-equality-on-wikipedia/) from the original on 10 August 2017.
Retrieved 20 August 2017.

External links
Can Black Wikipedia take off like Black Twitter (https://www.colorlines.com/articles/can-black-w
ikipedia-take-black-twitter)
 Wikipedia getting lesson Black history (https://www.essence.com/news/wikipedia-getting-lesso
n-black-history/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Racial_bias_on_Wikipedia&oldid=1025103582"

This page was last edited on 25 May 2021, at 18:54 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.