Wikipedia talk:WikiProject African diaspora

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This article is part of WikiProject African diaspora. This WikiProject aims to improve the quality of articles related to topics concerning persons of African descent and their cultures. If you would like to participate in the project, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the Wikipedia:WikiProject African diaspora for more information. (See: Category:WikiProject African diaspora for more pages in this project.)
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[edit] Featured articles: Kinora

Is it just me or does the part article need to be be cited better. It's a pretty interesting claim but without sources I am skeptical. Specifically I'm talking about the influence of Jewish culture on Kwanza and African American culture being related to the story of exodus. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.2.175.82 (talk) 05:28, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

The link you posed redirects to Mutoscope? futurebird (talk) 13:20, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
I think you meant Kinara. And given that it has zero sources, yes, it needs to be cited better. CJ (talk) 14:29, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Featured articles: Blackface

FYI, there's an article missing from the list on the article page. Blackface, an article which I wrote in predominant part, has been a featured article since June (or July -- I don't recall) of 2005. That certainly calls into question the accuracy of the statistic. How was that figure arrived at, anyway?deeceevoice 19:54, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

It's not there because no one put it there. None of this stuff is updated automatically. If something doesn't look right then fix it. CJ 20:48, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
It would have been an easy thing to do, but Blackface was a featured article when this page was created. The article page had a statistic of something like 6(?) featured articles in this category -- which, based on the absence of "Blackface" alone, seemed incorrect. That's why I didn't correct it, because doing so would have meant changing what I suspected was already an erroneous statistic -- so, changing it to what? At any rate, thanks for making the required changes. deeceevoice 21:28, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
Dude. It's not a statistic. It's a representative list. Just update it as you see fit. CJ 01:16, 3 October 2007 (UTC)
CJ, I think I know what a statistic is. "At present there are 12 featured articles out of 1,310 featured articles in total concerned with subjects from the African diaspora." My memory was faulty. The copy said 12 (not 6) -- and still does. Yet, somehow, through subsequent revisions, the list of articles specifically named was redacted to even less than was represented here,[1], that list in effect as late as 9/22/07 (over two years after the designation of "Blackface" as a featured article. Hence my earlier comments. It seems to me some further revision may be in order. Perhaps, the judicious thing to do would be to delete these statistics altogether, given that they clearly are subject to error and change.
Revised to something less specific, less likely to become outdated anytime soon. deeceevoice 13:46, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Oh. And, "dude," like you (presumably), I'm a woman. deeceevoice 13:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
Thank you for paying attention to the fact that it was wrong. No one else has been. Self included. Thank you for fixing it. I speak for myself in that if I knew that Blackface was a featured article associated with this project then I would have added it. I didn't know. So I didn't add it. I apologize for not taking a break from my life to dig through the 1,300+ featured articles to ensure that all the ones belonging to this project, including your pet article, were included on the list.
Oh BTW, I call everyone dude. I'll endavour to remember that you find that word offensive. CJ 17:34, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
The point was to call it to someone's attention to make the change so that I wouldn't have to and possibly screw with the statistics mentioned --because I wasn't familiar with them or their source. The point was there was no point in making the change by merely adding "Blackface" to the list and possibly leaving something else that needed to be changed also -- because the way the copy read, there was nothing explicitly indicating it was a "representative list," and there was no way of knowing that. Some articles do, after all, get de-listed (e.g., "Jazz") from featured article status.
This wasn't about my "pet" article; it was trying to determine the source and accuracy of the information provided. Clearly, if whoever added the specific numbers was not aware that "Blackface" was a featured article -- and had been for more than two years -- then there may have been other articles overlooked as well, hence my comment about the accuracy of the statistics. I edited the copy after my exchange with you to reflect the fact that the list was merely a representative list, as you stated, so there would be no confusion.
You know, I noted the barnstar on my page and decided to accept it in a spirit of positivity. Now that I see you've obviously got the ass -- and for no good reason -- I'm certain you meant it as a petty dig. Sad. Just plain sad.
And, no. I don't find "dude" offensive, but as it is a term commonly used to refer to males, I do prefer that I not be addressed in such a manner. Thanks. deeceevoice 18:57, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

OMG! will ya'll stop fighting? I'm. like. a big fan of the work both of you have been doing for this project and this is getting a little silly. You're the last two people i'd expect to find playing tit-for-tat... I'm just glad active editors are involved, and I'm glad those editors aren't crazy. I really ought to do more around this project, but I'm in grad school and... blah blah blah-- OK. I will do more but could we just stop this bickering? Pretty pretty please? There ARE more pressing matters! (I hope I don't make things worse by trying to play peacemaker-- ) Love, futurebird 19:06, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Heya, fb. I've explained my edits and, I think, been pretty restrained and patient through all CJ's petty, snippy comments here and at Talk: African American culture. And now I'm done with the subject. Smoochies! :p deeceevoice 19:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
You know, I have been trying to be positive through this whole thing. I never meant for any of my comments to be taken as offensive. I apologize for ofending you deeceevoice and furthermore I apologize to the entire project for continuing to reply to you since I obviously offend you. Maybe I am offensive. I don't know. All I know is, I need a beer... CJ 19:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anyone know about quilts?

Quilts of the Underground Railroad needs some attention. I don't know if the theory is true, but the way this article is written seems, well, odd. It asserts VERY strongly that "Quilts of the Underground Railroad" is just a myth, when, judging by the sources, there are two sides to this debate. The article narrowly escaped deletion some time ago, but now it's just a mess. Could someone take a look at it? futurebird 14:20, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Did you see the comment and link I put on Talk:African_American_culture#Art? I was doing some research on AA Art that you and Deecee were disscussing on that page and found Harriet Powers and her famous quilts. There is wiki page of this woman Harriet Powers which needs working on. I know nothing about no quiltin', though. :) Jeeny 19:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, Jeeny. Harriet Powers. That's the sister's name I couldn't remember. She's the one who did the "Moments of the Sun" quilt. :) Yeah, I know a little something about quilts -- I just don't have any time right now. :( deeceevoice 22:43, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
one of my areas of study is the enslavement period in the New World - cross culturally. The quilts theory has been debunked by most scholars and researchers who study the UGRR. DeeOlive 10:12, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
This is my understanding as well. --Parkwells (talk) 19:34, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help with the Article Improvement Drive

This week African American culture is the wikipedia article for improvement. So, basically lets see if we can focus on this article for a week and bring it up to feature article status. Hope some of you choose to help. I think there is a to do list on the talk page of African American culture where you can find tasks to get you started. futurebird 12:03, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Marching Bands

Does anyone know of any good sources on the history, traditions, musical style, etc. of Black Marching Bands? Wikipedia's marching band resources seem almost completely devoted to the more "mainstream" styles. I'm having trouble with web searches but I'm going to head over to Coleman Library and maybe the Black Archives at some point this weekend to see what I can dig up. If anyone happens to live in a city with similar resources maybe you can see what you can find. Thanks. CJ 04:30, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fictional Characters

I notice that this Wikiproject has a very very broad scope. I also noticed that Vixen is included under the scope of this African diaspora. Do all fictional characters who are of African (African-Americans, etc.) descent fall under this Wikiproject's scope? Zebraic 07:37, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

They can. They'd also probably fall under other projcts as well. CJ 10:27, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Black flight article making strange claims.

This article lacks sources and makes a lot of claims about american cities especially with regard to Black and Latino populations. I hope that someone will take a look at it and help me week out the dubious statements. Here is a quote to give you an idea about what has me concerned here:

The phenomenon of black flight has resulted in dramatic demographic shifts in some of the countries poorest inner-city neighborhoods. American blacks comprised more than 75% of all inner-city residents in the 1990's compared to just 27% in 2006. Black flight has allowed a rising poor class to emerge in many large cities, the Hispanic lower class. Hispanics today make up the majority of the population in 33 of the 50 largest cities in the United States, whereas just 20 years ago only 1 large city, Los Angeles, had a Hispanic majority. On the reverse, African Americans made up a majority in 28 of the 50 largest US cities 20 years ago, but today only make up a majority in 6 of the 50 largest cities.

Although, I've read some thing about small to moderate numbers of black people moving to the suburbs, I can't find anything about it being a large scale "flight" --let alone one that is related to "Hispanics." Especially without a sources, this seems like it might be POV pushing? Help me out here? Am I wrong? futurebird 15:45, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

I can't attest to the veracity of the numbers, and I'm not certain of the context in the article, but this isn't about "black flight" as a corollary of white flight -- driven by inter-ethnic animus (black vs. Latino). Much of the black exodus from the countries urban centers is about real estate speculation/development and gentrification; they simply can't afford to live in the cities anymore. Ditto for, generally, working-class couples with amilies (and even lots of middle-class professionals). Here in D.C., nondescript 1-bedroom apartments in older buildings located in stable neighborhoods rent for 1,700+ a month; and 2-bedroom apartments, scarce to begin with, routinely go for $2,200-$2,500/mo. And they go much higher. What single, head-of-household hotel worker or even teacher, or working-class, even two-income married couple with multiple children can afford that? And the public schools suck, so of course people get the hell outta Dodge for the sticks.
Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights, traditionally gateway communities for Latinos here in D.C., remain so. Immigrants pitch in and rent a unit, exceeding legal occupancy restrictions with astonishing density, sometimes sleeping in shifts. Even so, many of them have left for the burbs as well -- and for many of the same reasons as have their African American counterparts. But long-standing infrastructure in terms of language and employment services, legal aid/advice, churches, family and health services and bilingual programs in local schools have kept these communities attractive to Spanish-speaking immigrants, even with the high rents. They may not stay for very long, but the steady influx of Latino immigrants keeps the numbers up. deeceevoice (talk) 02:07, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Expert review: Cyprian Ricard

As part of the Notability wikiproject, I am trying to sort out whether Cyprian Ricard is notable enough for an own article. I would appreciate an expert opinion. For details, see the article's talk page. If you can spare some time, please add your comments there. Thanks! --B. Wolterding 17:04, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Template:Black supremacist organizations

Someone recently created this template. If anyone would like to fix it, it would be appreciated. Otherwise, I am wondering what the general opinion here is on potentially deleting it. Yahel Guhan 02:25, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Right now it doesn't look problematic. I think it's better if we keep a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Deleting it would be tantamount to whitewashing over that part of our history. CJ 12:13, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] We're making progress!

SINGS: 186 Unassessed African diaspora articles on the wall, 186 articles, take one down and pass it around, 185 Unassessed African diaspora articles... !

Okay, so it's not exactly a catchy tune, but still we're making progress. You would not BELIVE the nonsense I've found during this assessment. For example the article on Racial segregation in the United States didn't even mention redlining once. (I've fixed it but it still needs more work.)

It also occurred to me that in addition to an assessment we probably need to keep hunting for articles that fall under this project. So much the better if they can get added and assessed at the same time.

You know what makes my heart pitter patter? Seeing the number on this page go down overnight: Category:Unassessed African diaspora articles

futurebird 14:09, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

We're under 100. :) I'm also noticing articles that maybe don't belong to us. There's a couple of African tribes and then there's the Moors. Yea this is going to help us out alot.CJ 12:16, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Race and intelligence

Although, I've made up my mind about this deletion debate (for now), but I thought I'd let you know about it.I want to be clear, I think this is something we each ought to think about carefully. The proposal is to delete the "sub-articles" on Race and Intelligence and merge some but not all of the material in to one article. Of course, I'm wondering if it is even possible for this to happen "objectively."

In fact, it might not be such a good idea, I'm quite uncertain about the whole thing. The article as been a magnet for anti-African racist information for years. If you have the time, read the deletion debate, and if the decision is to go through with the merge I'd appreciate some help watching the process to ensure that it is fair.

I think there are arguments for NOT doing this whole delete and merge thing, and frankly I'd love to hear as many ideas as possible on the topic.

Post your thoughts at the deletion debate. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Race and intelligence (history)


futurebird 14:19, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article Ratings (merge from assessments talk page)

The article ratings are new for this project. Some of us are off hand trying to get them set on various articles but we've got about 400 in the project so it's going to take a while (not as much of a while as others though). If you see a unassessed article please feel free to assess it to the best of your ability. If you see a rating that you don't agree with just change it. Maybe the person who assessed it wasn't sure. If you feel you need to explain why you changed an article's rating then do so on the article's talk page. Cheers CJ 12:58, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I think we have only 30 more that need a rating. What this tells me is that we might not have talk page tags in all the places where they are needed. futurebird 18:21, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Template reformat?

User:Absolon/African American topicsThere is a current discussion on the {{African American topics}} discussion page about reformating the template to a autocollapsed size. The proposed new template is on the right.

I invite any interested parties to join the discussion. Absolon S. Kent 14:46, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

I know my input is late, but I like it. It certainly makes a lot more sense than the AA template currently in use. deeceevoice (talk) 02:09, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] How can we be more global?

Articles on the African American experience outnumber those of other diaspora experiences by a pretty large margin. What sources do you suggest to help identify articles to include in the project with a more global perspective? A great first step would be to simply get the banner on the talk pages of these articles so people in the project could find them... ideas? Are there any non-US project members? What sources do you use? futurebird 18:18, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

  • Here's a link for what can be included to be more global: http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/african/ maybe we can decide how to get an idea from the lists from the link? ~Jeeny (talk) 23:08, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
Europe here, though from a country and culture with a rather short and young significant experience of the African diaspora in comparison to what you might find in French, Portuguese, and Spanish libraries. Institut des Diasporas Noires Francophones offers interesting resources, most of them in French, however. Will keep looking, preferably in English. ---Sluzzelin talk 00:06, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ghetto

This article needs help. I've made a bunch of changes to make the section on "the black ghetto" make a *little* more sense, but it is far from perfect. Could I get an editor or two over to this article to vet my changes and look for other nonsense? futurebird 22:25, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article idea

Black neighborhoods in the United States

It's a shame that so much information on the history of black neighborhood is buried in the articles on redlining or the ghetto. Of course there are articles on specific neighborhoods, like Harlem and The Hill District, and these help to bring out some of the better aspects of these places. What do you think about an article on black urban neighborhoods that brings all of these ideas together? I get depressed finding information about how ghettos are formed and how segregated the US is these days and I just want to add "But, these are also really great places in many ways too!"

Also, the article on Ethnic enclaves didn't even mention black neighborhoods until I added a stub section...

I'm thinking something that could grow to be like the Chinatown article...

What do you think? Is this a good idea? futurebird 19:20, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

I think it's gonna be a target for AfD. But that doesn't mean don't do it. I'd include suburban neighborhoods like Lithonia. In fact, Atlanta seems like a really good place to start for a broad scope examination of Black neighborhoods. Same goes for Washington D.C. and possibly New Orleans. CJ 23:39, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
Some resources for you. User:Crownjewel82/BlackNeighborhoodResources CJ 00:25, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
I say create it; just make sure you source it as you do so, and then it will probably survive the afd process. As a better title, maybe African American neighborhoods? Yahel Guhan 02:02, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category:African American sportspeople

Seven subcategories are being considered for merging into Category:African American sportspeople in accordance with Wikipedia's category discussion policy. This does not mean that any of the articles in the category will be deleted. They may, however, be recategorized.

Please share your thoughts on the matter at this category's entry on the Categories for Discussion page.

This CFD began on October 27, so don't delay if you wish to participate in the discussion. Cgingold 09:31, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming of our stubs category

Someone posted a renaming request of {{Afro-stub}} that has gotten a few people talking about deleting the category altogether. CJ 14:09, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Questionable assertion on main article

Moved to talk page


[edit] Drafting

I don't want to post this until it's in good shape. If anyone feels like helping please feel free to add stuff. Draft of African American neighborhoods futurebird 01:48, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm not a good writer, but Roxbury, Massachusetts is a very important African-American neighborhood in Boston. It used to be a Jewish neighborhood way back before I was born. I haven't lived in MA for a while though, things may be changing, just like in Harlem. But, it was? thought to be the "Harlem" of Boston. Malcolm X lived there, I believe, at one time. I still have family there though, and I think it's pretty much the same (but there has been a lot of urban renewal going on there and surrounding neighborhoods). It's a crime-ridden neighborhood, though. But it has lots of history. ~Jeeny (talk) 04:26, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
  • Thanks I'm trying to get a list of the historic neighborhoods, those with cultural significance, over at the draft. So I added it. futurebird 12:51, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
Looks like a good start. Yahel Guhan 05:42, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm adding Sweet Auburn, Treme, and the Lower Ninth Ward. Got to have some southern representation. CJ 13:18, 16 November 2007 (UTC)


Thanks, CJ! You've been missinga TON of fun over at Afrocentricity --What a day... It's good to get back to working on making new articles again. These debates are such a distraction. futurebird 14:05, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

I've added a lot of content to this draft. I invite all comments and especially additions. I'm looking for some feedback on this, it was hard to find new sources, I used some of the research I did for ghetto-- I want to add more about cultureal life but don't know where to look. Ideas? Please take a look at the draft: User:Futurebird/drafts <--- here
futurebird (talk) 20:57, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Africana Studies

There is some confusion about how to organize these terms:

  • African American Studies
  • Africana Studies
  • African Studies
  • African Diaspora Studies
  • etc.

Specifically, should the page on Africana Studies act as a disambiguation page, or should it describe the field of Africana Studies? I think I know what I'm talking about but I could use a little help here. Please see the conversation at the talk page. futurebird (talk) 17:40, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

I linked to the wrong page here due to an old redirect that sent Africana Studies --> African Studies.
I've fixed that. futurebird (talk) 13:04, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Attention Gospel music experts

There is currently a discussion regarding the origins of gospel music on the Gospel music article's talk page. We are looking for any individuals with knowledge regarding the development of Gospel music (all forms including urban contemporary, Southern Gospel, traditional, etc.) to join the discussion. The resulting conversation will result in a rewrite of the article. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 14:21, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nellie Pratt Russell

Actually it's an AFD for all the articles on the founding members of Alpha Kappa Alpha]. CJ (talk) 23:25, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blackface FAR

Blackface has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here.--h i s s p a c e r e s e a r c h 12:47, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

About 6,000 kb of sourced information have been removed from the page. I've posted a note on the talk page asking why, if there is no response I'll will restore the removed material. futurebird (talk) 04:35, 9 December 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Angry black man syndrome

Angry black man syndrome um... okay. I don't want to nominate it for deletion just because I've never heard of it... but is this for real? It's also poorly written... could someone please take a look? futurebird (talk) 04:35, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

There's about a million problems with this article, none of which is easy to solve. For starters Black rage is a better article and it's an actual legal/psychological term much like Road rage. But the perspectives presented in this article could help expand the Black rage article so an outright deletion isn't a good idea. But the way it's written now is a textbook example of WP:POV and WP:OR. And unless we can find some real primary sources (I don't think editorials from ESPN count) it will probably be deleted as unsourced anyhow. The only proposal for it I can come up with is to merge it with the Black rage article. CJ (talk) 16:37, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
I agree with the merge, or salvaging something from "angry black man syndrome". Two short articles so closely related don't do much.--Parkwells (talk) 04:41, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
I have redirected it to Black rage (law), it wasn't a good article and was pretty much identical, certainly features of it could be merged into the black rage article but 2 articles on such a marginally notable concept is not helpful. Thanks, SqueakBox 05:07, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Article has only been up for a day or so. Allow it a few weeks to develop before deleting it or redirecting it. Armyguy11 (talk) 06:43, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't see enough information when searching google to justify an article. futurebird (talk) 12:22, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
"I agree - having a separate article on every variation isn't useful. Why do we spend so much more time on notability related to negatives (also crime and murders and victims), than to people who build and create something? I know, just rhetorical.--Parkwells (talk) 19:31, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alpha Kappa Alpha and 20 Founders

Have completed the first reworking of the Founders articles, based mostly on Miranda's materials, plus some new sources. Mostly I've rewritten the leads and narratives to stress later career and civic accomplishments, provided some background info to the times (and may make this more standard), and tried to emphasize some of each individual's career achievements, which are needed for separate article notability. There are a few who probably really don't qualify for separate notability.

It's easy to get some sense of how the founders were living a great social change, as an unusually high proportion of the 20 founders did not appear to marry or have children. They were living big public lives, and it's not always easy to do both. It's like the pattern of women who came of age in the years of the 1960s-1970s women's movement. About one-third of that generation did not have children. Later, women have managed both to work in new fields and have children.--Parkwells (talk) 21:14, 12 December 2007 (UTC)--Parkwells (talk) 16:34, 15 December 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Betsey Brown: Article needs some serious cleanup

"Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange is a novel which deals with very important matters concerning African-Americans."
-- IMHO the quality of this article is not currently adequate to justify keeping it. Can anyone improve this article? (I'll do what I can, but that's not much.) I'm going to hold off on any prod or Afd for the time being to see what we can do with this. -- Writtenonsand (talk) 20:58, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Eric Motley

Does someone like Eric Motley, described by the Washington Post as an "unblack black man," count as a member of the African diaspora? Sarsaparilla (talk) 04:36, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Of course black conservatives are a part of the diaspora. I think it's important we include everyone, even the atypical. (in fact perhaps especially the atypical.) futurebird (talk) 16:13, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Categories for State History Articles

An article has been started for "History of Slavery in New Jersey", as this topic was neglected in the "History of New Jersey" article. I have an interest in having slavery in the northern states covered adequately, so will contribute, and also look to see how it's covered in NY, etc. My question is, what categories should we encourage to be used for these articles? African American? African Diaspora? Both? To me, both are correct, as most African Americans in New Jersey and New York were there historically because of slavery. New immigrants are part of a secondary diaspora.--Parkwells (talk) 16:08, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

I think "African American" is a subcategory of African diaspora? Right? As such, nothing should be in both since everything in the category "African American" is a part of the diaspora? Or am I missing the issue here? futurebird (talk) 16:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
That's why I'm asking. I was feeling a little fuzzy on categorization this morning. If everything "African American" is in the category "African diaspora" (and I can understand why it may be), why is there a category of "African American"? Somewhere someone stated that African American was an important category to describe the descendants of enslaved Africans in the US.--Parkwells (talk) 18:50, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
My understanding of it was that the category "African American" was just a specific subsection of the African Diaspora. The meta-category African Diaspora, would then contain all of the other African diasporas, Like Afro-cuban topics, Black British etc. As well as articles that talk about things that relate to nearly all of the diasporas, such as the Atlantic slave trade. futurebird (talk) 19:59, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Black schools

Does anyone want to collaborate with me to write an article on black schools? I have written about two schools in Omaha here and here, which were historical schools, but thanks to Jonathan Kozol's book The Shame of the Nation we know this trend is still rampant across the country today. Anyone want to get in on "encyclopedizing" it? • Freechild'sup? 16:45, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like an important topic. I'll see what ever soures I can find. The Shame of the Nation looks like a good book. futurebird (talk) 19:56, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
As you can see I've made an article for The Shame of the Nation-- let me know when you want to get started on this. futurebird (talk) 14:03, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Afro-Mexican

The article about Afro-Mexicans is in a somewhat poor state. It contains a lot of good information but it is messy and does not conform to most wikipedia policies. It is clearly POV, it doesn't cite sources, its style and layout are out of sync with the rest of wikipedias content. I am sure some of the project members here can help raise its standard considerably. It is currently marred by the controversial and unsourced claim that Emiliano Zapata had african roots - this is not a generally accepted fact but the article states it as if it is - this should be remedied (Extraordinary claims need extraordinarily good sources). I count on your help and expertise to better the state of the article on an important topic.·Maunus· ·ƛ· 13:54, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lies

I've just fixed a number of really shocking flat-out lies in this article. I mean just LIES, like saying that Joyce Arnett was "shooting at the police" when they shot her in the Hough Riots. And omitting the race of the 4 people who were murdered (all black) --I'm just saying there are people out there who are not above just making things up, or maybe that's what they really believe, but are articles that deal with racism we need to check every single fact no matter how mundane. WOW. futurebird (talk) 05:50, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

That's bad; I hadn't checked that deeply on that one, but have noticed on other articles that people can also be really careless and distort what references say. It's a good idea to go behind the article, as you said. On the Hough article, I thought whoever first worked on it was trying to hard to "prove" Communist influence, when there weren't any third-party sources cited. Thanks for finding better references and making corrections. --Parkwells (talk) 17:47, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Peer Review of Savannah State University

The article about Savannah State University, an HBCU, is going through the Wikipedia:Peer review process. Please leave comments and suggestions at Wikipedia:Peer review/Savannah State University/archive1. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 20:04, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Norfolk State University

The Norfolk State University article, an HBCU, has been selected for the WikiProject Universities Collaboration of the Fortnight which will begin on 04 Jan 2008. Please take a look at the WikiProject's article guidelines and help improve the article. If you have any questions regarding the COTF or have questions/problems on how to improve the article, please place them here. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 20:04, 3 January 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Curse of Ham (Canaan)

Needs to be removed from the African Diaspora section of Wikipedia. It's inclusion is simply racist and ill-informed. Not only that, edits to the article has exhibited the grace and intelligence to remove the category of African Diaspora link from it's page. There still remains however a African Diaspora badge on the discussion tab that sticks out like a slap in the face to every pious African who prescribes to Semitic worship. My opinon; this badge should only be used after thorough research on a topic merit's it's use. The Curse of Ham on the other hand has become a ploy by left wing Republicans. As this article exhibits. The Curse of Ham: Why Barack Hussein Oboma Will Never Be President As you will learn from my contribution to the article the Curse of Ham is really the curse of Canaan and is a curse of leprosy, and has nothing to do with "Africans". Nuwaubian Hotep (talk) 06:19, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

"Left wing republicans"? Do you seriously believe that the fundamentalist ravings on the site you linked to here are "left wing"? The article is about a subject related to the African disapora. No-ne other than extreme fringe groups actually believes any more that there is any skin-related curse, whether of leprosy or of blackness. Paul B (talk) 14:47, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
Notwithstanding, the Curse of Ham is not about dark skin. Where does it state in the Talmud the nature of the curse other than the "land" of Canaan being riddled with leprosy in the book of Leviticus. Canaan of course being the land where Ham's son settled. The African diaspora badge does not belong on this page. You won't find the African Diaspora badge on the Klu Klux Klan's page, and yet given their blatant racism against blacks they would have more of a right to use it than the Curse of Ham article. The problem here is the alluding and incorrect reference of the etymology of Ham meaning dark, and if this is his name from birth then it had absolutely nothing to do with a curse implemented for his son. Nuwaubian Hotep (talk) 01:34, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Race of ancient Egyptians

There is a discussion on the talk page about nominating the article for deletion ... again. futurebird (talk) 09:24, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Good Article nomination: Savannah State University

Savannah State University has been nominated for Good article status. You can join the discussion on the Good article nominations page. Absolon S. Kent (talk) 18:23, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Black Hebrew Israelites

I am thinking about niminating it as a GA. Any opinions or suggestions before I do so? Yahel Guhan 02:21, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I nominated it for a GA. Yahel Guhan 05:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
I'm sorry that I didn't see your note earlier. I'll look the article over and see if I can make any improvements. Good luck with the GA. I know you've put a lot of work into the article. — Malik Shabazz (talk · contribs) 22:46, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
it failed. Yahel Guhan 02:02, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
I'm sorry to hear that. — Malik Shabazz (talk · contribs) 02:13, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] SS George Washington Carver

I'm from wp:ships and thought I would point out this article here: SS George Washington Carver. It was built during WW2 as a liberty ship. --Brad (talk) 20:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge: Break (music) with Beat (music)

Some people want to merge Break (music) with Beat (music), Any music experts around who can sort this out? As far as I know the break is a pretty big concept in diaspora music and needs to talk about the African connection. futurebird (talk) 03:03, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Project banner

It is my sincerest hope that this statement is not taken as being an attempt to subvert this project, take control over it, or any similar thing. However, the Template:AfricaProject has recently had parameters put into it to allow it to provide separate assessments for all the "Africa" projects, including this one. If in the interests of reducing banner clutter the members of this project were to choose to use that banner, please let me know and I can adjust any categories accordingly to permit it. Thank you. John Carter (talk) 00:17, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Category:African American diaspora

User:Wikiaddict8962 has created a category by that name. Has anybody heard or read of an "African American diaspora"? Nearly all the Google hits I see appear to use the phrase as synonymous with "the diaspora of African people in the United States", not in Wikiaddict8962's sense of "the diaspora of African Americans from the United States". Any thoughts? — Malik Shabazz (talk · contribs) 03:54, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

No, never heard of it. The article African American diaspora is current a redirect to African diaspora. That, maybe should be changed to African American or African immigration to the United States, or just left alone, and it might make sense to do a similar thing with the category. Try a CFD merge or delete or something. Yahel Guhan 04:50, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New article

I just created Pope House Museum. I don't see a place to list new articles for the project, so I'll list it here. Take a look at the article and tweak it if you see where improvements need to be made. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 20:33, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Black flight, Reconstruction, Disfranchisement after the Civil War, state histories

Black flight - have added more material and sources, using some futurebird discovered, as well as others. It may not be enough but is more substantive than before.

Reconstruction Also went back to something I knew more about and have been working on 19th c. state histories, both on each state main page and on each "History of xxxxx", mostly for states in the former Confederacy. I've added the number of African Americans in 1860 and percentage of slaves in each state, material on African American agency like escaping to Union lines and fighting for the North, and have added more about African American contributions during Reconstruction (overall and in each state: public education and charitable institutions, among others).

Disfranchisement Have also been working on this to add numbers of people affected, voters denied registration or whatever numbers I can get, to show results of state actions. I've also been adding material about disfranchisement and effects to the main page and history of each state in the former Confederacy. Legislators used a combination of statute and constitutional changes to accomplish disfranchisement, and also disfranchised poor whites. In some histories other editors lumped this devastating action with Jim Crow, but I think it needs to be discussed separately.

Have also started to work on Supreme Court cases dealing with disfranchisement, such as Williams v. Mississippi (1898) and Giles v. Harris (1903), the latter of which I discovered Booker T. Washington secretly funded and arranged for representation for the Supreme Court challenge, as he did for numerous other civil rights cases, even while publicly talking about moderation and accommodation.

Have added material in state and national history and Lynching in the United States to show disfranchisement's lasting effects - by giving the white South so much power in Congress they could defeat passage of Federal lynching laws, for instance.

Next I will add for each state, the population and percentage of African Americans in 1960, in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, to show how many citizens were affected by the decades of injustice and disfranchisement.--Parkwells (talk) 20:13, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Clarence Lightner

I added the project banner to the article I just wrote. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 05:15, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I'll rate it as start and feel free to look over it for errors or additions you might have. Thanks. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 11:55, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] St. Paul A.M.E. Church

Another new article I tagged. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 10:45, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Estey Hall

new article. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 11:57, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Leonard Hall (Shaw University)

New article; first four-year medical school for african-americans as well as the first four-year medical school in NC. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 22:33, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] East Raleigh-South Park Historic District

new article; historic place; largest african-american neighborhood in raleigh, nc. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 20:46, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Master Juba at peer review

Hello! I've just put Master Juba up at peer review. Master Juba was a black American dancer who lived in the 19th century. He is, according to many authorities, the father of tap dancing and made a profound impact on American dance styles. He was also significant as the first black man to get top billing over white performers. His story seems to be in line with the scope of this project, so I thought I'd inform you all about it. The review page can be found here. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! — Dulcem (talk) 06:10, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

I put Clarence Lightner at peer review as well, Wikipedia:Peer review/Clarence Lightner/archive1, to hopefully reach GA status. I'll look over Master Juba, and if you wouldn't mind looking over Lightner's article, I'd appreciate it. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 09:48, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rev. M.L. Latta House

New article. It's a stub for now but have already added several pictures that I found. I don't know what to do with them yet, but I think they're educational. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 02:38, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sterling Allen Brown

I didn't create this one, but thought it belonged in this project. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 12:42, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] FAR nomination

Ku Klux Klan has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. OrangeMarlin Talk• Contributions 23:28, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New form of human trafficking

In February, a travel agent in Ghana chartered a Ghana International Airlines aircraft on the pretext that a group of 'Ghanian' tourists would be spending two weeks in Barbados. The aircraft left Ghana around 1 Feb 08, and was supposed to return to Barbados to 1) deliver any group of 'tourists' and 2) take the first lot back to Ghana. The aircraft didn't arrive as expected on 15 February, and to this day (15 April 08) most of those 'tourists', who turned out end up coming from both Ghana and Nigeria, are still stranded in Barbados, with the Ghanian government dragging its heels on their return. The rest have basically left Barbados for other countries (not long after arriving there). Due to the fact many of these 'tourists' are now working in Barbados (construction, etc), and some have gone on the record that they don't want to go back to Ghana, they want to be allowed to stay in Barbados to work, it is now believed that this is a new form of human trafficking. I think this would make an interesting addition to the Human trafficking article, and could also help build a Barbados-Ghana relations article as well. Having little time to add this, I am posting this at the following: Talk:Human trafficking, WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography, WikiProject Sociology, WikiProject International relations, WikiProject African diaspora, WikiProject Human rights. Perhaps contributors to the Human trafficking article or wikiprojects could look at it further and include it in the article, as this hasn't gathered much attention outside of Barbados and Ghana, and if it is human trafficking, it will change the modus operandi of traffickers. Searches of google and google news for barbados+ghana will return plenty of results, mainly from Ghana or Barbados which can be used. --Россавиа Диалог 17:35, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New Great Migration

Have just started this article, related to the reverse migration of African Americans back to the South from 1965-2000. It's still going on, of course, but they have a lot of data on it. This is the real story, or the bigger story, behind some aspects of Black flight. In 2000 GA, MD and TX were the gaining states for black college graduates (this is mostly a middle class migration). CA was the largest net loser of African Americans, unlike its trend for the previous few decades. Gaining states are the New South: GA, TN, VA, MD, NC, and FL - where there are good jobs, knowledge industry, tech, service fields. People are going to metro areas, and Atlanta is the biggest draw of all. I found a big Brookings Institution paper on this, and have seen other references.--Parkwells (talk) 03:02, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Free people of color

Tagged with this project. AgnosticPreachersKid (talk) 04:03, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Timeline of riots and civil unrest in Omaha, Nebraska

Tagged with the project. It will probably be a DYK feature in a few days. APK yada yada 07:40, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Perry Farm

New stub. APK yada yada 05:20, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Charlotte Forten Grimke House

This is a new NHRP article for Washington, D.C. I don't have alot of info about the house itself, just Grimke. I also tagged her article with the project. APK yada yada 05:43, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Zotero - web-based citation manager

Just wanted to let project members know about a great resource I've been using - zotero, which can be downloaded for free, is a web-based citation and source/material manager developed by the Dept. for History and New Media at George Mason University near Washington, DC. I've been using it for a few months but am just beginning to capitalize on it and shift from using notes and scraps of paper around my computer! You can take "notes", create tags for notes and articles, books, etc.; download snapshots of title pages, capture URL and titles, access dates, etc. There is more that I have not begun to touch, not yet having made it through the instructional video. --Parkwells (talk) 16:19, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Freechild told me he thought it would revolutionize his research.--Parkwells (talk) 20:30, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Robert Purvis

Expanded the article, got a DYK on May 11, and added the WP:AFRO banner to this article about a leading abolitionist.--Parkwells (talk) 16:25, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion at Talk:List of African-American firsts

Interested editors, please go the below link where discussion will be centered, to avoid having it scattered across different pages.

Here is a cc encapsulating the issue being discussed there.

[edit] Contradiction needs resolved re: 1st Af-Am female pilot

There is contradictory reportage from two sources making competing claims. Since this involves not just List of African-American firsts but also the article Vernice Armour, which makes a major point of this claim, I've removed this entry from ["List of African-American firsts"] article until the competing claims can be sorted out on this talk page and any related pages can be adjusted.

The Wiki article Vernice Armour cites the Jet magazine article "Vernice Armour, 1st black female combat pilot, serves in Persian Gulf as family copes - National Report", April 14, 2003, by Nicole Walker. It says, "After flight school, Armour took an assignment at Camp Pendleton Naval Air Station near San Diego, CA, and honed her skills piloting the famed Super Cobra. In March 2002, she was recognized as the Department of Defense's lone African-American female combat pilot."

The editor changing the claim to that of Captain Christina Hopper (who has no Wikipedia article) cites the webzine Talking Proud!, which has much less of a publishing history than Jet and may not or may not use professional journalists, but is a niche publication specializing in the subject. The article "'Thumper' Hopper, F-16 fighter jock, Iraqi war vet, instructor pilot", non-bylined, published February 26, 2005, says, "Her squadron deployed in December 2002 to Al Jaber Air Base, Kuwait as part of the 332rd Air Expeditionary Wing supporting Operations Southern watch and Iraqi Freedom, making her the first Air Force African-American female fighter pilot to fight in a war."

I'm wondering whether Armour was the first female Af-Am combat pilot, and Hopper the first female Af-Am combat pilot deployed in a war zone?

Could fellow editors come in and help research/comment on this? --Tenebrae (talk) 15:27, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] List of first African-American mayors

Editors on the "List of African American firsts" decided to set a list up for "First African American mayors" to be able to reflect the many varieties of cities represented. Please feel free to add appropriate mayors; be sure you use the year elected (not sworn in to office) or appointed. They run on irregular schedules.--Parkwells (talk) 20:34, 25 May 2008 (UTC) Thanks for contributions!--Parkwells (talk) 11:13, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] CfD nomination of Category:United States ghettos

The related Category:United States ghettos has been nominated for deletion, merging, or renaming. You are encouraged to join the discussion on the Categories for Discussion page.