User:Omanes16/sandbox

Article Evaluation:
"Women of Color"

I decided to read an article titled "Women of Color", and one of the first elements I noticed about the article is that it does not merely define the term "women of color". Instead, the article offers insight about the origin and history of the term and contains several sections that discuss issues pertaining to women of color as a community. The "History" section offers a brief but sufficient description of how the term "women of color" was coined and the intention behind its creation. The following section titled "Influential women of color" offers only one example of a minority woman, despite referencing the plural - I find this section heading to be misleading and I would have liked to see more examples as there are so many influential women of color. The article also offers a very thorough analysis regarding how women of color are represented in the media and on television. I noticed however, that objectivity became a little bit lost in the section titled "Media representation". In explaining the lack of racially diverse female leads in film, one Wikipedian stated, "Time and time again, roles that should have been given to women of color have been given to white women." Despite trying to prove a point, I think some of the credibility of this section and article was lost because one can clearly see where this writer's biases lie. This raises a bit of concern because a reader may feel less inclined to trust the information that is being presented. Within this section, I also noticed that particular focus was paid to the negative personage of Asian characters in film. Although this subject is relevant, some readers may feel like their racial group was not revered with the same level of concern when discussing racial disparities in film.

I noticed at the top of the page, that there is a window that states, "The neutrality of this article is disputed". After seeing this message, I decided to take a look at the "talk" page to see what other readers thought about the piece. General comments regarding grammar and the usage of external links were touched upon and one Wikipedian even provided what he or she calls a "contribution plan" in which the alterations this person plans to make to the article are outlined. One comment in particular encouraged me to question how and why "women of color" is used as a universal term for non-white women. One Wikipedian explained that the article's image (which featured a West Indian woman - the image was taken down) features a woman who may not identify with the term, "woman of color". This Wikipedian, used this statement as a way to support the argument that not all non-white women identify with the term, "women of color". I found this quite interesting because I have always assumed that other minority women subscribe to the use of this term. I never thought about "women of color" being a phrase that would ruffle the feathers of those it is describing. I realized that despite my comfort with the term, it is a blanket term often associated with one's identity. "Women of color" describes a community that is rich with diversity and given this, perspectives and comfort levels regarding this term vary. The individual that questioned the use of the term then went on to say, "I imagine a different image when I think of 'women of color'. Students may not understand". I found this comment interesting because this individual condemned placing one perspective and identity on another but then used his or her subjective perspective to warrant a major change to the article. Simply because one person does not envision a West Indian woman when thinking about women of color, does not make the image invalid. Other readers may have resonated with how the idea was depicted.