Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of terms for white people in non-Western cultures


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was DELETE. postdlf (talk) 00:47, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

List of terms for white people in non-Western cultures

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 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions.  Cliff  Smith 18:05, 16 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions.  Cliff  Smith 18:06, 16 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions.  Cliff  Smith 18:06, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

This article has multiple issues. It is systematically biased, synthesized and POV, and against the principle that Wikipedia is not a dictionary.

Systemic bias: The title, the lead (unsourced and pov) and the entire concept on which the article is based is problematic. It is written with regard to the dubious social constructs relating to a particular society. The article states "Many non-Western cultures have informal words which refer to white Westerners." There is no clear definition of either 'Western world' or 'white' used across societies. 'Western' can mean any country from Latin America to South Africa or even Japan, South Korea and Singapore. 'White' is used to describe people of very different skin color; e.g. in Central Africa it is used to describe lightet skinned black or brown people. So the usages of the terms vary from one society, culture and language to another.

Synthesis and POV: As the article is almost entirely unsourced I had to spend considerable time looking up all the definitions of the different languages. Most of the definitions I could find don't mean 'white westerner', or 'white' as a common sense of the word. In most cases the words mean foreigner, alien and non-native. Some definitions mean the color white and sometimes used to people, but not necessarily to westerners, but to any people that culture considers 'white'. Some definitions mean different nationalities. Few definitions mean literary 'westerners' but used regardless of skin color. I found that most of the words either do not exist or cannot be found and that the given foreign language words have different meaning:
 * of 18 words listed, I could not find, after thorough search, the definitions of words given here.
 * 9 words mean simply foreigner. The words mostly used to any people, thing, idea, or culture that is not indigenous to the particular culture.
 * 7 words mean different nationalites, e.g. Dutch, Dane, French, American, English.
 * 6 words mean white. Some of the usages of white in these languages simply mean the color white, and/or can be used to light pigmented black people to asians as a denomination.
 * 3 words mean west or western. (a lot of languages have no definition of western people)

Moreover, as Wikipedia is not a dictionary, I do not see the point of the existence of an article of word definitions.

As the article uses the definition of a term which does not have congruent meaning in different languages and cultures, and falsely group unrelated meanings in one article, it is justified to delete on basis of systematic bias, synthesis, pov, and dictionary-like nature. — Preceding unsigned comment added by FonsScientiae (talk • contribs) 16:34, July 16, 2012‎
 * I refactored your nomination to use the AfD template and added an unsigned template to it. Monty  845  16:55, 16 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete - based on WP:NOTDICTIONARY. Why would we want a list of non-English words on Wikpedia that mean 'white people'? The current list has so many problems - the title is problematic (are all Western cultures 'white'), the inclusion criteria contradicts the title (it allows words for 'foreigner'), the vast majority of the entries are unsourced and unverifiable... Sionk (talk) 17:37, 16 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete Unencyclopedic listcruft. Nwlaw63 (talk) 00:00, 17 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Colleges teach a class called Western civilization, and Wikipedia has an article explaining that The term has come to apply to countries whose history is strongly marked by European immigration or settlement of white culture, such as the Americas, and Australasia, and is not restricted to Western Eurasia (Europe). So the part of the nomination about system bias doesn't apply.  Your other points seem valid though.  Remember, when you nominated something for deletion, you should tell the creator of the article.  I went ahead and did so.    D r e a m Focus  15:14, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * I meant that there is no consensus on which countries constitute the 'Western civilization'. Some believe that countries, which has substantially adopted elements of Western culture, like Turkey, Japan, or South Korea are part of the Western civilization. So based on this uncertainty inclusion of these countries' languages on the list is dubious. But ultimately, this argument is unrelated to the conclusion of deletion nomination. FonsScientiae (talk) 15:47, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete per nom, distinguishing my argument to keep the well-documented Brown people. I am willing to change my mind if someone can source this better. Bearian (talk) 19:41, 17 July 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.