Re: Diversity statement for the Debian Project

[Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>]

Le Sun, Apr 01, 2012 at 11:11:37PM -0400, Kevin Mark a écrit :
> 
> If you look at the statistical makeup of the humans that contribute and examine
> the components of identity that they consider themselves, you'll find lots of
> people who would be male, hetronormative, american/european, caucasian humans.
> If you think that this group is who you wish to be in the majority, then there is
> no issue and no action is required. 

Hi Kevin and everybody,

I would like to underline again that it is a fundamental flaw to express wishes
for diversity in a way that itself is culturally biased.

I do not recognise myself as "caucasian".  Genetics and paleontology make very
clear that million of years ago, all of our common ancestors were apes in
Africa.  In science and medecine, the use of "caucasian" is vastly deprecated.
See for instance "Ethnic Groups and Geographic Origins" in the following URL.

  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd03/nd03_med_data_changes.html

When people tell me things like "you caucasians", I feel offended, even if I
know that they are actually trying to be kind to avoid more culturally or
emotionally charged words.  Please use "causasian" at the first person as you
whish, since the whole point of this discussion is to tell everybody that they
are welcome in Debian regardless of the group they feel they belong, but please
do not categorize others; it is finger-pointing.

I think that this is important that, when considering joining Debian,
contributors can be reassured that they will not be put a sticker on their head
by others.  This dicussion tends to the contrary.

Cheers,

-- 
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan