[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Nations classification again

["SamBC" <sambc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hmmm...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: taw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:taw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Tomasz
> Wegrzanowski
> Sent: 08 August 2000 00:32
> To: SamBC
> Cc: Freeciv Development Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Nations classification again
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 08, 2000 at 12:36:15AM +0100, SamBC wrote:
> > > 6.
> > > Every real nation is in exactly one of classes :
> > > white, yellow, black, indian.
> >
> > And I think some people *might* offended by these
> classifications - why not:
> >
> > caucasion, african (incl. West Indies et al), oriental, asian
> (different to
> > asia below I guess), aboriginal (bracket including maori, amerindians (I
> > don't like that term either, personally), &so on &so forth),
> arab (middle
> > east nations etc).
>
> At least four problems :
> - visual grepping (asia asian, africa african etc.)

wording can be changed, but the concept is sound

> - most people wouldn't guess what race caucasians are supposed to be

It's the technical word for 'european white' origin (extraction)

> - arabs are ethnically and visually white

You want to pop over to Saudi Arabia or Iraq and double-check both of those
(darker skin tone, different ethnic origins)

> - some `asian' and `african' people aren't black / yellow,
>   so this will only confuse people

It's a better description of 'racial' origin. The races you describe as
'black' are almost universally of African extraction (some exceptions) and
all natives of most regions of Africa (ignoring the bit that becomes the
Middle East) are black (Afrikaans are not natives btw)

Also, I'd say most people from Asia are not Yellow!!! I've usually heard
that description (racistly) applied to oriental persons, covered by the
oriental description. Asia is places like India/Pakistan/environs. If you
are going to describe them by colour, I suppose you'd say Brown. I'd prefer
Asian personally.

>
> Also I think most people aren't offended by calling their race by color.
> Of course if there are some offended people who play freeciv, they
> should complain here.
>

I certainly know that it is considered impolite here, and it is considered
more polite to describe by ethnic extraction.


SamBC