[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Nations classification again

["SamBC" <sambc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Hodge
>
>
> Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote:
> > 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
>
> I think indigenous would be preferable to aboriginal (which is most
> often associated specifically with the Australian indigenous people).
> It's actually not certain that the Maori where the first race to
> colonize New Zealand, but we'd get away with it I think.

I agree - and the problem with indigenous is that it can be associated with
Celts in Britain, white Europeans on the European mainland, African & Indian
peoples on their respective areas, etc etc... Aboriginal implies that the
people are not the major ethnic group in the area any more, and I have heard
it refer to Native Americans, the various tribes in SA jungles, and oceanian
natives.

>
> > > 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.)
> > - most people wouldn't guess what race caucasians are supposed to be
>
> Caucasian is the term used to refer to white people, at least in
> Australia and New Zealand by the police. I guess it's considered less
> offensive/more PC.

And more technical for that matter. It seems mostly a commonly-used term
here. (UK)

>
> > - arabs are ethnically and visually white
> > - some `asian' and `african' people aren't black / yellow,
> >   so this will only confuse people
> >
> > 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.
>
> There are certainly many parts of the world where those color based
> terms are generally considered offensive. Considering the number of
> people who are unhappy including even the concept of fascism I think you
> can count on offending someone. Probably better off not making any
> attempt to categorize nations by racial origins.

I'd say that many areas (often English-speaking ones I know) the people of
other ethnic backgrounds object to the use of these terms, the most
acceptable being White (which most Caucasians accept readily) and Black
(which many people of African extraction do not mind)

In any case, I'm not sure the whole idea is a good one anyway...


SamBC