w3c / PWETF

Positive Work Environment Community Group
https://www.w3.org/community/pwe/
Other
108 stars 53 forks source link

Is "race" too simplistic a description of an important but complex concept #327

Open chaals opened 11 months ago

chaals commented 11 months ago

We use the term "race" a few times in the document, for example as the distinction on which racism discriminates against people, and as a dimension of diversity.

Racism is real, and is a bad behaviour that I believe we do consider acceptable. But I don't think "race" as a single word is a good description of what racism is about.

To the extent that people have a "racial identity" perhaps only perceived by others, perhaps individually held but not obvious to everyone, that is IMHO among the many dimensions of diversity that can help ensure we're getting broad input and decisions are made that match the needs of a global community.

Different people with the same "racial" or ethnic backgrounds and traditions can and do assume different identities. In some cases, identities commonly include a dimension called "race". In other places or cases, assigning a "racial" aspect to certain identities is itself considered a harmful behaviour.

I think this is an important issue, but hard to solve well. However we might be able to solve it "well enough"