Revision as of 06:14, 3 October 2008 edit216.153.214.89 (talk) →RE: 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence: It's open because others should be allowed to comment too, not just me adding "new" points. Stop rushing people, what are you afraid of?← Previous edit | Revision as of 06:14, 3 October 2008 edit undo216.153.214.89 (talk) →RE: 2nd paragraph, 1st sentenceNext edit → | ||
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== RE: 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence == | == RE: 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence == | ||
''I'm closing this again due to it being a rehash of the same argument. Please see the FAQ for reasoning behind the term African American.'' ] (]) 11:44, 2 October 2008 (UTC) | |||
<i>I've followed this issue for months and all the past conversation about it has been pointless due to too much absolutism. | |||
This sentence: | This sentence: |
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view · edit Frequently asked questions
To view the response to a question, click the link to the right of the question. Family and religious background Q1: Why isn't Barack Obama's Muslim heritage or education included in this article? A1: Barack Obama was never a practitioner of Islam. His biological father having been "raised as a Muslim" but being a "confirmed atheist" by the time Obama was born is mentioned in the article. Please see this article on Snopes.com for a fairly in-depth debunking of the myth that Obama is Muslim. Barack Obama did not attend an Islamic or Muslim school while living in Indonesia age 6–10, but Roman Catholic and secular public schools. See , , The sub-articles Public image of Barack Obama and Barack Obama religion conspiracy theories address this issue. Q2: The article refers to him as African American, but his mother is white and his black father was not an American. Should he be called African American, or something else ("biracial", "mixed", "Kenyan-American", "mulatto", "quadroon", etc.)? A2: Obama himself and the media identify him, the vast majority of the time, as African American or black. African American is primarily defined as "citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa", a statement that accurately describes Obama and does not preclude or negate origins in the white populations of America as well. Thus we use the term African American in the introduction, and address the specifics of his parentage in the first headed section of the article. Many individuals who identify as black have varieties of ancestors from many countries who may identify with other racial or ethnic groups. See our article on race for more information on this concept. We could call him the first "biracial" candidate or the first "half black half white" candidate or the first candidate with a parent born in Africa, but Misplaced Pages is a tertiary source which reports what other reliable sources say, and most of those other sources say "first African American". Readers will learn more detail about his ethnic background in the article body. Q3: Why can't we use his full name outside of the lead? It's his name, isn't it? A3: The relevant part of the Manual of Style says that outside the lead of an article on a person, that person's conventional name is the only one that's appropriate. (Thus one use of "Richard Milhous Nixon" in the lead of Richard Nixon, "Richard Nixon" thereafter.) Talk page consensus has also established this. Q4: Why is Obama referred to as "Barack Hussein Obama II" in the lead sentence rather than "Barack Hussein Obama, Jr."? Isn't "Jr." more common? A4: Although "Jr." is typically used when a child shares the name of his or her parent, "II" is considered acceptable, as well. And in Obama's case, the usage on his birth certificate is indeed "II", and is thus the form used at the beginning of this article, per manual of style guidelines on names. Q5: Why don't we cover the claims that Obama is not a United States citizen, his birth certificate was forged, he was not born in Hawaii, he is ineligible to be President, etc? A5: The Barack Obama article consists of an overview of major issues in the life and times of the subject. The controversy over his eligibility, citizenship, birth certificate etc is currently a fairly minor issue in overall terms, and has had no significant legal or mainstream political impact. It is therefore not currently appropriate for inclusion in an overview article. These claims are covered separately in Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories. 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Like all articles on Misplaced Pages, this article is a work in progress so it is possible for biases to exist at any point in time. If you see a bias that you wish to address, you are more than welcome to start a new discussion, or join in an existing discussion, but please be ready to provide sources to support your viewpoint and try to keep your comments civil. Starting off your discussion by accusing the editors of this article of having a bias is the quickest way to get your comment ignored. Talk and article mechanics Q10: This article is over 275kb long, and the article size guideline says that it should be broken up into sub-articles. Why hasn't this happened? A10: The restriction mentioned in WP:SIZE is 60kB of readable prose, not the byte count you see when you open the page for editing. As of May 11, 2016, this article had about 10,570 words of readable prose (65 kB according to prosesize tool), only slightly above the guideline. The rest is mainly citations and invisible comments, which do not count towards the limit. Q11: I notice this FAQ mentions starting discussions or joining in on existing discussions a lot. If Misplaced Pages is supposed to be the encyclopedia anyone can edit, shouldn't I just be bold and fix any biases that I see in the article? A11: It is true that Misplaced Pages is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit and no one needs the permission of other editors of this article to make changes to it. But Misplaced Pages policy is that, "While the consensus process does not require posting to the discussion page, it can be useful and is encouraged." This article attracts editors that have very strong opinions about Obama (positive and negative) and these editors have different opinions about what should and should not be in the article, including differences as to appropriate level of detail. 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Website?
I think this should be in the section where it shows his website. The Obama for Illinois senator is old and outdated. http://www.barackobama.com/splash/first_to_know.html user:chasesboys
BarackObama.com is already included, I move to delete this section. natezomby (talk)
RE: 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence
This sentence:
- "Obama is the first African American to be nominated by a major political party for president"
is not false, but it is inaccurate because it's specific to the point of falsity due to fact exclusion. It should read like this:
- "Obama is the first candidate of African American heritage to be nominated by a major political party for president"
I haven't followed the conversation for months, and I'm not pouring through 35 pages of archives to find it, but here's my two cents: I think this is ridiculously complicated because of political correctness. I think there is merit in not wanting to broadly paint Obama's ethnicity with a brush, but I think it's understood by most level-headed people that "African American" means an American with at least some black ancestry. I don't necessarily agree with this collective consensus, but it's not something I'm going to climb the Reichstag in a Spider-Man suit over. Besides, when it comes to something like this I believe that it's the person's own identification that matters unless it's a ridiculous assertion, such as Uncle Ruckus saying he's white.
And regardless of all that, the second sentence is technically incorrect. "Of African American heritage" would entail that Obama's father is from Detroit or something. But he's Kenyan, so he's African not African American. Therefore, Obama may be considered African American, but he's not of African American heritage. If your goal is emphasize that he's not 100% black (which probably a sizable portion of the African American population isn't), then you'd need to use different wording. --Amwestover (talk) 15:46, 26 September 2008 (UTC)
- The sentence I offered as an alternative says the same thing, but with more precision and clarity. 216.153.214.89 (talk) 04:14, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
- You say that, but what it really does is introduce ambiguity when there previously was none. He calls himself African American, the world media considers him African American, that is the general consensus here as well, therefore, that is how it will remain. Case. Closed. Duuude007 (talk) 18:57, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
- My suggestion does indeed suggest something other than a singular assertion and that's why I offer it. It is simply factually false that Obama "is" African American. My best friend is 1/2 Irish and 1/2 Italian. Is he "Irish American", "Italian American" or "Of Italian and Irish heritage"? It's only people who want to help advance the POV myth that Obama "is" African American exclusively who oppose my very reasonable edit. What my edit does is offer a common description of Obama, while leaving room for the fact that the common description is imprecise. 216.153.214.89 (talk) 04:15, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
Barack's Current Kansas Family
Current members of Barack Obama's Kansas family include Margaret McCurry Wolf of Hutchinson and her son Milton R. Wolf, M.D. of Leawood, Spence McCurry of Wichita and his children Spencer, Frank, Kelli and Jamie.
Perhaps this should be added to the main page?
- I doubt it. They're not members of his immediate family, they're part of his extended family. If anywhere, they should be described (with sources) in Family of Barack Obama. --GoodDamon 13:38, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
- Significance of Barack's Kansas heritage is often cited by Barack himself. As such, it seems that he considers this to be of central significance, immediate family or not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Informationispower2008 (talk • contribs) 23:58, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
- If we were to list every first cousin twice removed in this article, it would be insanely long. The fact that he values his Kansas heritage is notable and worthy of mention with proper citation. An exhaustive list of every distant relative is not. --Clubjuggle /C 13:19, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
- Significance of Barack's Kansas heritage is often cited by Barack himself. As such, it seems that he considers this to be of central significance, immediate family or not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Informationispower2008 (talk • contribs) 23:58, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
- I agree. That's why I included only his current Kansas family. Informationispower2008 (talk) 18:48, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
The Question of Barack Obama's Place of Birth
- The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.
ObamaCrimes.com states the following on Barack Obama's REAL place of birth:
Philip J. Berg, Esquire, the Attorney who filed suit against Barack H. Obama challenging Senator Obama’s lack of “qualifications” to serve as President of the United States, announced today that Obama and Democratic National Committee filed a Joint Motion to Dismiss on the last day to file a response, for the obvious purpose of delaying Court action in the case of Berg v. Obama, No. 08-cv-04083.
Their joint motion indicates a concerted effort to avoid the truth by delaying the judicial process, although legal, by not resolving the issue presented: that is, whether Barack Obama was “natural born.”
It is obvious that Obama was born in Kenya and does not meet the “qualifications” to be President of the United States pursuant to our United States Constitution. Obama cannot produce a certified copy of his “Vault” Birth Certificate from Hawaii because it does not exist.
Angie Y. (talk) 22:42, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
- So? Look at the source. Do you really think there work has any place in an encylopedia? Obama was born more in the US than McCain was, but both as citizens. Grsz 04:22, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
- (ec) We've discussed this odd little conspiracy theory already. Obama was born in Hawaii. Obamacrimes.com is not a reliable source. The suit, even if real, is not notable. Anybody can file suit against anyone in America, and apparently one has. Berg has also sued George Bush and perhaps John McCain on other conspiracy theories it seems. Given the editor's recent edit history and the article probation status (see notice at top of page) I'll caution this editor not to promote conspiracy theories on important article talk pages. Wikidemon (talk) 04:30, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
This should be added. It's something involving Barack's true place of origin. Angie Y. (talk) 12:09, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
- Absolutely, positively not. This will never happen, and I ask you to give it up right now before you end up with an incident report. "Obamacrimes" is not a reliable source, and the idea that you could push it as a reliable source over real newspapers and the state of Hawaii is laughable. This discussion is over before it began, but I'll leave it archived here temporarily as a blunt warning to others of three things:
- This article is on probation
- WP:BLP applies
- Poor sources will not be tolerated
- Do not bring this up again. As a relatively experienced editor, you should know better. --GoodDamon 12:17, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
GoodDamon, I am not a WikiPedia expert or anything like that. However I find your comments troubling on not even allowing any questions on Obama's place of birth. I thought Misplaced Pages was a searcher for truth. The tone I am reading from you comments is one of "this is the truth and we should not question it". I would think a better tone to take with someone who makes a statement without facts is to say more proof is required. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.236.112.195 (talk) 19:52, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
- It's not that I won't "allow" such questions. If someone simply asks where Obama was born, I see no reason not to answer such a question by pointing out the in-article citations that list his place of birth as Hawaii. But in the discussion above, no question was being asked. Rather, a laughably biased source was presented as proof-positive of Obama's foreign birth (something I'm fairly sure U.S. Federal Election Commission might be interested in if there was even the faintest scrap of evidence). Misplaced Pages uses reliable, secondary sources such as newspapers and peer-reviewed academic journals, with solid reputations for fact-checking and accuracy. "ObamaCrimes.com" has no such reputation. Furthermore, this is a biography of a living person, meaning anything libelous that ends up in it may be grounds to sue Misplaced Pages. So when patently libelous accusations like those in the closed discussion above appear, Misplaced Pages editors are strongly encouraged to shut them down, and shut them down fast. Now, let me make something clear... Let's say the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or some other reliable source of information came out with a serious journalistic investigation that presented irrefutable evidence of Obama's foreign-soil birth. Then it would merit inclusion in the article. Until then, though, absolutely not. --GoodDamon 20:37, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
- Thank you for your clarifications. I use Misplaced Pages quite often and really like the fight against POV. While I appreciate your concern against liabilities, I am noting a perhaps overly quick use of adverbs, like "laughably". Rather than characterize something outrageous, I would say understatement would make points even louder, a.k.a. the deafening silence. Anyway, Wikepedia is a great resource that should be protected, defended and even debated but never forget the openeness that has made it so startling. Carry on GoodDamon! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.236.112.195 (talk) 20:58, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
- You're welcome, and I'm glad you find it to be a useful resource. I suppose my vehemence comes from constantly having to respond to every POV warrior who comes along with astounding evidence that Barack Obama eats a live puppy every morning before praying to Satan over the blood of virgins, as proven at www.obamaisatraitortoallhumanity.com. It makes makes one a little snarky. --GoodDamon 21:16, 1 October 2008 (UTC)
Obama Supporters image
I recently added an image of some supporters in the political positions section, which I thought made a good example of supporters at a rally supporting Obama's political positions. This is the image to the right. Usergreatpower (talk) 19:30, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
- I do not think this image adds anything to the article. We have other images that show supporters, and this one does not portray the bio subject himself. Obviously, if other editors see the value of it, comment so here. LotLE×talk 19:33, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
- I don't see the value in it.LedRush (talk) 19:39, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
- Neither do I. This isn't particularly notable, either. »S0CO 19:59, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
- It's not a bad picture, but it doesn't seem particularly relevant to this article. Is there an article specifically about Obama's political rallies? It might fit better there. --GoodDamon 20:05, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
- I don't see the value in it.LedRush (talk) 19:39, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
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