Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of multiracial Americans

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Delete. Rjd0060 (talk) 21:48, 15 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

List of multiracial Americans

Unsourced, possibly OR, extremely broad inclusion criteria, and works better as a system of categories, which we I believe we already have. Mr.Z-man 00:14, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Keep - there are various reasons why lists are more suitable then categories, see WP:CLN#Lists. Also could NOT locate any exist category. Category:Afro-Asian_Americans don't exist for example.

I can't find anything that is WP:OR, I imagine that you referring to the 'Father's Ethnic Heritage' or the 'Mothers's Ethnic Heritage'. Each person I checked it made it clear on the persons biography. So at a lost to understand what part of it is WP:OR. Even if some of it is WP:OR that part can just be removed so not an issue for Afd. SunCreator (talk) 00:52, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comment Considering a large percentage of the population is not of a single ethnic/racial group, wouldn't a list like this be impractically long? Joshdboz (talk) 02:45, 10 April 2008 (UTC) Delete List is far to wide, and "multiracial" is far too undefined a term - it basically defines everyone. Joshdboz (talk) 12:20, 11 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comment - It wouldn't be everyone but those that are notable. But yes, it could end up a long list. If it got longer it would eventually be split into sections, by type and then most likely alphabetically. So it's not really a concern from that point of view. SunCreator (talk) 03:16, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Delete Overtly racist OR/synthesis without any sources. When you have people like Rae Dawn Chong, who is described as a mix of Chinese, Scots Irish, Cherokee and Black Canadian, sensible classification breaks down and becomes quite subjective. We don't want to be arguing whether someone is an octoroon and whether this list should therefore include them. Or whether the offspring of Jews and Gentiles are multiracial. Colonel Warden (talk) 07:40, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. While I disagree with some of the delete reasons, it is simply an unmaintainable list. It would be like a List of people who wear glasses Random 89 08:51, 10 April 2008

(UTC)

Keep. Notable, verifiable facts. --Firefly322 (talk) 10:39, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per Random. 86.44.28.245 (talk) 11:26, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete, per Random, simply too wide a scope. Inclusion criteria are very fuzzy (would a Scottish/Irish person count?) Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 11:30, 10 April 2008 (UTC).[reply]
Delete per Random and Colonel Warden. Extremely broad scope, vaguely defined considering the various definitions of 'race' (although I guess this would use US definitions), and could become huge and very crufty especially given the melting pot of the United States.--h i s ^{s p a c e} _{r e s e a r c h} 11:49, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Weak Delete. List itself may be relevant. But it simply can't be handled. Probably the number of entries should have four digits. Who shall manage this? And can it ever be reliable? No. --Abrech (talk) 12:01, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists of people-related deletion discussions. -- Fabrictramp (talk) 13:42, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per Random; too wide of a scope indeed, and possibly fuzzy guidelines (just how distinct is "race"?). Better served as a category. (That, and they left out Neal McCoy, who's Irish/Filipino.) Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • ^{(Broken clamshells•Otter chirps)} 16:51, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Regretful delete If this had really been a list of multiracial Americans, it would have been a worthwhile topic. We live in a society where Barack Obama is thought of as being "black", but never referred to as "white", even with an equal heritage from those two races. Author's mistake was not only to label Mom and Dad, but to label them based on "ethnic heritage" rather than as white, black, Asian, etc.; an inconsistent application of PC then followed ("Luo of Kenya", e.g.) and this is actually a list of multiethnic Americans. And since most Americans can trace their ancestry to several different ethnic groups, we're all "multiethnic" to some extent, even if we aren't of mixed race. As the old saying goes, when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no-one. Mandsford (talk) 20:16, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
One practical solution would be to redirect to List of pureblooded Americans and add a footnote saying that every American not on that list should be considered multiracial; another would be to accept that the inclusion criterion is far too vague and Delete. Sheffield Steel^talk_stalk 21:36, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Delete as a perfect example of an unmanagable list. As Mansford points out, multiracial is a pretty loose label. Bfigura ^(talk) 01:29, 11 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Loosely defined list scope, difficult to manage, bound to be virtually endless. --Nick Penguin_(contribs) 01:43, 11 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete This is a meaningless concept unless you believe in the myth of racial purity. If you go back far enough in the family tree all Americans (and all people of other nationalities) are multiracial. Phil Bridger (talk) 10:17, 12 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete The scope of this list is too ill-defined to make is manageable, and it add little to the encyclopedia.-- danntm ^T _C 22:14, 12 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. Undefined inclusion criteria, indiscriminate collection of information, and possible WP:BLP violations. Race is largely a social construct, and self-identity is a big part of that construct. Is someone who is half-white and half-black multiracial, or are they black? Some would say the former, while many would say the latter (especially in the US, cultural heir to the old "one drop" rule). Also, everyone is multiracial to some extent. How much Native American/European/African/Asian/etc. heritage must one have to be consdered multiracial? Once someone "passes" as white, are they any longer multi-racial? Making a determination that someone is multiracial largely depends on one's point of view, and such determination as made in this list constitutes original research, and may very well be contrary to someone's self-identity. I think a list of multi-racial Americans might be appropriate if it is rooted in a reliably-sourced definition, gives due regard to self-identity, and substantiates why each person's multi-racial identity is notable. None of this is the case with the article in its current form. Nick Graves (talk) 03:09, 13 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.