(no subject)
Mar. 20th, 2008 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slammerkinbabeZOMG
1. SOMEONE WROTE A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON JANE WHITE
(1a. I edited it a fair amount -- I don't know if they hadn't finished or didn't know that much or what, but I added a goodish piece of what's currently there)
2. WIKIPEDIA WANTS TO DELETE IT DUE TO "LACK OF NOTABILITY"
I JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS WORLD AT ALL
Seriously, I don't get it! How is the daughter of a major if unjustly forgotten civil rights leader*, who herself later went on to star in a number of Broadway shows including the historic original Broadway cast of Once Upon a Mattress, and who *in* her acclaimed performance in that show made further history by becoming the first black actress to play a role cross-racially on Broadway, in whiteface -- and then won a bunch of Obie Awards, among others, for her performances in various Shakespeare plays -- and who only couldn't get more parts in the first place because she straddled the color line uncomfortably in a period in American history where being mixed-race was even more problematic than it is now -- how is that not notable?
Honestly, this really annoys me. What has Paris Hilton ever done in her life except be born to a rich guy who coddled her and gave her everything she wanted, and then wander around in a druggy stupor with a thousand long-range cameras jockeying to get a shot of her crotch to see if she's wearing underwear or not? With a fucking toy chihuahua poking out of her Fendi bag? No one is trying to delete the Paris Hilton article for lack of notability, despite the fact that she's, oh, NEVER DONE ANYTHING IN HER LIFE THAT ANYONE COULD REASONABLY GIVE DAMN ABOUT. And Wikipedia wants to delete the article on Jane White?
I mean I know no one's ever heard of her -- but how is anyone supposed to hear about her if whenever you try to do something to make people aware of her, such as WRITE A GODDAMN WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE, Wikipedia erases it!!! Because no one knows who she is!!! BECAUSE THEY ERASED THE ARTICLE!!!
Do I seriously have to, like, write a book about her myself before they will consider that there are enough "third-party, independent sources" of information about her that they will allow an article about her to stay up?!
Wikipedia is on a power trip! Why do they care if the article stays up anyway? Even if it doesn't meet their standards for "notability," why on earth would they delete it? It provides information about somebody who is linked in at least three other articles, all of which attempted to link her in the first place because they serenely *assumed* that she had her own article, and which thus were dappled with those stupid little red links that you get when someone tries to link to a nonexistent article! If she's linked in three other places, shouldn't that be enough to establish her goddamned relevance?
I am pissed!!
P.S. Yes, I am aware that apart from the footnote there is not a single sentence in this post that doesn't end in either a question mark or an exclamation point! No, I do not care! No, I am not overreacting!! FIGHT FOR JANE WHITE'S WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
*If the secretary of the NAACP for 35 years from its inception on isn't a major civil rights leader, bite me. He was a reasonably soft-spoken guy who didn't like Communists and didn't want to endanger the NAACP's tax-exempt status by condemning McCarthy; he was also a blond-haired, blue-eyed guy who was about 1/10 black, but 1/10 was more than enough for a guy who was born in the 1890s to be considered 100% lynching-eligible. As witness at least one attempt to lynch him. He was instrumental in a whole lot of the legal gruntwork that eventually got anti-lynching laws passed, and he worked closely with W.E.B. DuBois and other civil rights leaders from that period whose names *haven't* been forgotten, and he was a close friend of Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson and a bunch of other guys you remember from high school English, and I don't know who I'm ranting at.
1. SOMEONE WROTE A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY ON JANE WHITE
(1a. I edited it a fair amount -- I don't know if they hadn't finished or didn't know that much or what, but I added a goodish piece of what's currently there)
2. WIKIPEDIA WANTS TO DELETE IT DUE TO "LACK OF NOTABILITY"
I JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS WORLD AT ALL
Seriously, I don't get it! How is the daughter of a major if unjustly forgotten civil rights leader*, who herself later went on to star in a number of Broadway shows including the historic original Broadway cast of Once Upon a Mattress, and who *in* her acclaimed performance in that show made further history by becoming the first black actress to play a role cross-racially on Broadway, in whiteface -- and then won a bunch of Obie Awards, among others, for her performances in various Shakespeare plays -- and who only couldn't get more parts in the first place because she straddled the color line uncomfortably in a period in American history where being mixed-race was even more problematic than it is now -- how is that not notable?
Honestly, this really annoys me. What has Paris Hilton ever done in her life except be born to a rich guy who coddled her and gave her everything she wanted, and then wander around in a druggy stupor with a thousand long-range cameras jockeying to get a shot of her crotch to see if she's wearing underwear or not? With a fucking toy chihuahua poking out of her Fendi bag? No one is trying to delete the Paris Hilton article for lack of notability, despite the fact that she's, oh, NEVER DONE ANYTHING IN HER LIFE THAT ANYONE COULD REASONABLY GIVE DAMN ABOUT. And Wikipedia wants to delete the article on Jane White?
I mean I know no one's ever heard of her -- but how is anyone supposed to hear about her if whenever you try to do something to make people aware of her, such as WRITE A GODDAMN WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE, Wikipedia erases it!!! Because no one knows who she is!!! BECAUSE THEY ERASED THE ARTICLE!!!
Do I seriously have to, like, write a book about her myself before they will consider that there are enough "third-party, independent sources" of information about her that they will allow an article about her to stay up?!
Wikipedia is on a power trip! Why do they care if the article stays up anyway? Even if it doesn't meet their standards for "notability," why on earth would they delete it? It provides information about somebody who is linked in at least three other articles, all of which attempted to link her in the first place because they serenely *assumed* that she had her own article, and which thus were dappled with those stupid little red links that you get when someone tries to link to a nonexistent article! If she's linked in three other places, shouldn't that be enough to establish her goddamned relevance?
I am pissed!!
P.S. Yes, I am aware that apart from the footnote there is not a single sentence in this post that doesn't end in either a question mark or an exclamation point! No, I do not care! No, I am not overreacting!! FIGHT FOR JANE WHITE'S WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
*If the secretary of the NAACP for 35 years from its inception on isn't a major civil rights leader, bite me. He was a reasonably soft-spoken guy who didn't like Communists and didn't want to endanger the NAACP's tax-exempt status by condemning McCarthy; he was also a blond-haired, blue-eyed guy who was about 1/10 black, but 1/10 was more than enough for a guy who was born in the 1890s to be considered 100% lynching-eligible. As witness at least one attempt to lynch him. He was instrumental in a whole lot of the legal gruntwork that eventually got anti-lynching laws passed, and he worked closely with W.E.B. DuBois and other civil rights leaders from that period whose names *haven't* been forgotten, and he was a close friend of Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson and a bunch of other guys you remember from high school English, and I don't know who I'm ranting at.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 05:56 pm (UTC)OMG. When I get home tonight I will be spending a great great deal of time studying what exactly goes in a talk page and how you would plead such a case and what I need to put there to ensure that ALL YOUR CLASSES WILL KNOW WHO JANE WHITE IS.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 06:02 pm (UTC)I hope no one reverts my changes just because they weren't done when I was logged in.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 06:14 pm (UTC)Get thee to a library!
Date: 2008-03-20 06:54 pm (UTC)Jane White
1922-
Number of Source Citations: 15
The Biographical Encyclopaedia and Who's Who of the American Theatre. Edited by Walter Rigdon. New York: James H. Heineman, 1966. Revised edition published as Notable Names in the American Theatre. The 'Biographical Who's Who' section begins on page 227. [BiE&WWA]
Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 14: September, 1984-August, 1986. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1986. [BioIn 14]
The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre. Edited by Martin Banham. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1988. [CamGWoT]
The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Edited by Colin Chambers. London: Continuum, 2002. [ContCTwCT]
Directory of Blacks in the Performing Arts. First edition. By Edward Mapp. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978. [DrBlPA 1]
Directory of Blacks in the Performing Arts. Second edition. By Edward Mapp. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990. [DrBlPA 2]
Notable Names in the American Theatre. Clifton, NJ: James T. White & Co., 1976. Earlier edition published as The Biographical Encyclopaedia and Who's Who of the American Theatre. 'Notable Names in the American Theatre' section begins on page 489. This book often alphabetizes by titles of address, e.g.: Dr., Mrs., and Sir. [NotNAT]
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Third edition. By Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. [OxCAmT 3]
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance. Two volumes. Edited by Dennis Kennedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. [OxEncTP]
Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960. By Bernard L. Peterson, Jr. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Use the Index to locate biographies. [ProfiAA]
Who's Who in Hollywood. The largest cast of international film personalities ever assembled. Two volumes. By David Ragan. New York: Facts on File, 1992. [WhoHol 1992]
Who's Who in Hollywood, 1900-1976. By David Ragan. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1976. The 'Living Players' section begins on page 11. [WhoHol A]
Who's Who in the Theatre. A biographical record of the contemporary stage. 15th edition. Compiled by John Parker. Detroit: Gale Research, . Continued as Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. [WhoThe 15]
Who's Who in the Theatre. A biographical record of the contemporary stage. 16th edition. Edited by Ian Herbert. Detroit: Gale Research, . Continued as Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. [WhoThe 16]
Who's Who in the Theatre. A biographical record of the contemporary stage. 17th edition. Edited by Ian Herbert. Detroit: Gale Research, . Continued as Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. [WhoThe 17]
Source Citation: Biography and Genealogy Master Index. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, Cengage Learning.. 1980- 2008.
Re: Get thee to a library!
Date: 2008-03-20 06:59 pm (UTC)I am tickled pink that you just looked that up!
Her papers, incidentally, are at Smith College. I've been meaning to get out there for awhile to look them over, but it's a long hike and made longer by the fact that I don't drive and am at the mercy of those times when the bus schedule overlaps with the Sophia Smith Library's open hours. I don't know if they have any weekend hours this time of year, but if they do maybe I'll go sometime soon.
In the meantime I will have to look up which of the above-mentioned books are at the BPL. Thank you so much!
Re: Get thee to a library!
Date: 2008-03-20 07:02 pm (UTC)Re: Get thee to a library!
Date: 2008-03-20 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 06:24 pm (UTC)OK, I'm just trying to help, stop throwing wombats :)
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 09:14 pm (UTC)But seriously, judging by the biographies on shelves these days, you don't NEED training/experience/talent at writing them. So the fact that you're a good researcher (judging by your blog) and a talented writer should place you well ahead of the game.
I'm using my marathon-finish-line icon to emphasize my point *grin*
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 08:28 pm (UTC)If so, I will have to improve the page some more. There's more I want to add about her later life and her roles in Shakespeare plays and stuff, and the one-woman show she wrote and performed ("Jane White, Who?")
no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-20 08:30 pm (UTC)As noted above, I am something of a Wikipedia neophyte, and honestly wouldn't have known how to do that -- at least not so cleanly and clearly. I thought I would have to edit the whole page to expand it and clarify its relevance within the article, and then update the discussion page. I'm still very much trying to learn the ways of Wikipedia. Thank you for your help!!
no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 06:03 am (UTC)They have articles on people who are in Home & Away that haven't been deleted due to lack of notability.
Lame.