How Activists Are Diversifying Wikipedia One Edit At A Time

A highly popular German sports club named Borussia Dortmund is taking advantage of its fanbase and following to promote anti-extremist messages, praise diversity, and celebrate inclusion. They do so in a variety of ways, including elevating and supporting independent fan initiatives like ballspiel.vereint!, requiring fan clubs and members to sign statues that reject far-right ideology, hosting educational field trips to former concentration camps for youth, and donating over a million dollars to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.

In 2018, The A&T Register, the online student-run newspaper for North Carolina A&T State University, the largest Black university in the country, conducted a media investigation. It examined the way local media wrote headlines that associated the university with crime. They examined headlines that fell into two categories; those that used the campus as a locator for crime, or headlines that based outdated affiliations. Then, the editor-in-chief, Alexis Wray, presented their findings to local outlets hoping to effect change. They did. Their investigation led to changes in future headlines.

Independent journalists and upstart news organizations in Mexico have banded together to counter potentially deadly or disruptive fake news with a highly organized fact-checking campaign calling itself Verificado. Besides debunking hundreds of false political rumors in the 2018 elections, the coalition has fact-checked the sort of fake news that has prompted mobs to carry out hundreds of lynchings. One WhatsApp fact-verifying account enabling anyone to submit requests for debunking stories has been used extensively by mostly young readers.

Tens of thousands of readers read Amal, Berlin!, "an Arabic, Farsi and German-language digital newspaper that covers local news in Berlin and Germany.” The newspaper helps refugees navigate their new home in their native language, easing their transition into a new culture and way of life.

After the 2016 elections, division, issues of bigotry and racism led to prejudice and resentment. Research studies at different universities around the country have shown that by opening dialogue with people across racial, gender, and class lines, tensions defuse. With conversations, people are more likely to have empathy toward people that are different from them.

Despite being one of the most rapidly-growing and popular sports in the United States, soccer - like most other sports and organizations of all kinds - faces challenges with disparity and exclusion over race, gender association, and socio-economic status. Activist groups like Left Wing Xicago, and the Athletic Alliance of Chicago are working to create spaces for people of color, LGBQT, and low-income community members to come together and enjoy the sport, as well as increase their representation in intramural and professional leagues.

Ahead of Nigeria’s general election, a group of 12 media platforms and civil society organizations worked together as the Nigeria Factcheckers Coalition to debunk false information targeting voters. The coalition, which provided training and tools to participating journalists, fact-checked 127 during the week of the elections.

When a white nationalist leader sparked an antisemitic hate campaign in his vacation community to settle a personal grievance, the community rose up in unison to confront the hate and render it toothless. Everyone from neighbors to the governor joined in the effort to counter disinformation and intimidation with alternative messages that telegraphed communal disapproval. A planned march by neo-Nazis was a flop and the leader of the planned attacks is now shunned. Other communities have contacted the leaders of the counteroffensive to get tips on protecting themselves from similar attacks.

All over the country, students are using the internet to call out racism. Young people are publishing open letters, creating Change.org petitions and Google Docs “with lists of racist people in their classes, and using online platforms to organize protests.” In Boston, teens from the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center wrote an open letter asking school officials to address the wave of anti-asian hate crimes. After the letter, officials issued a resolution. Although, in some instances these actions do result in change, sometimes it can result in censorship towards students of color.

The Chicago Black Drag Council launched after a series of protests that called on Chicago’s LGBTQ neighborhood to address racial discrimination and oppression. A handful of businesses quickly agreed to a live-streamed town hall to discuss ways to increase inclusivity. As a result, a prominent host of popular drag shows was ousted for racial discrimination and the business chamber dropped the neighborhood’s nickname, “Boystown,” from marketing materials because it is not inclusive. The Drag Council has also raised tens of thousands of dollars in cash and supplies to support Black- and trans-led initiatives.