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Latest comment: 7 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion
I have only partly quoted a sentence from The Temple Dictionary of the Bible to support the possible unreliability of the figure of 70 kings being subdued by Adonibezek, because while it may have been acceptable language to western readers in the days it was published (1910), it may otherwise be considered racist: the second half of the sentence reads ";the Oriental has no idea of numerical accuracy". ("Oriental" in their context meant primarily natives of Palestine where at least one of the authors, J.E.H. Thomson, had been a priest.) I recall reading this in a copy of that book in my school library in the 1970s.Cloptonson (talk) 09:30, 14 December 2014 (UTC)Reply
Two thoughts (in case you're still watching this talk page). First, yes, it is offensive to speak of Middle Easterners in such blanket terms. Second, Wikipedia is not censored, and so it is perfectly fine to quote an offensive sentence here, so long as the words are in quotes so that it is clear that it is Thomson, and not Wikipedia itself, that is using that language.Alephb (talk) 17:12, 22 January 2017 (UTC)Reply