Talk:Donald J. Harris

22 August 2020

This page is locked for editing, so this post is directed to whomever controls the page. It seems that Harris’s undergraduate degree was from University of the West Indies. The source is his Stanford University biography page here: https://web.stanford.edu/~dharris/professional_career.htm. The Wikipedia page for the University of the West Indies indicates that “University College West Indies” was a forerunner of the University of the West Indies, though the page states that UCWI had a “special relationship” at that time with the University of London. This relationship is unclear (perhaps someone knowledgeable in UWI history would know), but it seems more accurate to say that Harris is an alumnus of UWI instead of the University of London. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Phibetawiki (talk • contribs) 04:07, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

I have changed it to University College of the West Indies-University of London because that is what the source says.--Jack Upland (talk) 08:05, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

12 August 2020

In its current form, the page seems to me to be well referenced and to contain no controversial materials. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ross.woods (talk • contribs) 07:39, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Dr. Harris is clearly a notable economist. Granted, economics is a dismal science, nevertheless the article is in no way 'controversial' nor inaccurate and is a correctly presented biographical note. /AJ Plotke — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.18.54.66 (talk) 15:49, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

The deletion discussion was closed with a result of speedy keep. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 11:35, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

source should be added regarding him being a United States citizen

the template lists:

Citizenship: Jamaica - United States

Does that mean he's a dual citizen, or formerly a Jamaican citizen who renounced it after becoming US citizen?

Anyway a glaring problem here is we list him in the category:

Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States

But no mention is actually made in the main article body of his naturalization. Generally if you include a category you're supposed to include a statement about what the category pertains to in the body, along with a reference so readers know what the category derives from.

I managed to find a potential candidate at https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/a33584703/kamala-harris-parents/

According to Harris's 2018 autobiography, Donald was born in Jamaica in 1938 and immigrated to the United States to get his doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

He eventually became a naturalized United States citizen.

A second one is at https://heavy.com/news/2019/02/donald-harris-kamala-father-dad-jamaican/

Donald Harris is also known as Donald J. Harris.

He was born in Jamaica and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to his Stanford University biography.

This is derived from a different source, which I believe to be https://web.stanford.edu/~dharris/professional_career.htm

7. Citizenship

Jamaica (by birth); USA (by naturalization).

RIGHT at the bottom... so that's three sources to cite!

They're all a bit vague (when is "eventually?") so there might be a better fourth source out there, such as citing directly from the 2018 autobio, which might give more specifics like the year, allowing us to know where an appropriate place to describe the event in the article would be.

Until we do, it might make more sense to include these references in the template rather than the main body, just so long as they are used SOMEWHERE to justify the category. 64.228.90.251 (talk) 07:15, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for calling attention to this. I checked the infoboxes of a few other articles about people who are naturalized U.S. citizens. Melania Trump lists just “American”. Henry Kissinger and Alexander Vindman don’t mention citizenship but list “American allegiance” in the military box. Most of them - Jennifer Granholm, Ariana Huffington, Madeleine Albright, Elaine Chao - do not mention citizenship in the infobox, not even for people who held public office where being a U.S. citizen mattered. I could find none that use the peculiar “Jamaica - United States” format found in this article. The ones I checked all do say in the article text that they became U.S. citizens and when; in Harris’s case we don’t know when. I propose to remove the “citizenship” info from the infobox and remove the category. Alternatively, we could say in the text “at some point he became a naturalized U.S. citizen”, citing the Stanford biography, and retain the category - but the citizenship of an economics professor is not usually a matter of high relevance. -- MelanieN (talk) 10:47, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

General agreement from me. Citizenship/Nationality is a messy area and, AFAIK, WP does not have any coherent policy about how articles or infoboxes ought to present or to avoid presenting info about this beyond what WP:BURDEN says, and that is often ignored. Template:Infobox academic/doc, in particular, provides no guidance on this. His citizenship, and that of his wife, might be of interest in re fringe views about the natural-born-citizen clause situation of his daughter. In any case, IMHO, assertions here re that need to cite support and the Stanford source looks citeable for this. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 12:31, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

Seems good as it is. He clearly identifies with Jamaica, but is also a US citizen.--Jack Upland (talk) 08:37, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

Is this still in the infobox? I thought we had already removed that peculiar listing under citizenship. "United States - Jamaica" is unlike anything I have ever seen in an infobox, and it is unclear and confusing. He is a naturalized US citizen, per sources, but more than that, I don't think we need to list his citizenship at all. In the comparable cases I listed above, either there was no listing for citizenship in the infobox, or else it listed simply "American" as with Melania Trump. I think we should remove the "citizenship" listing from the infobox. -- MelanieN (talk) 21:39, 24 August 2020 (UTC)

I don't see why we should disappear his Jamaican citizenship.--Jack Upland (talk) 00:29, 25 August 2020 (UTC)

I’d like to reactivate this discussion because it seems to have died out without a firm decision. I am proposing to remove the “citizenship” item from the infobox. We currently have “Citizenship: Jamaica-United States”. I could not find this peculiar type of listing for any other naturalized U.S. citizen. Such people are generally either just listed as “citizenship: American” (see for example Melania Trump) or in most cases don’t have a citizenship listing in the infobox at all (see Jennifer Granholm, Ariana Huffington, Madeleine Albright, Elaine Chao, etc.), simply mentioning their naturalization in the article text. For an academic like him, there is no reason to have a “citizenship” item in the infobox at all since it is irrelevant to his career. So that is what I propose: remove “citizenship” from the infobox, keeping it in the text. Discussion so far is three people saying remove the item from the infobox and one saying keep it. Looking for more opinions. -- MelanieN (talk) 05:43, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Wouldn't the proper solution just be to add "Slovenian" to Melania's article? I'm sure if she'd renounced it that'd be everywhere. 64.228.90.251 (talk) 05:49, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

That seems reasonable. The Slovenian nationality law article says that Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991, and transitional provisions were made for the acquisition of Slovenian citizenship by certain former Yugoslav citizens. She doesn't appear to meet the conditions described in the Involuntary deprivation of citizenship section there. The Melania Trump article says that she came to the United States from Slovenia in 1996. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 09:52, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

And yet we have not done that for any other naturalized citizen article that I have seen. Just because we have something weird at this article, you think we should do it at her article too? The "proper solution" here would be to not have a citizenship line in the infobox, which is the case with all the other naturalized citizen articles I looked at. In this case, the subject is an academic; his citizenship is irrelevant to his career or his notability. It's not a matter of high enough importance to highlight it in the infobox. -- MelanieN (talk) 14:53, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

I wasn't making an argument, just saying that the suggestiono sounded reasonable. I see it as a viable alternative to the suggestion you offered above, which also sounds reasonable and with which I also expressed general agreement. I noted there that this is a messy area and that little guidance is available. It comes down to consensus dor this article and for the Melania Trump article, and I don't see a strong reason to express disagreement with either your suggestion or with this one. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 16:42, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

I've been involved in similar discussions about famous India-born economists working in the West. Some have adopted the citizenship of their country of work and residence; some have not (i.e. they have remained legal permanent residents, in some instances for decades). The precedent in such pages is "India-born naturalized American economist" in the lead sentence. It is best to state that at the outset; it removes all ambiguity. See Jagdish Bhagwati, Amartya Sen, Pranab Bardhan, Sugata Bose, or the actor Akshay Kumar. Granted, I have been involved in all these discussions, so they have my stamp, but the rules we have followed said both the country of birth and that of citizenship or long-term employment should be stated. If the consensus is not to use "Jamaica-born naturalized American economist" here, then you should at least write, "American economist born in British Jamaica" in the lead sentence. As for the infobox, the characterization of citizenship would depend on whether or not he relinquished his Jamaican citizenship when he became a naturalized American. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 11:54, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Jamaican American (in the lead sentence) though is imprecise. It can apply to Americans (i.e. born and raised, e.g. Colin Powell or Al Roker) of Jamaican heritage, which DJH is not. He is more like Harry Belafonte, but then that page too is imprecise. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:25, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

PS Rethink: I forgot that I do have a further preference. For those who arrived in America as students, or otherwise fairly young (e.g. Cary Grant), I would prefer American ___ born in ___ or ___-born American; for these who arrived later in life (which the Indian examples above did), or Albert Einstein did too, I would prefer ___-born naturalized American. As DJH arrived when quite young I would not bother with mentioning "naturalization" for him. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:59, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Question: Do we state the nationality or citizenship in the infoboxes of naturalized Americans. I think the general trend is to state it, especially for those who arrived in adulthood with a career behind them. Madeliene Albright and Elaine Chao arrived as children or adolescents, so they are Americans fair and square. I did a quick search in a few professions, especially for Slavic Americans (if we are going to be discussing the First Lady's infobox here.)

• Movie actors: Eva Gabor, Bela Lugosi , Claude Rains do not (perhaps because they had so many spouses there was no room left for citizenship in the infobox)

• Actors (cont). But Elizabeth Taylor (who arrived on these shores quite young), [Heddy Lamar]] and Bela Lugosi, all three much-married do. Lamar even has "Stateless" for a 15-year period (imagine that)

• Physicists and mathematicians (these are probably the best examples and dozens came before WWII; all had careers) Albert Einstein (does, a long list, unthinkable today, but perhaps because everyone wants to claim him); Enrico Fermi (does); Wolfgang Pauli does; Erwin Schrödinger (Austrian Irish); John von Neumann does; Wernher von Braun does but only American, not surprising as he designed both the V-2 for the Nazis and the Saturn V for the moon landing)

• So, finally, what does this add up to? I'd say if they arrived fully made (with a career), I'd put down all their citizenships in the infobox. If they arrived young, to study or to apprentice, I'd write only "American." This is because their professional training and careers—which is ultimately what these articles are about—took place in America. So for DJH, I'd write Citizenship: American, unless we have proof that he held on to his Jamaican citizenship. For Melania, who arrived at 26 with a fledgling modeling career behind her, it is tricky, in the gray zone. I'd state both citizenships, but I wouldn't push it; if the consensus is to have only American, so be it. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 14:31, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

I've said above that guidance on this is sparse. Discussion above caused me to look at MOS:ETHNICITY, which contains following:

The opening paragraph should usually provide context for the activities that made the person notable. In (redirects to Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Context) most modern-day cases, this will be the country of which the person is a citizen, national, or permanent resident; or, if the person is notable mainly for past events, the country where the person was a citizen, national, or permanent resident when the person became notable.

That doesn't help much here, as Donald Harris apparently holds dual nationalities and, besides being notable for his professional attainments, is now somewhat notable in connection with the prominence his daughter Kamala. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 16:49, 1 September 2020 (UTC) Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 16:49, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

My lay understanding of this is that, while the US requires naturalized citizens to declare on their naturalization paperwork that they are renouncing their other citizenships, it does not (or did not at the time) enforce that by requiring them to actually go through a renunciation procedure with whatever other country they held citizenship in, and that that other country may not have even had such a procedure. So it may well be the case that according to the US government he is a US citizen only while according to the Jamaican government he is still also a Jamaican citizen. Without reliable sources for his particular case all we can go on is what we have: he was born Jamaican and naturalized US. —David Eppstein (talk) 17:10, 1 September 2020 (UTC)

Sorry about the delay in responding; my only argument with that is a nitpick re "according to the US government he is a US citizen only". I agree, except for the "only". The U.S. government is OK with US citizens having other citizenships as well. The US government would certainly have a position on whether or not he is a US citizen but, as far as I know, the US government has no position on whether or not any US citizen does or does not have other citizenships. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 19:06, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

As I read it, the Stanford University bio says that he has dual US-Jamaican citizenship. As far as I can see, the examples listed above are people who left their native land and cut all ties with it. In that case, it is irrelevant for our purposes whether they are entitled to citizenship in their homeland, unless this becomes an issue for some reason. In Harris's case, he has described himself as Jamaican[1] and worked in Jamaican for many years. I think it is presumptuous and seemingly xenophobic to say his American citizenship is the only one that matters. But I don't think citizenship necessarily has to be in the infobox.--Jack Upland (talk) 20:46, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

Influences

He has acknowledged the works of Joan Robinson, Maurice Dobb, Piero Sraffa, Michal Kalecki, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, and W. Arthur Lewis as influences upon his work.. I can't see that any of the references say this. Some of them are just to books, not by him, without page references given. Jack Upland (talk) 07:59, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

References