Category talk:Ethnic cleansing

Problematic category

As our article on ethnic cleansing says, this is a very vague term that is often used to avoid clear terms or to insinuate war crimes. As a consequence, it creates heated discussions in articles assigned to this category, such as Expulsion of non-resident Tamils from Colombo. Moreover, it seems to contain articles that clearly belong to category:Genocide, such as Armenian Genocide, Assyrian Genocide or Pontic Greek Genocide. If there are more problems with this category then I'd vote for deleting it and moving its content to category:Genocide, category:Ethnic conflict or category:Forced migration, as applicable. — Sebastian 02:56, 23 June 2007 (UTC)    (I stopped watching this page. If you would like to continue the talk, please do so here and ping me.)

Is it appropriate to use the term ethnic cleansing for this category?

The use of the term "ethnic cleansing" is in my view problematic, as it is a) a euphemism and b) used retrospectively. Opinions? 红卫兵 19:44, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

• I agree that this category is utilized in far too many historical situations. If we are to be consistent, we need to go back to antiquity. Either this category should be abolished or its use should be restricted to a limited number of contemporary cases, in which ethnic cleansing was used to describe the event after the term came into common use. Figureofnine (talk) 16:24, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

I did some research and came up with the following tables. The first table is a legend for the second. In the second table, the abbreviations in the columns list to which categories a given article or category has been assigned to. "y" stands for "yes", "i" stands for indirect, meaning it has been assigned to an obvious subcategory. Example, Category:Massacres of Poles in Volhynia is a subcategory of two "Massacres in ..." categories, and hence indirectly in category:Massacres.

abbreviation	category
AN	Anti-national sentiment
CAH	Crimes against humanity
CulA	Cultural assimilation
Dc	Discrimination
Dp	Deportation
ER	Ethnic riots
FM	Forced migration
Gc	Genocides
Ho	The Holocaust
HRA	Human rights abuses
Ms	Massacres
NWC	Nazi war crimes
Na	Nationalism
Po	Pogroms
Ps	Persecution
Ra	Racism
RelD	Religious discrimination
RelP	Religious persecution
Rf	Refugees
RM	Racial massacres
V	Violence
WC	War crimes
none	does not contain any of the listed categories

article/cat	AN	CAH	CulA	Dc	Dp	ER	FM	Gc	Ho	HRA	Ms	NWC	Na	Po	Ps	Ra	RelD	RelP	Rf	RM	V	WC	none
Category:Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia																							n
Category:Forced migration in the Soviet Union							y
Category:Massacres of Poles in Volhynia											i
Category:Persecution of Serbs	y			y																		i
* Ethnic cleansing				y			y			y					y	y
1944–1945 killings in Bačka								y
1948 Palestinian exodus							y
Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652																							n
Ahatovići massacre								i			i
Ahmići massacre								i			i											i
Al-Anfal Campaign											i											i
Armenian Genocide	y							i			i		y
Assyrian Genocide								i
Bhutanese refugees																			y
Bulgaria during World War I																							n
Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam																		i
Captivity of Nairs at Seringapatam																	i
Carib Expulsion							y
Čemerno massacre											i											i
Cham issue																							n
Cherokee removal							i
Choctaw Trail of Tears							i
Circassian Day of Mourning																							n
Crimea Germans							i
Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union					y		i
Deportation of the Crimean Tatars							i
Dersim Massacre								y			i
Doljani massacre								i			i											i
East Prigorodny conflict
Ethnic bioweapon								y								y
Ethnic Cleansing (video game)	i															y	i	i
Saborsko massacre											i											i
Expulsion of Asians from Uganda	i														y	y
Expulsion of Germans after World War II					y		y			y
Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia					y		y
Expulsion of Germans from Romania after World War II					y		i
Expulsion of Poles by Germany				i			y			y		i			y	y					i
Final Solution									y
Foča massacres								i			i											i
Generalplan Ost							y		i
Glogova Massacre		y						i			i											i
Gnjilane Group	y										y				i							i
Goraždevac murders	y			y							y				i							i
Herero and Namaqua Genocide								y
Identity cleansing					y					y
Indian removal							i	i
Indian Removal Act							i
Istanbul Pogrom	i					y					i			y
Italianization																							n
Italianization of South Tyrol			y
Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands						y	y
Kashmiri Pandit							y
Korićani Cliffs massacre								i			i											i
Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing								i			i											i
List of massacres in the Kosovo War											i											i
Mariposa Battalion																							n
Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars	y										y											y
Mokronoge massacre								i			i											i
Muhajir (Caucasus)								y
Operation Lentil (Caucasus)							i
Operation Ring																							n
Operation Vistula					y						i
Organ theft in Kosovo										y												i
Panun Kashmir							y
Partition of India							y
Persecution of Muslims																		y
Persecution of Serbs	y			y				i			y				i							y
Persecution of Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo	i			y							i											y
Polish Border Strip				i			y								y
Potawatomi Trail of Death							i
Repatriation of Ukrainians from Poland to the Soviet Union							y
Srebrenica massacre		y						i														i
Štrpci massacre											i											i
Stupni Do massacre								i			i											i
Trail of Tears							i	i
Zilan massacre											i

My impression from this table is that most articles in Category:Ethnic cleansing are also in at least one other category that could replace it, above all category:Forced migration, category:Genocides, category:Racial massacres, category:War crimes, and category:Discrimination. I think therefore we could dissolve this category, if we spend some time sorting those that aren't into the existing categories or their subcats, and I hope this should be possible without too much POV quarrels. — Sebastian 04:11, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for an amazing amount of work, Sebastian. I agree with that "ethnic cleansing" is a euphemism, and that these other categories are preferable. Moreover it presumes a violent distate for the expelled party. Use it as a category when the perpetrators used such a term, but also put them in these more objective categories when appropriate.--Carwil (talk) 01:45, 21 September 2010 (UTC)