Archive/File: people/b/back.les/Racism-on-the-Internet
Last-Modified: 1998/09/17

Ken McVay
The Nizkor Project
1150 North Terminal Avenue, Suite 462
Nanaimo
British Columbia
V9S 5T8

17th September 1998

Dear Ken McVay,

Re:  Attribution error in J. Kaplan and T. Bjorgo Race and Nation:  the
developing Euro-American Racist Subculture
 
Following our conversation on the phone yesterday we are writing to
reiterate our deepest regret for the inclusion of a quotation attributed
inaccurately to you in our paper Racism on the Internet which has appeared
in Kaplan and Bjorgo's edited collection Race and Nation published by
Northeastern University Press.   The error is on page 96 where a quotation
from a Net Nazi is attributed incorrectly to you.  I am so very sorry
about this mistake.  We are enclosing both a photocopy of the published
article and a copy of the original typescript. We did not attribute this
quote to you in our original paper as you will see from the typescript.
In this sense it was not our mistake but we feel responsible and committed
to doing everything in our power to rectify it.  Equally, you will see
that the article makes it clear that you have been crucially involved in
anti-racist work on the Internet and that is evaluated positively in our
text.  We felt it was important to contact you as soon as this error was
noticed and make a personal and a formal apology. 

We have been trying to find out how this happened and it seems that some
additional copy editing took place at the production stage and this is
where the error occurred.  We have corresponded with Tore Bjorgo - one of
the editors - and he has assured us that the manuscript he sent to the
press did not include this error.  Unfortunately, we were not sent the
page proofs, in part because the book was produced in America, had we have
seen them we would have spotted the mistake.    

We hope sincerely that this error goes unnoticed but we are writing as a
matter of public record to state that this was a production mistake and
that this attribution was not included in our original typescript. We have
contacted the publisher and the editors of the book and we will let you
know of any developments.  We have asked the editors to write to you to
confirm the unintended nature of this mistake and you should receive
letter from them in due course.  

This is all especially unfortunate because we very much support the work
you have been doing through the Nizkor Project.  I hope that in future we
will be able to have a productive relationship and that some good can come
out of this mistake. In the mean time we are enclosing a disk copy of the
original chapter and please feel free to publish this on your web site if
you wish.  I will check this with the publisher and gain their approval.    

Once again, our sincere apologies and we hope to speak to you very soon.  

Sincerely,




Dr Les Back                   Dr Michael Keith
Professor John Solomos



 

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