Who’s That Behind Wikipedia?

Ξ September 14th, 2008 | → 4 Signatures | ∇ Uncategorized |

Earlier this year, our petition received some bitter posts from someone using the handle “The Real East Los.”  The poster said, among other things,

“Wow, look at all these outsiders thinking they know what’s best for us poor brown folks.  Twice a year they put down their quiche and lobster bisque to come slummin’ in the Eastside for some tacos – except those of you who stop by more often after scoring some weed in the projects.  […]  All you uppity white folks can get back in your Range Rovers and head to the Westside for some goat cheese pizza and creme brulee — and let us Mexicans work this out.”

And later,

“This policy affects ONLY UNINCORPORATED AREAS OF THE COUNTY.  About 99% of you who signed on are outsiders who slum in the Eastside every once in a great while.  This policy applies to taco trucks EAST of Indiana St.  […]  Most of you gringos don’t venture this far into the Eastside anyway.  You can still drive over the bridge, score some weed, get some tacos, and head safely back home before the big bad brown folks get you.”

There’s a lot to say about these comments, but the obvious points are these: Clearly “The Real East Los” is well versed with the law, and quite familiar with the specifics of where the county/city line is.

Now, there’s also something much less obvious about this post that we noticed.  Every time a comment is posted, the IP address (essentially a unique internet ID) is noted.  Interestingly, the IP address (159.83.252.234) for the two posts is registered to the County of Los Angeles.

Stay with me, because it gets better.


In  April, somebody took the time to post a section about the controversy on Gloria Molina’s Wikipedia page.  On September 10th, the entire “Controversy” section was wiped out, white-washed like a mural in the Arroyo Seco. Fortunately, Wikipedia also notes the IP address of anybody who makes a change to an article.  Want to guess the address responsible for this change?

That’s right, the exact same eleven digits: 159.83.252.234.

On several occasions, going back to December, Gloria Molina’s page has had any section regarding controversy (tacos or murals) erased by somebody at the same address. Furthermore, this same IP address has changed passages to the articles of fellow supervisors Mike Antonovich, Don Knabe, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors article.

In all fairness, it’s impossible for us to identify any specific county office, official, or department responsible for these racially loaded posts and Orwellian Wikipedia edits.  Nevertheless, this underscores the absolute necessity that we avoid complacency and insist our elected officials represent the majority over the “Big Taco” minority.

Notes:

See the posts from “The Real East Los” here (#379 and #384), and here (#14).
The registration info for 159.83.252.234 can be found here.
One of the many Wikipedia edits can be seen here.

Our internal view of a posting: