Wikipedia:In the United States

Wikipedia has systemic bias that reflects its base of editors. Among those biases, topics related to the United States generally have much better coverage than other countries, especially those outside of the Global North or the Western world. When you come across an article on a general subject that describes the subject mostly or entirely in the United States, it can be tempting to rename it to include "... in the United States" in the title. This page describes why that's a bad idea, unless you're willing to follow through on it.

The US is used as an example throughout this essay, but its advice equally applies regardless of the specific country in question.

The problem

Suppose you find an article Widget that describes widgets in the United States. You figure moving it to Widgets in the United States would clarify what the article is really about. First, make sure the topic isn't inherently mostly about, or exclusive to, the United States. Chicano, for example, is about some Mexican Americans in the United States, so Chicanos in the United States would be unnecessary as a title. Assuming that's not the case—that widgets exist worldwide, and information about widgets elsewhere is desirable, why not move to the longer title?

If you simply move the page, the old title will redirect to the new one by default. So if anyone looking for information on widgets still gets taken to Widgets in the United States, the problem of systemic bias has not actually been remedied. Worse, this could be seen as suggesting that "Widgets" and "Widgets in the United States" are synonymous. How to approach such situations, then?

Remedies

The simplest solution for such cases is to put the {{globalize}} template at the top of the article. This will place the article in a maintenance category and serve as a disclaimer to readers.

The most helpful solution is to improve Wikipedia with new content. Adding information about widgets outside of the US directly to the page makes the article more informative while addressing systemic bias. You may still want to add {{globalize}} to the article, if appropriate.

Suppose the article is already very long, despite only dealing with American content. If it's a reasonably complete picture of the subject in the United States, it might make sense to move to the longer title. Don't stop there, though—once you've moved Widget to Widgets in the United States, overwrite the redirect Widget with information on widgets in general. You can use summary style to link from this page to the American article. In some cases, you may be able to find another place that the general topic is already discussed. If so, you could also retarget the redirect from the page move to that place.

Depending on the circumstances, other outcomes may be appropriate. In rare cases, it may be appropriate to have an article at "Widgets in the United States" but not Widget. Since this would imply to readers who search the basic term that we don't have an article on widgets, this is to be avoided. If all we can say about a topic right now is what it's like in the US, that's better than nothing.

Finally, you don't have to do anything! You're a volunteer, and if you don't fix these situations, someone else probably will at some point. It's good to be bold, but not reckless—don't move pages to "...in the United States" and then just walk away.