Taxacom: policing the scientific lexicon and misuse of the term woke

Sat Jun 17 17:16:39 CDT 2023

 I'm not sure that there has been any misuse of the term woke at all. The basic idea of woke is social justice, but you can't police how broadly or narrowly the term can be used. I was talking specifically about the woke agenda, specifically as it relates to biological nomenclature and taxonomy. So, you can use some term other than woke if you like, but the actual issue under discussion here is whether or not it would be sensible to place social justice requirements on nomenclature and taxonomy? Would it actually serve any useful function, in the name of social justice, to retrospectively cancel and replace patronyms for people who are seen as having been socially unjust? Hitler would be the paradigm example. However, the existence of clear and easily agreed cases doesn't imply that all cases are clear. For example, Roger Waters is seen by some as a champion of social justice, for speaking up for the human rights of Palestinians, but is seen by some others as an antisemite/Nazi, for speaking up for the human rights of Palestinians! Which is it? Biological nomenclature has global scope, so there will be a lot of very different sociopolitical views in the mix. Note also that it is only a small step from cancelling patronyms to cancelling the entire body of work by a taxonomist who is seen (by some) as having been socially unjust. Some taxonomists will very enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to do a lot of superficial renaming of taxa. There will be a mixture of views on this issue even within the taxonomic community. The ICZN has shown itself to be not all that good at dealing with issues of a broadly political nature, what with the ongoing herpetological chaos resulting from the Hoser problem. I'm hoping that the social justice issue doesn't gain traction in taxonomy and add to the chaos! Don't forget, we have already had some university academics (Shane Wright) publishing proposals to replace the taxonomic names of iconic New Zealand native species to better reflect indigenous values, e.g. Agathis australis to Agathis kauri.
Stephen
    On Sunday, 18 June 2023 at 08:51:40 am NZST, Michael A. Ivie via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:  

 Matt, Leslie and others,

Let a 68 year old white US male explain Woke to those who do not seem to 
get it.  My father grew up so poor his parents put him out with 
relatives as a farm hand to earn room and board at 8.  My mother was 
from a family of share croppers and worked as a maid. Both did get to go 
to school, up to 13 for my mom, and high school for my dad.  After my 
dad served in WWII, my parents married, and my dad used the GI Bill to 
get a teaching degree and buy a house. That was the total beginning of 
the middle class life and inter-generational wealth I grew up thinking 
was normal.

I grew up in California, no Jim Crow bull for us, we were morally 
superior!  I gave one day's lunch money each week to civil rights 
workers in the South.  In high school, I first met black kids. About 20% 
of my high school was black, and we had classes, choir, gym and social 
events together, made friends and knew each other. Many of their fathers 
were also WWII vets, but they almost all (OK, all) lived in poorer areas 
and many if not most rented.  I really never thought about it.  Good 
people who lived differently is what my mom told me.  During that period 
California Hwy 99 was made into a freeway through the city where my high 
school was, and in digging out the route and accesses, several "bad" 
neighborhoods were "cleaned up" (i.e. removed).  I had no idea where the 
displaced people went, they did not go anywhere near me.

NOWHERE in any of my background did I know that the veteran fathers of 
the black kids did not get the GI Bill benefits my dad got.  I had no 
idea that the areas where they lived had been red lined so that GI Bill 
loans were not available there.  No one ever told me that the economics 
of my family were based on educational attainment and property ownership 
not available to my friends' fathers, or that the higher salaries and 
home value increases financed our upward mobility.  I did not know that 
the freeway route was not chosen because it was the best route but 
because it was cheap land and those living there did not have the 
political clout to have a voice.

We were not bad because of our families progress, but we did not really 
understand the role privilege had in the different outcomes for my 
friends.  We didn't deny it, we didn't even think about it to deny it.  
We did nothing to keep others down, but did not have a basis for 
understanding how to lift other up beyond charity.  My ignorance was not 
by choice, it just was.  We knew all about slavery, Jim Crow and Martin 
Luther King, but the knowledge was very superficial, and we thought that 
was all in the past, or being fixed for the future.

Not until late in life did I really start to learn about why this 
difference existed.  How institutional but hidden (from normal white 
people) factors rigged the system in our favor, and to the detriment of 
people with the theoretically same rights but who just did not make it.  
I was always progressive in my views, as were my parents, but did not 
even know the background for the disparities I spoke against.  Only more 
recently have I been awakened to how the situation occurred.

There you have it, I have been made aware, awakened, I WOKE UP!

That is WOKE, and I am proud of it.

Mike

On 6/16/2023 6:38 PM, Matthew Medeiros via Taxacom wrote:
> **External Sender**
>
> After years of reading these posts passively, I've never been moved to post
> here before, but YES, thank you Les, and Kristina as well.  The misuse of
> the term "woke" on this list over the last couple days, and the lack of
> understanding, has been a huge bummer.  I could not have said it better
> than Les.
>
> -Matt
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 16, 2023 at 5:29 PM Kristina LEMSON via Taxacom <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hear hear Leslie Watling, and thankyou for your post.
>> ________________________________
>> From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Leslie Watling
>> via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
>> Sent: Friday, June 16, 2023 11:36:06 PM
>> To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
>> Subject: Taxacom: policing the scientific lexicon and misuse of the term
>> woke
>>
>> EXTERNAL EMAIL - Be careful with links and attachments.
>>
>>
>>  From all the messages and replies in this thread, it seems to me the term
>> woke has been adopted as a pejorative, which is not the true meaning of the
>> term. The word "woke" arose in the Black community in the US as a way to
>> talk about seeing others with understanding and compassion. The right
>> wingers have usurped the word  and made it sound bad, evil, something to be
>> stamped out, which could be nothing further from the truth.
>>
>> So, unless you agree with the right-wingers, please stop using the term
>> "woke" to label ideas and statements you don't agree with. But also, if you
>> can, be "woke" to the ills of others less fortunate than you.
>>
>> Best,
>> Les
>>
>> Les Watling
>> Professor Emeritus
>> School of Life Sciences
>> University of Hawaii
>>
>> Professor Emeritus
>> School of Marine Sciences
>> University of Maine
>>
>
>
> --
> Matthew J. Medeiros, Ph.D.
> Pacific Biosciences Research Center, UH Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822
> (postdoctoral scholar)
> School of Life Sciences, UNLV, Las Vegas, NV 89154 (research associate)
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> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for about 36 years, 1987-2023.

-- 
__________________________________________________

Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.

NOTE: two addresses with different Zip Codes depending on carriers

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Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for about 36 years, 1987-2023.