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

Sat Jun 17 19:49:07 CDT 2023

Longtime reader, first time writer, jumping into the fire to point out the following:

An old white man insisting that his definition for “woke” is the right one, combined with his statements about how women in science are overly concerned about their minority status, is the very picture of why taxonomy is largely a stale, outdated, and intensely homogenous community of scientists. There are two women on the ICZN of 27 commissioners. Put another way: 7%.

On the topic at hand: Do I think we should change existing patronyms? No. But are small  changes a slippery slope towards the destruction of a stable taxonomic system? Also no.

The reality (i.e., that senior scientists are still complaining about these issues in writing, with an audience, and creating a hostile environment for everyone outside their exact demographic) is far more absurd than the “silly” possibility that someone may overturn a species epithet honoring Adolf Hitler.

It is 2023. Do better.

Sincerely,

Jill Oberski, Ph.D.
University of California Davis
Dept. of Entomology and Nematology
On Jun 17, 2023 at 15:49 -0700, Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>, wrote:
> Well, I'm happy to use another suitable term instead of woke, but, to me, a term means whatever people use it to mean, not necessarily what it meant originally. Although hardly 100% reliable as a source, Wikipedia usually gives a good idea of what terms mean, and the first paragraph of the WP article for woke states:
> Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequalities, such as sexism, and has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and slavery reparations for African Americans.
>
> The semantic issue is however, not really the point. I agree with you that the idea of changing or policing of patronyms or other epithets is silly, but there are a number of moderately influential people pushing hard for it, in the peer reviewed scientific literature. The silly can happen, if we are not careful. Here is an example of the pushback against some of these ideas, specifically objecting to replacing established names with indigenous counterparts: doi 10.1080/0028825X.2021.2011752
> Quite where all this is heading, I'm not sure. Hopefully, the potentially disruptive proposals will fail to gain much more traction, but I have known university academics who are very focussed on these sorts of issues, such as, for example, women scientists who are more interested in the issue of women in science than they are with the science itself.
> Stephen
> On Sunday, 18 June 2023 at 10:29:21 am NZST, Michael A. Ivie <mivie at montana.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Wrong in the second sentence.  Woke is not about social justice, it is about personal growth and increasing awareness.  From there, empathy can expand, and everything goes from there.  It is not what you describe, that is what the right wants to hijack the term for.
>
> The idea of changing or policing patronyms and other names is not involved with woke.  It is just silly.  You can't attack every kid named Adolf.  Stop misuing WOKE.
>
>
> Mike
>
> On 6/17/2023 4:16 PM, Stephen Thorpe wrote:
>
>
> **External Sender**
> 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)
> > https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmattjmedeiros.com%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cc9ed9f269e704b0b468708db6f95e3d7%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638226461822557036%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=aMqk5B7QzuaMcCvh3loCupjIyCeu1BRuizDh8RLUkBk%3D&reserved=0
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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
>
> US Post Office Address:
> Montana Entomology Collection
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>
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>
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>
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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
>
> US Post Office Address:
> Montana Entomology Collection
> Marsh Labs, Room 50
> PO Box 173145
> Montana State University
> Bozeman, MT 59717
> USA
>
> UPS, FedEx, DHL Address:
> Montana Entomology Collection
> Marsh Labs, Room 50
> 1911 West Lincoln Street
> Montana State University
> Bozeman, MT 59718
> USA
>
>
> (406) 994-4610 (voice)
> (406) 994-6029 (FAX)
> mivie at montana.edu
>
> _______________________________________________
> Taxacom Mailing List
>
> Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
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>
> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity and admiring alliteration for about 36 years, 1987-2023.