Taxacom: racist terminology

Fri Jun 23 23:37:09 CDT 2023

 There is no such thing as "verbal violence"! Sticks and stones.
The history of the British Empire is a complicated one. Interestingly, the N-word has not been used in relation to Indians (in India, I mean, not American Indians!) for a very long time (at least 50 years). Long ago, Indians were no longer referred to as even black. Another category was created for them, called "coloured", and the term wogs was used instead of the N-word, which was reserved for people of African heritage. This was in fact the comment that appeared in the Fawlty Towers episode I mentioned from the 1970s. The old army Major objects to an Indian being called the N-word, and says "these people aren't ni66ers, they are wogs!" It is supposed to be a satirical take on old fashioned (even in the 1970s) ideas of racism.
Let's not forget that racism is by no means the exclusive domain of the British, passed on to the Americans. The Americans also have racist attitudes to Hispanics and everyone everywhere has some antisemitism lurking nearby. Before you feel sorry for the Jews, their treatment of the Palestinians is arguably a worse form of apartheid than was previously a feature of South Africa.
Stephen
    On Saturday, 24 June 2023 at 03:27:26 pm NZST, TIMOTHY A DICKINSON <tim.dickinson at utoronto.ca> wrote:  

I am an American who enjoyed a childhood blessedly innocent of the worst aspects of American racism, just by reason of who my family was and where we lived. Nevertheless, very early on I learned the hurtful power of the N-word. Also, for purely personal reasons I read non-fiction and historical fiction related to South Asia, and can't help being aware of the use of the N-word when it crops up in accounts of the British in India. I found the statement below by George Beccaloni disingenuous, much as others have done, but I wanted to check whether there was any validity to my sense that the N-word has never been neutral when spoken by whites.  

I Googled as follows, "British Indian Army use of <the N-word>" and on the first page readily came up with three hits that I could read or skim. In each of these there are instances where it is evident that the N-word was not just another word, but rather was mean to disparage or otherwise do verbal violence to persons of color. 

Nupur Chaudhuri (1994) Memsahibs and their servants in nineteenth-century India[1] , Women's History Review, 3:4, 549-562, DOI: 10.1080/09612029400200071

Healy, Michael Scott, "Empire, Race and War: Black Participation in British Military Efforts During the Twentieth Century" (1998).
 Dissertations. 3738. (Loyola University Chicago) [this thesis also provides an extensive summary of pre-20th c. black/white relations in Britain and its dominions] https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fecommons.luc.edu%2Fluc_diss%2F3738&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C183a007bd1dc4132436a08db746cae72%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638231782372997470%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=fN4iDY1yikRXZ8y9Caj8IINDTKftbooykLCY5NPHYKM%3D&reserved=0

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kiplingsociety.co.uk%2Freaders-guide%2Frg_loot_notes.htm&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C183a007bd1dc4132436a08db746cae72%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638231782372997470%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=SNVmUnEv4CcONVwn2Eql4yWlMTUUcKK8S2bQ76YmvLA%3D&reserved=0

Racial animosity expressed through the use of the N-word by whites seems to relate to at least two factors, fear, and class jealousy, both compounded by ignorance. Fear because the unjust treatment of persons of color sooner or later causes the perpetrator to think, "I wouldn't put up with this treatment; how is it that I'm getting away with it?" This reaction gained power in the face of slave revolts like the successful one in Haiti, and the mutiny by Indian troops serving in the army of the East India Company. Class jealousy, because of the weight of social inequality on the poor as capitalism developed in Europe and then North America. A poor white person could gratifyingly identify with and participate in white privilege relative to people of color to such an extent that, when that privilege appeared to be violated, it was cause for anger and (at least) verbal violence. 

As for Wallace and Darwin, however liberal they may have been, they did not question their privilege as white men, and instead allowed it to influence their science. Social Darwinism did much of the rest. 

Recent reading informing my reaction includes 'Inferior' (2017) and 'Superior' (2019) by Angela Saini, and 'White Trash' (2016) by Nancy Isenberg.

As far as scientific names are concerned, I'm with those who argue that removing uncomfortably chauvinistic or demeaning names is at once too easy a means of assuaging guilt, and too problematic for doing science. Let these embarrassments to our science and our history make for teachable moments where it's useful to do so, and by all means lets make acknowledgments in lists, faunas, floras, and monographs where these names appear that they are reprehensible. This won't satisfy everyone, but it's a way forward. 

---tad.

|  To:  Stephen Thorpe <stephen_thorpe at yahoo.co.nz> |
|  CC:  "taxacom at lists.ku.edu" <taxacom at lists.ku.edu> |

 No, in the UK, the paper I read said it was not a racist term and simply
meant black person. There wasn't another commonly used word or phrase for
place people at the time that I am aware of. That means that many of the
species names which were based on the word, and which were published by
British workers, were probably innocuous.

George
****************************************************************************
*Dr George Beccaloni FLS*
*Director, Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project*

|  Subject:  Re: Taxacom: Removals of offending scientific names |
|  From:  George Beccaloni <g.beccaloni at gmail.com> |
|  Date:  2023-06-23, 7:38 p.m. |

<++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
<Tim Dickinson
<Senior Curator Emeritus
<ROM Green Plant Herbarium (TRT)
<
<Department of Natural History
<Royal Ontario Museum
<100 Queen's Park
<Toronto ON
<CANADA M5S 2C6
<
<Phone: (416) 782 1607 FAX: (416) 586 7921
<E-mail: tim.dickinson at utoronto.ca - ORCID ID https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Forcid.org%2F0000-0003-1366-145X&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C183a007bd1dc4132436a08db746cae72%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638231782372997470%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=B3q%2FfAM6RJgEuJUZ%2BIqAtPI3MH1NWoalmpq2YFiWAW0%3D&reserved=0
<URL: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rom.on.ca%2Fen%2Fcollections-research%2From-staff%2Ftim-dickinson&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C183a007bd1dc4132436a08db746cae72%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638231782372997470%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=zFf96ZIgDeiyJ77j0%2FSvL18%2F17ZCx0MyUEdEIJUSoCk%3D&reserved=0
<++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   