Taxacom: botanical names with racist history

Mon Jul 22 04:57:24 CDT 2024

What Stephen might call “pointless wokeism”, I would rather call a 
respectful and justified gesture towards the people living and 
interacting with the affected plants, in a region, where this word 
unfortunately developed into a racial slur. What really matters for us 
as taxonomists is, that there is no reason to assume that these efforts 
to replace such names will vanish anytime soon. In my opinion, it is bad 
solution to just complain about these efforts and to try to prevent any 
such name changes by arguing on the grounds of rules that only a small 
crowd of people once agreed on.

Instead, one could take action to structure such efforts in a way that 
such name changes would be easier to handle with respect to future 
nomenclatorial actions and the communication of names on websites and 
databases. A possible solution could be to establish repositories of 
officially recognized synonyms for the different codes. Suggested name 
changes could then be allowed or denied by a consortium. The replacement 
names could then be used as replacement names by those who prefer the 
new name over the old one. Of course, this would require changes in the 
respective nomenclatorial codes and a considerable and continuous 
effort. I think it is better to make this effort than to get to a point, 
where replacement names will be proposed and used without compliance to 
the codes.

Personally, I am happy that the botanical community voted in favor of 
replacing the name. However, I think for the future one should really 
think about who gets to vote on such issues. This is, because, depending 
on the mood of the taxonomic community, this vote could have easily 
turned out differently, despite a name change may (or not) be in the 
interest of people who interact with the plants.

Best wishes,

Mario

On 7/22/24 7:36 AM, Stephen Thorpe via Taxacom wrote:
>   The action taken is a pointless wokeism and highly disruptive to taxonomy. Where will it end? What about all the niger, nigra, nigri- names? What are you going to replace them with? I don't see artists removing now "offensive" terms retrospectively from music or literature. What's the difference? The whole point was that the terms weren't used as offensive when they were used. They are part of history which does not need rewriting.
> Stephen
>      On Monday, 22 July 2024 at 04:41:13 pm NZST, Jeremy Bruhl via Taxacom<taxacom at lists.ku.edu>  wrote:
>   
>   Dear John
>
> Words master and can hurt deeply. The action taken is measured and reasonable.
>
> Cheers,  Jeremy
>
> Sent from Outlook for Android<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faka.ms%2FAAb9ysg&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C5b52c3d5f4c2459f820a08dcaa34d0a1%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638572391032699545%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5oJlJ2LDlL73Ed5c6N%2FRU3R2M4QKd5XVWSmoZ9Y17bg%3D&reserved=0>
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> ________________________________
> From: Taxacom<taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu>  on behalf of John Grehan via Taxacom<taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
> Sent: Monday, July 22, 2024 5:58:23 am
> To: taxacom<taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> Subject: Taxacom: botanical names with racist history
>
> Statements below from a web site. Can any botanist on Taxacom comment
> further on this?
>
> Scientists have voted to eliminate the names of certain plants that are
> deemed to be racially offensive. The decision to remove a label that
> contains such a slur was taken last week after a gruelling six-day session
> attended by more than 100 researchers, as part of the International
> Botanical Congress, which officially opens on Sunday in Madrid.
>
> The effect of the vote will be that all plants, fungi and algae names that
> contain the word *caffra*, which originates in insults made against Black
> people, will be replaced by the word *affra* to denote their African
> origins. More than 200 species will be affected, including the coast coral
> tree, which will be known as *Erythrina affra* instead of *Erythrina caffra*
> .
>
> The scientists attending the nomenclature session also agreed to create a
> special committee which would rule on names given to newly discovered
> plants, fungi and algae. These are usually named by those who first
> describe them in the scientific literature. However, the names could now be
> overruled by the committee if they are deemed to be derogatory to a group
> or race
>
> --
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> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for about 37 years, 1987-2024.
>
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> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for about 37 years, 1987-2024.
>
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> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for about 37 years, 1987-2024.
>
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