Hundreds of racist plant names will change
after historic vote by botanists
Nature,
by
Ewen Callaway
Original Article
Posted By: Beardo,
7/19/2024 3:30:16 PM
For the first time, researchers have voted to eliminate scientific names of organisms because they are offensive. Botanists decided that more than 200 plants, fungi and algae species names should no longer contain a racial slur related to the word caffra, which is used against Black people and others mostly in southern Africa. The changes voted on today at the International Botanical Congress in Madrid mean that plants such as the coast coral tree will, from 2026, be formally called Erythrina affra, instead of Erythrina caffra. (snip) The measure passed in a tense secret ballot, with 351 votes in favour against 205 opposed.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
itsonlyme 7/19/2024 3:32:37 PM (No. 1761098)
Racist fungi?
18 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
SailorJack 7/19/2024 3:36:12 PM (No. 1761104)
Give me a break.
23 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Phantomll 7/19/2024 3:36:47 PM (No. 1761108)
YGBSM! Just when you think you've heard it all!
13 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
LadyHen 7/19/2024 4:01:47 PM (No. 1761129)
I mean weren't we all very concerned about this epic problem. Whew!! We can all breathe easier now.
11 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
privateer 7/19/2024 4:09:27 PM (No. 1761133)
Leftist idiots ruin everything! I expect them to change the name of the 'sun'. After all, the name seems to refer to someone who identifies as a 'male' offspring. An insult to those who identify as a 'female' offspring, i.e. daughters.
14 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
bamboozle 7/19/2024 4:14:41 PM (No. 1761138)
Utter lunacy
9 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Highlander 7/19/2024 4:15:59 PM (No. 1761139)
Has there been a world-wide comprehensive survey with questionnaires in all languages, having random people read botanical names to see what triggers them? I think not! These esteemed members of the plant science community have way too much time on their hands, looking to expunge all possible slave-related offensive words from our language. No doubt, those botanists are feeling left out of the socio-political arena and want to “make a difference.”
9 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
LeeBertie 7/19/2024 4:20:39 PM (No. 1761147)
Great! Now people who have no idea what a botanical scientific name even is will no longer be devastated and permanently emotionally scared by a racist one thanks to 350 bored and over-educated dolts. I hope all references to those former names will now be obliterated from all botanical sources where they have been unseen for centuries.
10 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
formerNYer 7/19/2024 4:21:39 PM (No. 1761148)
Just when you think the left couldn't be anymore stupid they prove us wrong.
12 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
konocti95 7/19/2024 4:34:53 PM (No. 1761157)
I seriously doubt there was anyone apart from the 351 people who vote for the change who took offense. I rather suspect a few of the "popular " scientist persons used threats of not being invited to parties to get their way.
7 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 7/19/2024 4:36:38 PM (No. 1761158)
This is gonna open some folks eyes when they find out how much confusion and blow back they receive from the folks that actually deal with this deal with it. The cost to reprint things and the things printed that are instantly out of date isn't gonna be cheap to correct. But one expects lame shallow feel good jesters that have no practical use other than to make others lives worse form the academic Woke world.
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
chumley 7/19/2024 4:51:13 PM (No. 1761179)
I still use the old name for Brazil Nuts. Sure got the grandkids giggling.
10 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 7/19/2024 4:55:35 PM (No. 1761181)
I guess African Violets are now Violets of Color.
8 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 7/19/2024 5:04:55 PM (No. 1761191)
I've always believed that the Ku Klux Klan Petunia was a racist name. It's about time they changed it.
4 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
sw penn 7/19/2024 5:11:31 PM (No. 1761194)
Preeners with useless jobs...
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
FormerDem 7/19/2024 5:19:51 PM (No. 1761207)
Hencefoth botanists will only talk to botanists, because nobody else will know waht they are talking about. This is how the Tower of Babel happens.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Catherine 7/19/2024 5:20:05 PM (No. 1761208)
Well as long as they are doing something important./s
6 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
BarryNo 7/19/2024 6:11:50 PM (No. 1761240)
And we'll continue using the old names, which were not racist, when recorded. Just descriptive. EF U you DEI losers.
5 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Historybuff 7/19/2024 6:17:22 PM (No. 1761250)
And the world is fixed now that we have changed the names on what most people refer to as "weeds"
You could say they were being ni ggardly, but no one would understand.
2 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
DVC 7/19/2024 6:19:01 PM (No. 1761254)
Truly unhinged from reality, aren't they?
3 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
mobyclik 7/19/2024 6:24:06 PM (No. 1761259)
Can't you see all the excitement at their next wine party?
1 person likes this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
udanja99 7/19/2024 6:37:54 PM (No. 1761268)
Oh, I’m so relieved! /s
1 person likes this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Historybuff 7/19/2024 6:49:49 PM (No. 1761277)
Remember when we had BC - before Christ, and AD - after death?
They changed it to BCE - before current era (???) and CE for current era. Means the same thing but don’t you feel better when you say it?
5 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
voxpopuli 7/19/2024 7:08:51 PM (No. 1761288)
what about those big nuts..
Brazil Nuts!! sounds racist..
2 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Proud Texan 7/19/2024 7:38:09 PM (No. 1761300)
If an organization takes the time to take this sort of action, then they are proving that there is really no need for their organization to exist.
2 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
radtraveller 7/19/2024 7:49:15 PM (No. 1761303)
caffrA
Not ending with an "e"
oh well, I know where all these UNTS can use their "racist" "C"
3 people like this.
I think the Botanical Congress measure is rathher niggardly.
4 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
downnout 7/19/2024 8:26:27 PM (No. 1761320)
Good. Grief.
These people have waaay too much time on their hands…
2 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
DVC 7/19/2024 10:29:01 PM (No. 1761365)
To be a botanist you only have be able outsmart a plant. For some of them, I'll bet that it was a real challenge.
2 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
rememberwhen 7/19/2024 10:33:27 PM (No. 1761367)
Political correctness run amok.
0 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
JimBob 7/19/2024 11:58:40 PM (No. 1761427)
"A second change to the rules for naming plants that aimed to address problematic names, such as those recognizing people who profited from the transatlantic slave trade, also passed — albeit in a watered-down form, says Kevin Thiele, a plant taxonomist at the Australia National University in Canberra, who made the proposal."
So, continuing this to City names.... When will they change the name of Noo Yawk?
This city -and I would guess also the state- is named after the Duke of York, who I understand held the Exclusive License for the African Slave Trade in the English Colonies. I would wager that he profited -and rather handsomely- from the 'transatlantic slave trade'.
By the way, why only the transatlantic slave trade? What about all the other slave trade around the world, down through the ages? This sounds rather discriminatory to me!
0 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
udanja99 7/20/2024 9:05:24 AM (No. 1761664)
#23, AD stands for Anno Domini - in the year of our lord.
4 people like this.
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