From the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology, a new opportunity for ostentatious fretting:
A suitably concerned survey of the scientific names of African vertebrates revealed – presumably, to gasps and much rending of garments – that,
The rewards, I would guess, of doing the actual leg work, and of funding said leg work, resulting in, well, knowledge.
However, all this whiteness and maleness is, for some, terribly troubling. Among them, Associate Professor of Conservation Science, Ricardo Rocha:
Actually, and while I can claim no expertise, I’d guess that rewriting the entire scientific literature, in any number of countries, to alter thousands of obscure Latin names, which very few people know or remotely care about, in order to accommodate modern political fashion – which is what this is – might be rather impractical, somewhat confusing, and perhaps not the best use of limited resources.
Undeterred, our associate professor continues his tearful trajectory:
Well, er, yes. Again, leg work.
After a brief acknowledgement that eponyms are also used to raise funds for good causes, including research and conservation efforts, Dr Rocha returns to his main theme – the white devilry of yesteryear, and the delicacy of those who supposedly bear the brunt of the “numerous negative consequences” of obscure Latin names that almost no-one knows about:
I don’t wish to be difficult, but, frankly, I’m struggling to believe that the average person in, say, Zimbabwe or Botswana is being left trembling and distraught by the Latin textbook name of a lizard or beetle. But hey, for those moved to tears, tissues are available at the bar.
Regarding the rumblings of colonialism and inclusivity, the somewhat less sensitive biologist, Professor Jerry Coyne, adds,
Professor Coyne’s post is, I think, worth reading in full.
Update, via the comments:
In an attempt to sway readers, the University press release wheels out what are presumably considered the Big Guns:
This, I’d venture, is where the performative tutting is supposed to go.
Thing is, and as Professor Coyne notes in his post, I’m pretty sure one can raise an eyebrow at this retrospectively suboptimal choice without falling to pieces or feeling in any way oppressed. And one can likewise resist any urge to erase it from history without being a devotee of Sturmabteilung or racial annihilation. To pretend that neither is possible is itself “overtly politicising,” and contrived, one might say sly. As is the conceit that would-be botanists and biologists are in some way being injured by the existence of Latin taxonomy, or by the fact that much of the “flora of New Caledonia” is “named after a man.”
Via Tom Joyce.
Lol. Don’t you feel his pain?
I’m not entirely convinced that even Dr Rocha feels his professed pain.
OT: today is the Ides of March.
Aww, you’re just ticked off that they want to take your gazelle away from you…
Related, statues of old hwite men in Wales might get the axe because they are not diverse enough for over 90% hwite Wales.
Between our biologist above and this, it is sounding very talibanish. Again.
Follow this to its logical conclusion. If the taxonomic species names are to be changed to something more indigenous then every text book and source of reference must also presumably be purged of white Eurocentric (we might as well throw in cis and male at this point) language.
So which language would our new masters suggest?
That.
As a commenter over at Professor Coyne’s blog says,
Well, quite.
Professor Coyne, I’ve just discovered, does have a frog named after him.
You’re welcome.
I can attest that changing even a few latin names wreaks havoc. Sometimes the names change because it is realized that two species are actually one or conversely one is two, or perhaps it was assigned to the wrong genus. The gypsy moth was renamed to protect the feelings of gypsies, to wooly moth. In these very few cases, one must know of the change to connect the older to the newer literature. Wholesale renaming is insane.
White men gave the world modernity, convenience, luxury and wonders of invention. High standard of living, and much much more …. And this is how you treat them? You want to erase their great deeds and bestow the honor and glory of great intellect and curiosity, creativity and redirect all that is good to a bunch of guilt-ridden, self-loathing asses and their great concern for the po’ down-trodden third worlders who don’t speak Latin?
I went on a field trip through the Okeefenokee swamp back in college. The guide was from a local college. He said if we were nice to him he might name a slime mold after us. We were not sure if he was for real or if that would be an honor.
Taxonomists did not go all over the world to “colonize” but to search for knowledge. In any case, only a few countries (India, China, Japan) could have modernized without being colonized (and Japan did in fact) so much of the world would still be in the stone age if the West had politely left them alone. Modern leftists have no idea how awful this would have been. They are in fact busy trying to prevent Africans from getting electricity.
Well, I’m not sure gratitude is necessary, or apt. But the sentiment you refer to is one of those fashionable thoughts that seem to go unfinished. In that, we’re clearly supposed to think it a bad thing that so much science and so many discoveries are the work of pale males from Europe. And yet, equally clearly, we’re not supposed to ponder why it was that the scientific enquiry of other, supposedly more noble beings often left something to be desired.
As if the vast and doubtless thriving research projects of pre-colonial chieftains had been cruelly suppressed and just pipped at the post.
White men gave the world […] And this is how you treat them?
As I’ve mentioned before, encouraging all white people to think of themselves as a monolithic bloc under constant attack is not going to end well for these people.
Remember, the inevitable race war isn’t an unforeseen tragedy – it’s the point.
This historical detail caught my eye:
Thing is, and as Professor Coyne notes in his post, I’m pretty sure one can raise an eyebrow at this retrospectively suboptimal choice without falling to pieces or feeling in any way oppressed. And one can likewise resist any urge to erase it from history without being a devotee of Sturmabteilung or racial annihilation.
Wiki does link to an article in The Independent that says this but the usual wiki summary does not indicate the specifics of such nor was I able to find it on the three or four endangered species web pages when I entered that name. Odd.
dangers of overtly politicising biological names
We’re talking about wrong politicising here. The right kind is fine.
Post updated.
“racial annihilation”–these dolts want to erase all trace of white people. Good luck. Do they realize that there is a big fad for US western (country) style music in Nigeria (or Kenya)? I mean local, black singers in country outfits and cowboy hats singing country songs. That Chinese orchestras love to play western classical music? That all around the world people wear blue jeans and t-shirts for casual and western suits for business? They will not succeed in this erasure.
An academic engaging in Reductio ad Hitlerum.
“F**k you! I’m a queen!”
I keep hearing that battle cry from aggressive, entitled, out-of-control females.
We live in a clown world because we tolerate living in a clown world. They will rule meat space and you will just have to get used to it. For all intents and purposes she is your queen.
“fuck you I’m a queen” –at the oscars, several black women were all triumphant about Wakanda forever. An imaginary place that has a secure border, that does not help surrounding black nations, and that still chooses its next king by combat. Of course I loved the Black Panther movie BUT it is just pretend.
You have to wonder why anyone would think that is admirable.
Ah, Wakanda. A place created by white men! (Stan Lee an Jack Kirby, specifically.)
If “cultural appropriation” were a real thing, Wakanda would be a sort of logical Mobius Loop.
You have to wonder why anyone would think that is admirable.
’cause they was Kangz.
But really, wasn’t Liberia suppose to be Wakanda?
Isn’t South Africa going through Wakanda-ization? The same Wakanda-ization that Rhodesia-cum-Zimbabwe went through?
Snort! Grifters gonna grift.
Ah, but those sufficiently interested in botany or biology to study it for years and make it their vocation will apparently be crushed and demoralised – or “feel justifiably uncomfortable, resentful, even angry” – because the Latin names of species tend to reflect the people who, long ago, discovered and catalogued them. And such will be their injury and umbrage, the entire cataloguing conventions of their chosen discipline will have to be overhauled and purged of potential offence.
Outside of professionally captious and unhappy activists, and the terminally neurotic, I find this.. unconvincing.
It’s morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
— W. C. Fields
I do, however, find it very difficult to understand such delusional thinking.
Pathetic: Black racists obsessed with “We was kangz”.
Bathetic: White liberals enraptured by “They was kangz”.
Yes, and it is depressing to watch it happen. (And it’s probably even worse than indicated by the few reports I run across, because the
mainstreamestablishment press avoids the subject.)By the way, has anyone here been watching the supposedly super-awesome season three of Picard…? I watched the first three episodes and realised I still wasn’t finding it remotely compelling. The thought of watching more has the feel of a chore.
Gave up after season 1. Fool me once…
Oh, it’s better than the bewilderingly awful seasons one and two, which seemed to have been written by random passers-by via a game of Chinese Whispers. But the pacing is still pretty bad. As yet, there’s no real momentum to the story. I’ve watched three hours of the thing and it still hasn’t hooked me. It feels like a holding pattern, lots of padding.
I really can’t bring myself to care about Picard and Crusher’s son, who seems weirdly miscast. And any scene with Raffi makes me feel like I’m losing litres of blood. She’s a dismal character, whiny and boring. Patrick Stewart just looks too old and frail to be doing this kind of thing. He’s close to cadaverous. Which makes the fatherhood storyline, such as it is, a little unsavoury.
And don’t get me started on the facelifts.
Picard,
Like many people I am possibly guilty of being over-influenced by Drinker and his recommendations.
After his demolition of the previous series I was therefore surprised to see his enthusiasm this time round.
What I’ve seen so far – three episodes – isn’t awful. But overall it just felt a bit meh. A couple of days ago, I remembered that I hadn’t watched the fourth episode yet… and then I realised that I didn’t much care.
And this surprises you?
Damned yte people and their [checks notes] pantry porn.
Seems unlikely to be an error. If memory serves, Shatner said or tweeted something unflattering about Alex Kurtzman’s iterations of Star Trek. I’d guess that not including Shatner in the promotional material may be some kind of retribution. Which possibly tells us something about the people who’ve been given the keys to the car, as it were.
Star trek: Next generation was ok when they stuck to a scifi plot (caught in a time loop etc) but in later seasons it was sometimes just talk talk talk. The Voyager series was even worse with all plots revolving around relationships and no action.
I’m not one to follow celebrity drama unless it’s pushed at me so my first thought was that Shatner’s, shall we say, less than leftist observations and expressions made him unappealing to the kinds of people those kinds of people don’t want to upset. Though perhaps what he said about Kurtzman might apply both ways.
All of the above, I’ll bet.
Ah, Wakanda. A place created by white men! (Stan Lee an Jack Kirby, specifically.)
Black Panther’s origin story is Hamlet without the incest. The Avengers are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. (I’m not making that up, by the way, that’s literally the inspiration).
It’s morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
— W. C. Fields
Was that Fields? I’ve always heard it attributed to “Canada” Bill Jones.
I’ve watched three hours of the thing and it still hasn’t hooked me. It feels like a holding pattern, lots of padding.
This was understandable in the era of broadcast TV, where shows existed as carriers for advertisements and producers had to fill 24 x 45 minutes of airtime every season. In the age of subscription streaming it’s absolutely baffling. There’s no good reason to do it. Although I am beginning to suspect that TV writing is suffering the same fate as CGI production: there’s simply so damn much of it going on that all the good talent has been hoovered up, and increasingly shows are being written by low-talent jobbers.
Patrick Stewart just looks too old and frail to be doing this kind of thing. He’s close to cadaverous
I’m not sure if it’s just me but do actors seem to be a lot older, on average, than they used to? Even for properties where youth and beauty are generally considered staples, like action films and rom-coms. As much as I loved Bullet Train, in a lot of the fight sequences I found myself thinking that Brad Pitt was getting way too old for this kind of thing. Ditto Keanu Reeves in John Wick. I went back and watched A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled and Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung look like positive infants by comparison.
but in later seasons [of TNG] it was sometimes just talk talk talk. The Voyager series was even worse with all plots revolving around relationships and no action.
1) By halfway through TNG’s run, the cast salaries were so huge there was no money left for SFX. So a lot of sitting around the ship gabbing episodes because they’re cheaper to make.
2) By halfway through TNG’s run, their primary demographic had become middle-aged women. Plots revolving around relationships are what that demographic wants. This happens to a lot of shows that start out targeting a male demographic; there’s even a Hollywood term for it (“estrogen poisoning”).
There are one or two briefly amusing scenes – the villain using a tractor beam to hurl one starship at another, or redirecting torpedoes with a portal weapon. Momentary flashes of inspiration. But the lingering impression is of thinking, “This scenario should have wrapped up by now or been resolved in some way. Why are we still here?” And then tuning in the following week to find we’re still in essentially the same situation – and will remain there – with no satisfying developments.
You’d think that pacing, a key component of effective storytelling, would deserve some attention.
I’m upset that not only does the beetle lack a Charlie Chaplin moustache but it exists only in a few caves i Slovenia, indicating that it has not yet discovered the concept of Lebensraum.
I didn’t know that. But I like it, since feminists have been talking about “testosterone poisoning” at least since the 70’s. Perhaps we should talk about “wokeness” as a manifestation of estrogen poisoning.