Latin Plant Names Could be Racist, Warns University of Michigan
Using Latin names for plants may be racist, the University of Michigan has warned, in guidance to prevent the influence of colonial “power structures” on visitors.
A strategy document for the university’s botanical gardens and arboretum warns against using the traditional combination of an English name and Latin name on plaques next to its plants, amid concerns they could erase “other forms of knowing”.
The University of Michigan, which has been criticised for its expansive diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies, has spent more than $250 million on inclusivity initiatives since 2016.
As part of its plan to ensure “foundational change at every level”, the college has created a series of strategic plans for every aspect of its work, including the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.
A “strategic plan” issued last year, first reported on Wednesday by the New York Times, warned that horticultural bosses were “deeply enmeshed within interlocking systems of domination” and used “linguistic and representational practices that are, generally, complicit in the continued erasure of non-dominant relationships to ‘nature’”.
The document states: “When botanical gardens and arboreta display Latin taxa, English ‘common name’, and perhaps a brief scientific description, what other ways of knowing are not only missing but actively erased?”
It references an academic article that warns that botany is “deeply intertwined with the histories of colonialism, racism and imperialism”.
Such things are, of course, ‘Bad’ only when ‘Whitey’ does it, yet if (For example), the Chinese, Mongol, Indian or Arab cultures (ALL of which indulged in the dreaded ‘colonialism’, ‘racism’ and (Gasp!) even IMPERALISM)!! ) had done such things there would, of course be absolutely no problem, and they would be ;applauded for their initiatives.
Delusional wokeness at it’s best.
Well they weren’t going to label them in maori, were they!
A simple solution to this is when dealing with racist numpties is to:
(A) Ask them to define the word racist. (Note: they can’t.)
(B) Ask then how can a plant be racist?
Do it with certainty and watch their brain melt.