The Romani people, enslaved in Romania for more than 500 years, are sometimes pejoratively referred to as “gypsies.”
The decision to rename both the “gypsy moth” and the “gypsy ant” coincides with the launch of the organization’s Better Common Names Project. Though the change is specific to the society and its publications, it’s anticipated to ripple outward.
“We know that entomology is not going to change the world from an equity standpoint, but this is one thing we can do,” Chris Stelzig, ESA’s executive director, said in an interview Sunday.
The invasive species of moth has hairs with air pockets that allow them to float on gusts of wind as larvae and become destructive as caterpillars. They are considered a pest, and numerous exterminating companies advise on how to eliminate outbreaks.
The Romani people, enslaved in Romania for more than 500 years, are sometimes pejoratively referred to as “gypsies.” They were victims of persecution and genocide during the Holocaust, and the community still faces human rights abuses and marginalization.
“Roma are dehumanized in so many ways: being associated with insects, being associated with animals,” said Margareta Matache, director of the Roma Program at Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. “And that is really how structural anti-Roma racism is justified.”
Bolivian Chinchilla Rat
Spanish Moth
German Shepherd
English Setter
Irish Wolfhound
Japanese Beetle
We can do this all day…
Maybe. But I still think we keep “fucking democrat” in its current naming convention, nothing else really describes the creature as effectively.
The Roma were called “gypsies” because Europeans thought they were Egyptian.
All a bunch of horseshit.
Who should be offended now? The Roma or the Egyptians?
At Birkenau when the Germans came to eradicate the “gypsy” camp the “gypsies” fought back. The Germans asked why? The “gypsies” explained that the Germans had sworn to eliminate all the Jews first and there were still Jews in the camps. The Germans admitted that was true and told them that they’d just move them (“gypsies”) to another camp – which they did – where they were exterminated.
Find something serious to bitch about – like a usurping puppet?
izlamo delenda est …
Atlantic Giant Goliath Grouper uses to be Jewfish.
Atlantic Goliath Grouper uses to be Jewfish.
We need a new name for leeches.
OFFENCE UPDATE: CALLING FOOD “EXOTIC” IS RAYYYCISS.
“My conclusion? What’s ‘exotic’ to you isn’t ‘exotic’ to my neighbor, might not be ‘exotic’ to my mom, probably wouldn’t be ‘exotic’ to my best friend.”
WAPO URGES US TO ‘GET SERIOUS’ ON COVID ORIGINS AFTER CALLING WUHAN LAB-LEAK THEORY ‘DEBUNKED’ ‘CONSPIRACY’
“The first problem with the word is that, probably within the past two decades, it’s lost its essential meaning,” she explained. “The second, more crucial problem is that its use, particularly as applied to food, indirectly lengthens the metaphysical distance between one group of humans and another, and, in so doing, reinforces xenophobia and racism.””
https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-exotic-food-racism-xenophobia
OFFENCE UPDATE: FITNESS INSTRUCTOR = NAZI, CHILD DIETS = RAPE
““The Fat Sex Therapist” gave a speech at St. Olaf College on Thursday in which she compared fitness instructors to Nazis and putting children on diets to rape.
“I truly believe that a child cannot consent to being on a diet the same way a child cannot consent to having sex,” Sonalee Rashatwar said in her two-hour speech at the college’s main stage.
“We should be critical of the use of science and the production of knowledge to continue promoting this idea that certain bodies are fit, able, and desirable . . . is it my fatness that causes my high blood pressure, or is it my experience of weight stigma?” she asked the audience.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/fat-sex-therapist-fitness-instructors-nazis/
@Huron – we already have the new name – democrats
“The Romani people, enslaved in Romania for more than 500 years, are sometimes pejoratively referred to as “gypsies.”
Yes. And they were the only people ever enslaved or abused. EVER!!!
Did they even ASK the moths what THEY want to be called???
BTW, most people now hear gypsy and think “hippie”. Just cancel liberals instead.
It’s now called the “Thieving Romanian Shitbag Moth. Much better.
What about the “Thieving Driveway Oiler Moth”? Too obscure?
Undocumented Moth
What a gyp.
Another name for socialists can be found by looking under th letter “P” in the dictionary,
the word you are looking for is parasites.
Socialism has failed where ever it has been tried, the US will be no exception.
@ Huron: :”Harrisites”?
I will not be stripped of my name.
Also a WWI airplane – gonna rename that?
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23595/lot/146/
“Romanians, Displaced Residents and Appropriators” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Good luck with the rewrite, Cher.
What about Gyppo loggers? Gyppo loggers were loggers who undercut the prices on the wood they cut from other loggers and were used quite a bit by the Forest Service to thin the forests back in the days when they did actual forest management. My uncle worked for the Forest Service in NE Oregon and used their services as needed.
“Sticks and stones, may break my bones…
… but YOU are one DUMB Pollock!”
– G. Moth –