The great Murder Hornet has been demoted in a recent wave of wokeness. The once villainous insect whose very name could instigate panic, is now known as the northern giant hornet (wah-wah). The creature has a new name as it's feared the former moniker could stoke anti-Asian sentiment.
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) chose to rebrand the invasive species as the northern giant hornet, with the ESA concluding the political climate contributed to the need to change the name.
“Although the descriptor ‘Asian’ in this context is not at all pejorative, and is geographically accurate, its association with a large insect that inspires fear and is under eradication may bolster anti-Asian sentiment among some people,” read the name change proposal, authored by entomologist Chris Looney.
In related news, Godzilla will now be known as Spatially Challenged with Intermittent Explosive Disorder.
Well...it isn't as though a certain portion of the population isn't prone to knee jerk reactions to regionally named invaders. I mean really, how else to react to an insect? Blame the Asians. And then beat up an elderly Vietnamese person because...hornets.
@tindrummer I've got this article from the Audobon Society. Mind you, I'm not saying don't call them that. I still find the term amusing. https://www.audubon.org/news/no-its-not-actually-murder-crows
@LordShadowfire Interesting. It rather confirms my suspicion that there's a small group of people enamored of and obsessed with naming groups of things. As I affiliate personally with three crows only, I call them the guys, or by their names, Thor, Bridget and Odin.
Ravens will always be a conspiracy to me, but I probably say something like, "Hey, look at all those ravens."
I know a gal who was attacked in NYC, where she's lived for years, due to being Asian (Taiwanese).
The BS caused by DJT's deliberately exaggeratedly mis-saying "China" and going on about SARS-CoV-2 as the "China/Chinese virus" got a lot of yokels, even in NYC, triggered and willing to be violent towards their neighbors.
Are "Africanized Bees" still a thing ? I remember the headlines warnings that they were "coming" and for beekeepers to take steps to protect their tame European bees’ hives from infestation. "White flight" in the insect world. 🙄
@LordShadowfire I think I'll start referring to a group of Africanized bees as "a caravan," as they come from the southern regions. Then we can be sure the GOP protects us from them.
The US educational system needs to be completely rebooted if we have to change a geographically accurate name for an insect because of something like that.
We have enough synonyms for everything as it is to keep track of, human communication is needlessly complex, all for emotional reasons.
Thank FSM for Latin binomial plant/animal/etc. names to at least be a single source of truth among a litany of overlapping synonyms.
