Name-Laundering

The ornithologists' group “Bird Names For Birds” is trying to erase human names from the birdwatchers' catalogues of species, in the interests of racial diversity. The Audubon Society's naming committee resisted this at first but is caving in to pressure (perhaps changing its own name to the AuduBAN Committee?). Once a campaign like this takes flight, of course, it will spread beyond birds to more earth-bound species names, such as those of plants.

We will have to say goodbye, presumably, to the "Black-eyed Susan" daisy, as well as Indian plum, Oriental lily, Chinese evergreen and Japanese anemone. To refer to the China doll (Raderachera sinica) will probably be considered hate speech. Many varieties of cactus too are offensive to name-launderers: "Ladyfinger cactus" sounds sexist, "African Milk Tree" racist, and the Easter cactus and Bishop's Cap cactus are clearly offensively white-western-Christian.

But why stop at Avia and Botanica? What about farm animals? About the Rhode Island Red chicken, the Clydesdale horse, the Holstein milk cow? All white European/American place names behind those. 

And what about pets? It's raining racist cats and dogs out there. The famously aristocratic superiority of the Siamese cat won't help it now to hang on to its time-honoured name. Nor will the "Russian Blue" keep his. (Russians are bear people; Russians aren't pussycats, and its racist to suggest otherwise.) And dogs? Forget you ever heard of the Pekinese. And what about the shameful national nomenclature embedded in Irish wolfhound, German Shepherd, French poodle? Possibly Australians won't be as bothered about the Australian sheepdog (being more laid-back in the out-back), and the label “English bulldog” has become a symbol of national pride. But wait, it's shamefully colonialist, isn't it?

A co-founder of the ornithological group “Bird Names For Birds” objects to naming species after humans, meaning after “folks that were involved in colonial times”. But then who wasn't “involved in the times” when they were born, when they were alive? How could they not be? That they also were the first to identify and describe a species is just a thing they did then, and attaching their name to the catalogued species not only acknowledges their contribution to science, it gives us historical and biographical markers to go with the scientific ones. 

The attacks on names, as on monuments and statues, are actually attacks on historical scholarship. Will it stop? Will we even be allowed to keep our own names? If it can't be attached to a species or a street, can your name even attach to yourself? If it shows guilty association with your times, your country, your ancestry ... and hearkens back to the "Age of Exploration", dawn of democratic humanism, developed nation-hood, and famous familial names? 

-- ban it. But how will we know who anyone is? Clearly, we need a new directory: Field Guide to the Culture Wars, though it's hard to see what language it could be written in -- not one using the Roman alphabet, obviously.

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Project Amnesia

Welcome to Trigger Town 

-- but enter at your own risk. You may see a sign, place-name or something colonial that offends, like a statue, library, court house or legislative building. We're doing our best to get rid of them. History is trouble. A noxious weed. Best to re-write it. 

Should the name “Victoria, BC” survive? It commemorates a Victorian monarch, which triggers PTSD for some. Arguably, native Victorians should have their birth certificates changed. (“Place of Birth: FORMER-Victoria”, like "Former-Yugoslavia) The Province is demanding the federal government come up with COVID funding for this (since history too is a nasty virus.)

Trigger Town will eradicate street names so people don't get a shock every time they read Douglas, Tolmie, Blanshard and Finlayson. Few know anything about the character, achievements, education and dedication of these people (history hasn't actually been taught all that much), but they've got to be disappeared.

Since it's safer to forget than understand History, the education system has launched Project Amnesia, to help students come to proper conclusions (i.e., forget about) the values and accomplishments of "settlers" who had put too much emphasis on things like parliamentary democracy, habeas corpus, education and mass literacy. In the school setting, enquiry is dangerous but group-think is safe, less likely to trigger curiosity or independent ideas. Ideas offend. Best to ban them, inclusively.

Getting Over Name Disputes

We name things to take ownership of them. When we build or buy a house we may give it a name. Someone else decides on numbers but a name is bestowed by you, and may reflect hope, celebration or nostalgia.

As soon as you adopt a cat or dog you give it a name. Children of course are christened with care, and children themselves spontaneously name places to make them more real, more significant. In one neighbourhood there was “Jumping Cliff”, where kids jumped into piles of leaves, “Witch's Garden” on which a stooped old woman looked down from a window, and “Midnight Boat”, a boat-shaped rocky outcrop on which many imaginary journeys were taken. The naming habit isn't lost in adulthood: one couple (probably many) call the BC Ferry on which they met “the Love Boat”.

The trouble starts when public buildings or sites are named for historic figures, events, or places from which settlers arrived. Always, some group comes along wanting to re-name them. The purpose of re-naming is to take a place away from someone else. It's about possession.

We could avoid this by choosing nomenclature not from historic figures or episodes, but from names of non-human entities such as the plants and animals found in a place. We could raise the process of labelling above the level of human squabbling to the level of flora, fauna, geology and weather.

How about naming streets Raccoon Row, Wild Dog Way, or Storm Street? And if someone objects to “privileging” the English language, how about (instead of privileging another one) using a language no one now speaks, such as Latin and Greek? How about Ursus Alley (where bears used to roam), Mt. Quercus (where oaks still grow), Canis Court, or Fort Felix, standing where cougars still sometimes prowl? (In schools, a teachable moment about classical languages?)

We already name some places after natural features. Consider Trout Lake (in Burnaby), Sunset Boulevard (in California) and Oak Shade Lane, Oaklands School and Willows School in Victoria. Why not stick to that? Today's heroic historic figure will be tomorrow's villain – to someone. But a trout's a trout and a willow's a willow – and no one need stoop to childish nomenclature conflicts which amount to “he took it – I had it first”.

Naming schools, buildings, libraries, streets and towns after other species acknowledges that we disputatious humans are only one species among millions, and that the landscape belongs as much to the others as to us. By naming places for natural features rather than for human history, we recognize that nature (Earth) owns itself. In Earth-time, we are creatures of a moment. No ethnic group “owns” a place for we are all but tenants here, quickly passing through.

If schools were named for local wildlife and trees, especially endangered ones, the students could take ownership of campaigns to protect them. Think of all the science and art projects that could be built around it, if schools were named for intriguing plants and animals rather than for a person that someone, somewhere, will dislike.