But right now it is time for the way Black History Fact. In Today's way. Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads for innovative, fashionable sportswear. Check major threads dot com. I want to shout out a friend of the show, I call her Shouty. She sent this over to me earlier and I thought I might share with you. There's a TikToker and he makes these videos and he says everything is racist, and then he goes proceeds to
explain how something you would never think is racist is racist. Well, today we're going to have one of those from NPR. For almost three hundred years, researchers have classified life on Earth with scientific names, two word monikers like Homo sapiens that become a kind of permanent label. But there are those who argue that some of these names are problematic, demeaning,
or even racist. How about that? That's why the community of Plant, algae and fungi researchers took a series of steps to start tackling these issues, including voting to rename more than two hundred plants to strike a racial slur from their official names. The move, made just ahead of the International Botanical Congress in Madrid was intended to correct a name that many found derogatory. One of the plants that was facing a name change is the African coral
tree that grows in eastern South Africa. The problem is the tree's scientific name irethenakafra. The second word likely originally referred to the area where the tree was found. It derives from the Arabic word for infidel, but it came to be used as a racial slur against black people in South Africa and elsewhere. It's for those that don't know, there's a it's like the N word, but it's used in Africa. I'm not going to say it. And it sounds it's like you could see the connection with this
word kafra. And so this is why these folks are like, hey, we need to change this name. Okay that quote. That word carries very violent, brutal, socially unjust history, says Makunga, which is one of the folks were that is working to changes, goes on to say, and so when I see it, I get a bit of the sinking feeling
in my body, a physiological and maybe even a physical reaction. Sorry, psychological and maybe even physical reaction Makunga has given presentations that reference the coral tree, during which she's had to write out or even say its derogatory name. Quote is difficult to be pronouncing that as a black person. She says.
There are two hundred and eighteen plants, thirteen algae, and seventy fungi whose scientific names have some variation of this word, but it's part of their official designation for some since the late seventeen hundreds. That's why we're talking about this on the way Black History fact. Then, earlier this month, more than one hundred scientists gathered in Madrid just before
the International Botanical Congress. This nomenclature section meets once every six years to discuss altering the code that's been used to name the more than quarter million plants, fungus, and algae species on the planet. Some spoke against the proposal, others came out in favor. At last, the question of whether or not the names these plants names of these plants should be changed came to a vote, and it ended up being the case that the proposal passed was
sixty three percent in favor. Just clearing the sixty percent threshold required. Some disputed the decision on technical grounds, and there are those who agree that with the change, but worry it could lead to a flurry of requests to alter the nomenclature of untold numbers of other species. Of course, quote the names that were in the past, they should remain the way that they are, says Elina Frairie Fierro, a botanist at the Technical University of Kotopaxi in Ecuador,
who didn't attend the gathering in Madrid. Quote, you don't want to seem like bigoted or something like that. But at the same time, naming has to be a stable process. She says. That's because these names are used across a range of scientific disciplines and industry, spanning the fields of botany, horticulture, and agriculture. And to that, I say, ooo easy for you to say that from a position of privilege, and it's not insulting you course, And you know what, the
only constant is change. If the name hurts people, change the name stop hurting people. Yeah, it's like, come on, man, nobody's talking about what is what? Tree? Is this anything? You know what I'm saying, like, just do it. It makes people feel better. You're not God and be kind. It's very simple. Height,