03-06-2022, 06:39 AM
I was shocked to read this article. Now i inderstan it is via CNN, what i do not understand how so many things are taking change for stupid reasons. I have never eard the word gypsy as a racist, ethical or wrong term. Just wow its a moth people!
"An invasive species now has a new name to replace ethnic slur."
The scientists who have been working on changing an invasive moth's common name, which included an ethnic slur, have made their decision.
Previously known as "gypsy moth," the species Lymantria dispar is now "spongy moth," according to the Entomological Society of America, which makes the Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms List, an essential database for anyone working with insects.
For the Romani people -- an ethnic group originating in northern India that was at one time misidentified as Egyptian -- the word "gypsy" has been offensive, dangerous and dehumanizing since it first appeared in the 1500s, Margareta Matache, director of the Roma Program at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, told CNN in July 2021.
"An invasive species now has a new name to replace ethnic slur."
The scientists who have been working on changing an invasive moth's common name, which included an ethnic slur, have made their decision.
Previously known as "gypsy moth," the species Lymantria dispar is now "spongy moth," according to the Entomological Society of America, which makes the Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms List, an essential database for anyone working with insects.
For the Romani people -- an ethnic group originating in northern India that was at one time misidentified as Egyptian -- the word "gypsy" has been offensive, dangerous and dehumanizing since it first appeared in the 1500s, Margareta Matache, director of the Roma Program at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, told CNN in July 2021.
