America's maps are full of racial prejudice and that needs to change. Place names in the United States bear witness to the disturbing legacy of white supremacy - this is the title and subtitle of an article published in the scientific magazine Scientific American .
The four authors expressed their opinions not only as geoscientists, but also as women of color. We do not highlight this separately, but they start their article written in a scientific magazine with this. They describe that as geoscientists they have dedicated their lives to studying the Earth's natural processes, spending their time examining maps and satellite images to study coral reefs or ice caps, for example.
According to them, because they are not only researchers, but also women of color, this determines most of their experiences in the world, and they often encounter obstacles because of this. They consider it a similar problem that they have to work with racist names during their work.
They estimate that there are still more than 1,400 geographic names in the United States that have racist overtones. Although many people do not perceive their harmful effects, and some even actively fight for their survival, according to researchers, they are very harmful and prevent the development of a just society.
Of course, most of the geographical names were formed centuries earlier, simply history, during the development of the local society. For example, the Chinaman Trail in New Mexico, which was considered problematic, refers to the Chinese workers who built the local railroad.
According to the researchers, there are still many geographical names that portray Native Americans unfavorably. They recall that although the term "nigger", which they refer to as just an n-letter word, has already been removed from the maps, the word negro introduced in its place is also racist and offensive. For example, there is a canyon in the United States that was first renamed Negro Bill Canyon in the 1960s and then Grandstaff Canyon in 2017.
However, changing names is not common, according to the authors, it is unfortunate that in several cases the authorities reject name change motions on the grounds that, for example, the word negro is not racist.
In the opinion of the authors, it is not efficient to handle such cases at the Member State level. Two Democratic members of the House of Representatives have already submitted a proposal at the federal level, with the help of which geographical names considered racist would be uniformly defined and changed. The authors also call on geoscience organizations to use their influence to help remove unwanted names from the map so that future professionals of color will no longer have to encounter racist names during their work.
The cover photo is an illustration. Columbus statue mutilated - 2020 Boston - Photo: Steven Senne / AP Photo
Author: hirado.hu
