I researched this a bit and it looks like the actual slur is "Kaffir", which is also spelled "Cafri" and comes from the Muslim term for "non-believer". And somehow this word was chosen to be used as a slur and is considered highly offensive in South Africa. As an American, I'll draw a similarity with the "N" word.
But is the plant name racist in the sense that when they named it, they were picking the slur purposefully? Or does the word simply _sound_ like the slur?
Even the latter can be enough if you consider what it would be like if name had the "N" word - or even something that had the same sound. You would literally be unable to use the plant name out loud. But it would be important for publications covering this to not call it a "racist plant name" as that really depends on how the name was given.
We don't seem to care about soundalikes in other contexts like "chink in your armor" or "spick and span", so why go after obscure plant names that sound vaguely like obscure slurs in obscure languages if you squint your ears real hard? Maybe someone had a paucity of productive work to do so they came up with this project others couldn't criticize out loud without getting canceled?
But neither “chink” nor “spick” is even remotely as offensive as the N word. The fact that I won’t even use the word but I will use the other 2 is proof. I don’t think you would use the word either. If we assume that we’re dealing with a word of that caliber for South Africans, it’s understandable why they want it changed.
We could have an argument about whether we should even have words that have this kind of “Voldemort” power in our vocabulary, but at present we ascribe a lot of power to these words.
For values of "we" denoting "normal, non-woke people"; yes.
Ordinary words in one language can sound like foul words or slurs in another language.
People who can't accept this are not yet adults emotionally.
Funny story: decades ago, I was riding a bus with a friend; we were conversing in a language in which the word fact sounds a lot like fucked, with an unvoiced d. Some old lady was giving us dirty looks. Yes, silly hag, we did not suffer a pointless vowel shift in our language; all the Latin-derived stuff (that also forms the basis of a lot of English) sounds close to the original!
But is the plant name racist in the sense that when they named it, they were picking the slur purposefully? Or does the word simply _sound_ like the slur?
Even the latter can be enough if you consider what it would be like if name had the "N" word - or even something that had the same sound. You would literally be unable to use the plant name out loud. But it would be important for publications covering this to not call it a "racist plant name" as that really depends on how the name was given.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_(racial_term)?useskin=v...