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Political correctness

I went through this Kaffir lily business a year ago when I mentioned that
it was also a common name for a different plant, on the alpine-l plant news
group. There were all sorts of messages about how important it was to
search for different PC names.

I do think that PC goes altogether too far, especially in this case. The
clivia was originally called Kaffir lily because it came from the valley of
the Kaffir River (a river in the country of the Bantu people who called
themselves Caffres or Kaffirs). At no time has any derogatory overtone
attached to this plant's common name. Hunting for imagined offensiveness is
to my mind being REALLY offensive! If you don't mean any offence in your
own mind, don't let other (non-bantu) people bossily invent it for you!

Alisdair Aird (Sussex, England)
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