Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee has complained about the anglo-centric conventions for naming storms. She is apparently completely ignorant about cultural and policy-driven reasons for the naming conventions. Although the storm names are chosen at random, the databank from which those names were drawn will not be truly random. It reflects the familiarity and experience of the person(s) who compiled it, and if certain names are foreign to them in space or in time, they would likely be omitted.
Her claim is that the names are racist. I disagree. I would not think of naming a storm with a Ugandan name, not because I hate Ugandans, but because I don't know any and don't have any idea what their names are. Furthermore, who would insert into the randomization matrix names from obscure or forgotten cultures like the Celts, the Incans, the Babylonians, the Goths and the like? What would you think if you saw Hurricane Aethelred or Hurricane Chichen-Itza or Hurricane Meshach? Likely, you would never think of those names because you have never heard them.
We view the world through the prism of our own experience, education, and exposure. I know people from Las Vegas who have NEVER LEFT THIS VALLEY. Granted, it's a 600 square mile area, but there's a much larger world out there. It isn't necessarily that we dislike or denigrate another culture; it's probably because we don't know anything about them. People sometimes name things based on phases of exposure. When I bred beagles, we named one litter of puppies after Norse mythology, another after the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and another after superhero names. It was fresh on our minds, and that's why we chose them. What is the likelihood that, if hurricanes were named by an organization of Sudanese, any of the storms would have names like Andrew, Earl or Katrina? They would choose things that were fresh on or easily recollected by their minds. The fact of the matter is that the storms as well as the agency that monitors them hail from a nation that has Anglo-Saxon cultural elements, which form the basis for a natural and passive bank from which to draw the names, however randomly they may be selected. I can't even write Aethelred or Joerge correctly on this keyboard because nobody in America makes a keyboard readily available to write the letters with which those names are usually spelled. Even a recent article I read yesterday said that China has forced a name change because the character for that name is so rare it cannot be typed.
This critique, on easy investigation, illustrates a woeful ignorance of the naming conventions. At the time the list was created (it is actually recycled) in 1953, it contained only female names. Male names were added in 1979. There are six lists that alternate every six years, and they pretty much remain the same with minor changes through each iteration of the cycle. The names were chosen because they were short, easily pronounced, and familiar to the individuals who communicate them, who communicate by and large in ENGLISH as that's the major international language.
Furthermore, outside the Atlantic, the lists are more 'diverse' already. I live out west, and I've heard polynesian sounding names of storms that slammed Hawai'i or Mexico before. Depending on where you are in the pacific, there are other lists, the majority of which names are not American in origin or sound even remotely Anglo-saxon off the tongue. Congressman Lee is an ignorant woman, who makes this argument largely because she herself is a bigot. In her mind, all names of white people are racist. Nomenclature is cultural.
See the full description at the NOAA Website here.
Furthermore, the list has other biases. It's alphabetical and focused on names. If they, God forbid, have more than 26 storms, they will use greek alphabet letters. Why not numbers or cuneiform or use dead fish to mark the storms? Someone will object no matter what convention we adopt. Everthing we do we do because it's a choice, a preference, and there is no way to make any choice void of preference except to eliminate alternatives. That means the elimination of choice and an end ultimately of freedom. Yet, you will not see Congressman Lee argue against these other biases. She has an agenda.
Her claim is that the names are racist. I disagree. I would not think of naming a storm with a Ugandan name, not because I hate Ugandans, but because I don't know any and don't have any idea what their names are. Furthermore, who would insert into the randomization matrix names from obscure or forgotten cultures like the Celts, the Incans, the Babylonians, the Goths and the like? What would you think if you saw Hurricane Aethelred or Hurricane Chichen-Itza or Hurricane Meshach? Likely, you would never think of those names because you have never heard them.
We view the world through the prism of our own experience, education, and exposure. I know people from Las Vegas who have NEVER LEFT THIS VALLEY. Granted, it's a 600 square mile area, but there's a much larger world out there. It isn't necessarily that we dislike or denigrate another culture; it's probably because we don't know anything about them. People sometimes name things based on phases of exposure. When I bred beagles, we named one litter of puppies after Norse mythology, another after the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and another after superhero names. It was fresh on our minds, and that's why we chose them. What is the likelihood that, if hurricanes were named by an organization of Sudanese, any of the storms would have names like Andrew, Earl or Katrina? They would choose things that were fresh on or easily recollected by their minds. The fact of the matter is that the storms as well as the agency that monitors them hail from a nation that has Anglo-Saxon cultural elements, which form the basis for a natural and passive bank from which to draw the names, however randomly they may be selected. I can't even write Aethelred or Joerge correctly on this keyboard because nobody in America makes a keyboard readily available to write the letters with which those names are usually spelled. Even a recent article I read yesterday said that China has forced a name change because the character for that name is so rare it cannot be typed.
This critique, on easy investigation, illustrates a woeful ignorance of the naming conventions. At the time the list was created (it is actually recycled) in 1953, it contained only female names. Male names were added in 1979. There are six lists that alternate every six years, and they pretty much remain the same with minor changes through each iteration of the cycle. The names were chosen because they were short, easily pronounced, and familiar to the individuals who communicate them, who communicate by and large in ENGLISH as that's the major international language.
Furthermore, outside the Atlantic, the lists are more 'diverse' already. I live out west, and I've heard polynesian sounding names of storms that slammed Hawai'i or Mexico before. Depending on where you are in the pacific, there are other lists, the majority of which names are not American in origin or sound even remotely Anglo-saxon off the tongue. Congressman Lee is an ignorant woman, who makes this argument largely because she herself is a bigot. In her mind, all names of white people are racist. Nomenclature is cultural.
See the full description at the NOAA Website here.
Furthermore, the list has other biases. It's alphabetical and focused on names. If they, God forbid, have more than 26 storms, they will use greek alphabet letters. Why not numbers or cuneiform or use dead fish to mark the storms? Someone will object no matter what convention we adopt. Everthing we do we do because it's a choice, a preference, and there is no way to make any choice void of preference except to eliminate alternatives. That means the elimination of choice and an end ultimately of freedom. Yet, you will not see Congressman Lee argue against these other biases. She has an agenda.
If Congressman Lee wants different names, perhaps she should resign from Congress and sign up at the NOAA. What global names did she give her children by way of example? She might have started with her own children who are named Erica and Jason respectively. The entire notion that naming of storms is racist is absurd and wasteful of further attention. Congressman Lee- sit down.
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