Shall we remove Linnaeus' statue in front of the Swedish Library? Linnaeus is known for his biological taxonomy. He also classified "races". Can we call it the "racism of his age" & forget about it? A petition approaches to 2000 signatories. I am one of them. Here's why.
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The debate is on. You feel the emotion about it. And I must say that I have read threads on social media discussing this, and I find it quite uncanny to read this type of argument again and again: "certainly not, what is the next step: burning books?" ... So I want to first...

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say that I feel totally safe that Linnaeus' books are well in place in libraries and accessible to all. I also know Linnaeus is being taught in school. What I am in fact concerned about is HOW his work is being taught, and what we collectively choose to remember & forget...

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which is quite demonstrated by people insisting repeatedly to defend Linnaeus like it is even an insult to call him racist. That Linnaeus' biological taxonomy is still of relevance today shouldn't mean that one can dismissively decontextualize & sanitize his work from...
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the content we indeed today prefer to forget and call "the racism of his age", to better ignore how today's racism is in fact deeply anchored in the classification of races that he majorly contributed to. If we cherry pick what we want to remember...

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we are in fact depriving ourselves from an authentic understanding of what are the deep historical roots of today's structural racism. We are depriving ourselves from the possibility to understand the deep colonial thinking at play within what we today in fact call "science".

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Now what do you mean science is anchored in colonial thinking? Yes in fact, that is the burden of OUR age. And it is high time we question this very seriously. I am extremely grateful for @nature to try to initiate a movement of decolonizing science: https://natureecoevocommunity.nature.com/users/17997-patrick-goymer/posts/black-lives-matter-in-ecology-and-evolution?fbclid=IwAR03P22qZrGyXRlm9mwpVN8EboM62iCELs5GXu9yAACj1N8zjhvm1-lK_rM

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And I am sorry but I really don't see how we can start to decolonize today's science without questioning how science has been constructed over the years without acknowledging and work through its colonial and racist heritage.
And yes Linnaeus' classifications did include...

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a hierarchical classification of races. His work was fully integrated in his time which means it is neatly intertwined with imperialism and colonization. (See Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes, 2008) There are scientific discussions about the meaning of "races" in Linnaeus but..
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Science is a history. What Linnaeus has written also has been given sense by what followed. And this is terrible and should NOT be forgotten. His work contributed to lay the foundation for research on biological races that became indeed also very strong in Sweden.

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This as we know was directly connected to nazism and the Holocaust. And the place of scientific racism in Sweden seems to be tragically just as unquestioned today, as exemplified by the remaining statue of Gustaf Retzius in @karolinskainst

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A "Svenska sällskapet för rashygien" (Swedish society for race hygien) was founded in 1909. It was the 3rd in the world. Sweden did sadly conduct "frontline" research in the biology of races. Where does it come from?
The point is NOT to conclude if Linnaeus was or not...

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"really" racist. The point is to understand our history. The point is to understand how we are there today, so deeply anchored in structural racism and colonial thinking we do not even see it.
Great that we have stopped teaching "biological races" at school. But are we...

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... teaching that we have been teaching "biological races" FOR SO LONG, where it comes from, the context, the consequences? How today's racism is still deeply structured by these race classifications? Are we talking about this?
And are we teaching...

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... the deep intertwining between colonization, imperialism and Linnaeus' and his students' scientific approach? (Again this book is brilliant and there's a whole part about Linnaeus and his students: Pratt, Imperial Eyes, 2008)

It is not enough to...

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... wash away the tragic "racial part" from Linnaeus' work, find excuses, argue it is not a bad as it sounds, etc... because this part is in no way an accident, neither in his work nor in the reason why he has a statue in Humlegården, in front of the Royal Library today...

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In fact when Kungliga vetenskapsakademin decided to order this statue that was revealed in 1885 ( https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linn%C3%A9monumentet) wasn't racial hierarchization quite on within what was called "science" then? Wasn't a biological view of "races" in fact being taught in schools already?
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Statues are never about remembering the past. They are about building a historical narrative to influence future interpretations of the past. In this narrative, classifying species (AND races) had a predominant place. This statue is about praising a certain view and...

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therefore controlling the historical narrative, including the narrative of what is science, putting a view that is deeply embedded in colonization, imperialism... and racism at the center of it.

That is this narrative that we should be busy undoing TODAY.
I don't believe...

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...any type of praising is helping us to remember. I don't believe putting this image of "science" at the center, as if this monument IS the best of our past is helping us questioning the colonial, imperialist and racist foundations of OUR TIME. I believe on the contrary...

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this is helping us to forget what we want to forget and turning a blind eye to what has been deeply problematic in our scientific tradition. Today I believe relocating this statue in a museum where it could be contextualized rather than as placed in front of the royal Library
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would be a foundational statement to start decolonizing science and a firm acknowledgment that we cannot cherry pick historical truth to praise "idols". We don't need idols of any kind. We need books and we need to invest in education to make it possible for teachers to...

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indeed teach science critically AND to address the historical roots of today's structural racism, ongoing colonialism & imperialism. We don't need excuses. We need to work through our memory to understand our present.
I signed this petition.
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https://www.skrivunder.com/ta_ner_carl_von_linnes_staty_i_sverige?uv=25615793&fbclid=IwAR25l4X_iIsukXuRWdPcLuKyXEYfe_nDxIzsBGAeGEZgeQJArKNtt87CC1E

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