The recent police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and too many other Black Americans have put a national spotlight on racial injustice in our country. White supremacy and racism have existed in academic and scientific institutions since their advent, but these events have catalyzed heightened reflection and action around justice within academia. The Entomological Society of America (ESA) released a statement this month about “Why Black Lives Matter for Entomology”, which briefly alluded to some inequities in entomology but failed to outline concrete steps for action and did not affirm that all Black lives matter. This statement received criticism on social media, as many community members commented that ESA has still not changed the racist name of the society’s student trivia competition, the Linnaean Games. This letter calls for the ESA Governing Board to change the name of the Linnaean Games. We began drafting this piece in February 2020, and had been working with American Entomologist to publish it as an ‘Issues in Entomology’ feature in a “point and counterpoint” format for the Fall 2020 issue. However, given the current movement for Black lives, no authors were willing to write the counterpoint piece and the society desired to meet and reevaluate the name before our letter could become public. Because we strongly believe that now is the time for our letter to be read by the entomology community, ESA members, and ESA Governing Board, we are releasing it now instead. Please add your voice and support for changing the name of the Games below.

Read our full letter to the ESA board here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342362731_Change_the_name_of_the_Linnaean_Games