Asian carp name offends some Asian-Americans [View all]

[The Straight Story]

The troublesome fish currently known as Asian carp may get a new name in Minnesota over concern that the current one casts people from Asian cultures in a negative light.

Proposals advancing in the Legislature would require the Department of Natural Resources to refer to the fish as "invasive carp," a reference to the threat the non-native fish pose to Mississippi River-area ecosystems.

Senator John Hoffman, the Champlin Democrat sponsoring a bill in the Senate, said some people of Asian descent have complained about the name.

"Caucasians brought them to America," said Hoffman, the bill's primary Senate sponsor. "Should we call them 'Caucasian carp?' They have names. Let's call them what they are."

Asian carp actually describes two closely related fish, the bighead carp and silver carp, that are native to a region of Asia spanning China, part of Siberia and North Korea, according to Cindy Kolar, a fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/asian-carp-name-offends-some-asian-americans-1.2589924