Lovette Jallow, an anti-racist Gambian activist working in Sweden, wrote on social media that Carl von Linné was "the father of race biology" and that the statues of him "are shaking right now".
This threat follows after the vandalization of statues by Black Lives Matter protesters around the Western world. “Many of you don’t know that the ideas of racism come from a Swedish biologist named Carl von Linné,” she declared on Twitter.
“We have statues of Carl all over Sweden, but still no one understands what harm he has done to this world,” she said, also writing that Carl von Linné called Europeans sharp and Africans phlegmatic:
“Scandinavia-born Carolus Linnea’s work Systema Naturae (1735) was the first to create a classification of breed based on skin color, and different breeds were said to be different living species. Homo Europeus is ‘complex, has a positive temperament, nice behavior and sharp judgment, and lives by enforced laws’. In contrast, Homo Afer was described as ‘black skin, phlegmatic temper, sly, lethargic, whose actions are controlled by whim’. So can anyone explain why we still have statues of the race biologist whose work racism comes from?” the Gambian demanded.
“How can we pay tribute to people who are simultaneously responsible for institutionalized racism? I mean, he is everywhere: Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg, Uppsala etc. mm. I especially hate the statue in Humlegården that stares at me while eating lunch. I bet he’s thinking: Look at that Homo Afer.”
Jallow and her followers dream of vandalizing the statue. “One beautiful day, when the one you know … disappears,” one user commented. The post was liked by Lovette Jallow.
Jallow also retweeted a post with the text “Protesters say the statue was toppled and fell into the water”. She also disseminated a post where an angry...
