College Cites ‘Scientific Racism,’ Renames Linnaeus Building

A private college in Minnesota has renamed its arboretum that honored an 18th-century Swedish botanist who has been criticized for classifying humans in a way now seen as racist, school officials said Tuesday.

The popular greenspace at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of the Twin Cities, has been known as the “Linnaeus Arboretum” since 1988. It recognized Carl Linnaeus, who popularized a system of classifying living things and divided them into the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms.

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