One striking example of this came during a bright July day in 2022 when I visited a vineyard owned by a White, multigenerational family just seven miles from Three Mile Island. I thought we’d discuss the plant’s impact on farming, but as the father and son vintners led me through the rows of grapevines, they had something else on their minds. Underneath large leaves sheltering clusters of grapes, I spied small white and black nymphs clinging to the vine. In a few weeks, their wings would sprout, and shades of red would appear. Out in a rural area away from major roadways, the vineyard had largely been protected from the spotted lanternfly up until now. After barely surviving COVID-19, the vintners feared the financial hit the insects might cause.
Over months, I listened to my neighbors, family, friends, and the people I interviewed refer to the insect as the “Chinese spotted lanternfly.” At summer picnics, my family members conspired about nymphs fatiguing after three jumps, making them easy targets to squash. Other people took blowtorches to trees where spotted lanternflies were supposedly dwelling.
Disdain for the insect was intensified by public campaigns describing the spotted lanternfly as an “invasive destructive pest.” Signs posted around my community said the insect was “a significant threat to Pennsylvania’s economy and environment” and included instructions on how to inspect, report, and destroy them.
In other words, the signs outlined not just how to kill, but a justification for it.
This language isn’t neutral. Scientific metaphors shape our perceptions of the world. Ecologists have cautioned that labeling something an invasive species can inform how humans relate to it—and sometimes justify a disproportionately negative response.
Anthropologists of science have shown that these metaphors also reflect existing biases and narratives. Messages like “Stop This Invader!” do not merely serve to combat a particular species; they inform and are informed by our social categories, including invented ones like race.
MIGRANTS, VIRUSES, AND INSECTS
The metaphor of the Asian immigrant as “invader” has a long, violent history in the U.S.
In 1873, Henry Josiah West published The Chinese Invasion, which hyperbolically warned that Chinese laborers were flooding the West Coast and threatening U.S. democracy. The people West coined “invaders” had been hired by Central Pacific to complete the transcontinental railroad after a domestic labor shortage. Fears over the Chinese migrant labor that powered the country’s railroad boom ultimately resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first major ban of an entire ethnic group.
Today the racist rhetoric of “invasion” remains alive in the current GOP platform. One of President Trump’s first actions in office was issuing an executive order to “seal the borders” and protect the country against the alleged “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border.
