Birders
Related: About this forumBird lovers are grappling with honorary names linked to racists. Audubon tops the list.
When she joined Georgia Audubon last year, the groups executive director called her hiring a first step to begin working to break down barriers so that people from all communities can fully enjoy birding and the outdoors.
But overcoming those barriers will be daunting. As with the wider field of conservation, racism and colonialism are in ornithologys DNA, indelibly linked to its origin story. The challenge of how to move forward is roiling White ornithologists as they debate whether to change as many as 150 eponyms, names of birds that honor people with connections to slavery and supremacy.
The Bachmans sparrow, Wallaces fruit dove and other winged creatures bear the names of men who fought for the Southern cause, stole skulls from Indian graves for pseudoscientific studies that were later debunked, and bought and sold Black people. Some of these men stoked violence and participated in it without consequence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2021/bird-names-racism-audubon/
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)We have no idea which social norms we all take for granted today will be condemned for one reason or another in the future. The past is over and done. Let it be. Especially since one would have to do a significant amount of digging and research to even discover the connection with those names. I was an active Audubon member for years, and it never occurred to me to go searching for trouble. I was too busy searching or birds.Let's get real, folks. The right has enough ammunition as it is. Let's not make it easier for them to mock us.
Polly Hennessey
(6,784 posts)The past existed. Changing names will not alter that. Instead of naming everything after flawed humans try something different.
elleng
(130,714 posts)'Ellen's' osprey: