Dozens of bird names honoring enslavers and racists will be changed

Wash Post ^ | 11/1/2023

[Altura Ct.]

The American Ornithological Society says it will alter the names of North American birds named after humans, starting with up to 80 of them

After two years of discussion and debate, the nation’s premier birding organization has decided that birds should not have human names.

The American Ornithological Society announced Wednesday that it will remove names given to North American birds in honor of people and replace them with monikers that better describe their plumage and other characteristics. The group said it will prioritize birds whose names trace to enslavers, white supremacists and robbers of Indigenous graves. Among them is one of the most famous birders in U.S. history, John James Audubon.

“There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today,” the society’s president, Colleen Handel, said in a statement. “We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves.”

Sometime next year, the society is expected to appoint a committee to explore up to 80 new names. The move, at an organization known for its reluctance to rename birds, was surprising even to the activists within the group who requested it after a White woman in Central Park falsely accused a Black birder of assault in 2020. In a racial reckoning that shook the field of ornithology, the activists, most of them White, argued that the names of some birds were offensive to people of color.

[GodAndCountryFirst]

You know when all this wokeness nonsense started? When they convinced people that peanuts were dangerous. After that, a

[rwa265]

I wonder if Sheila (Stonewall) Jackson (Robert E.) Lee ever thought about changing her name.