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Are bird-watchers racist?
American Thinker ^ | September 26, 2014 | Thomas Lifson

Posted on 09/26/2014 9:14:10 AM PDT by jazusamo

The National Geographic Magazine, a publication heretofore not noted for satirical excellence, has published an article that easily could have appeared in The Onion. In fact, it begins by quoting that satirical publication as an authority. In Colorful World of Birding Has Conspicuous Lack of People of Color , author Martha Hamilton engages in hand-wringing and navel-gazing (yes, they can be done simultaneously, and for all I know, this might be good exercise) over the relative lack of “people of color” (as opposed to the colorless majority) out looking for exotic avian life. I kid you not:

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in 2011, 93 percent of American birders were white, 5 percent were Hispanic (which includes both blacks and whites), 4 percent were black, 1 percent were Asian American, and 2 percent were "other."

The horror! If people do not do every recreational activity in exactly the same proportions, we are suffering from racism. For some reason, people who claim to “celebrate diversity” want every group to behave exactly the same. And we know who is at fault. Naturally, there have been groups formed, meetings held, and activism activated in order to combat the racism and microaggressions which surely must account for statistical disparities:

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Hobbies; Humor; Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: birding; diversity; racism
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To: jazusamo

The Onion? The source quoted by National Geographic was Orion magazine, which is, apparently, an environmentalist magazine. They can’t possibly have anything to do with the satire since radical environmentalists do not have a sense of humor.

I could see someone reading the article making a mistake like that, if they read it quickly without paying enough attention, but the author of a commentary on the so-called “issue” in question? That’s just pathetic, especially when the author of that commentary is citing the magazine and as a source. If I were an editor at American Thinker I would fire a writer for incompetence over a mistake like that and if I owned American Thinker, I’d fire my editor for letting that slip through. Sure, it’s not nearly as bad as Dan Rather or Jayson Blair, but I don’t think I could count on someone who was that careless in their work.


21 posted on 09/26/2014 10:02:31 AM PDT by Bill93
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To: jazusamo
I understand what an issue this is, but it is dwarfed by the lack of racial diversity to be found among American looters.
22 posted on 09/26/2014 10:03:24 AM PDT by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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To: jazusamo

“You know the world is going crazy when the best golfer is a black guy and the best rapper is a white guy”. -Chris Rock


23 posted on 09/26/2014 10:03:39 AM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: jazusamo
Just a thought.

"Blackbirding" was the catchall name for the slave trade in the South Pacific. The unrelated term "birding" might have the same effect as hearing the term "niggerish".

24 posted on 09/26/2014 10:03:44 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: george76

Yep, little doubt both of them would be thinking dollar signs reading the NG article.


25 posted on 09/26/2014 10:11:00 AM PDT by jazusamo (Sometimes I think that this is an era when sanity has become controversial: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

I have met some bird watchers. It is my impression that bird watchers are people with above average intelligence. I cannot prove it, but that is my impression.


26 posted on 09/26/2014 10:12:48 AM PDT by forgotten man
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To: jazusamo

I know that camping is so I am not surprised to learn that bird watching is as well.

I mean really, is there anything that isn’t racist?

Evil, racist, white bastards should all be shot!


27 posted on 09/26/2014 10:15:47 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: MNDude

The Archie Bunker Harlem Globetrotter line comes to mind.


28 posted on 09/26/2014 10:15:48 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: jazusamo

It’s odd how any group that is overly represented by whites is called racist - while if the group is overly represented by blacks, it is not racist. Such as: the NBA, the NFL, Boxing, etc.

Why cannot the government investigate the inequality of opportunity for short white folks in the NBA?


29 posted on 09/26/2014 10:25:07 AM PDT by Gumdrop (~)
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To: Gumdrop

I hear you...To leftists it’s not racism if it’s black on white and the majority of media and academia are leftists.


30 posted on 09/26/2014 10:30:13 AM PDT by jazusamo (Sometimes I think that this is an era when sanity has become controversial: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo

Bird watching is a CHOICE.


31 posted on 09/26/2014 10:37:45 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: jazusamo

Very surprised there aren’t more Asians doing this, it seems like an Asian thing to do, all quite and serene, appreciating nature.

Load up the buses, force these folks into nature, whether they like it or not!


32 posted on 09/26/2014 10:39:28 AM PDT by jocon307
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To: Fred Hayek
we should ban bird watching,...

I like to watch them over the front bead of my 870.

33 posted on 09/26/2014 10:44:29 AM PDT by Doomonyou (Let them eat Lead.)
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To: jazusamo
National Geographic used to have folksy articles about small towns in the South and savage warriors in far off lands that actually contained facts.

Then they decided that Science and truth are evil and began inserting the words “global warming” and “climate change” into every article they possible could, even if it was a non sequitur.

Wha’ Happen?

34 posted on 09/26/2014 11:03:38 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: jazusamo
I should have added that my mother and her siblings were rural farm laborers with minimal formal education - one sister began to collect oddities that she noticed while planting or harvesting veggies in the fields. She amassed a stunning collection of bones and relics which were examined and catalogued by professors and other archaeologists in the area.
35 posted on 09/26/2014 11:12:41 AM PDT by sodpoodle (Life is prickly - carry tweezers.)
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To: jazusamo

People who are always looking for “disparity” in certain sectors are the racist ones. They either lack the brainpower to realize it or they really believe they are doing the minorities some good by their accusations. Oh, look, a birdie!


36 posted on 09/26/2014 11:43:22 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Calvin Locke

what was that?


37 posted on 09/26/2014 11:52:56 AM PDT by MNDude
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To: jazusamo

Have been a backpacker for 40 years, and met on the trail probably thousands of people over the years. I doubt I’ve met more than a dozen black folks more than 10 miles from the trailhead over this time. Just not something they seem to do.

Rock climbing and cycling similar percentages.


38 posted on 09/26/2014 12:06:40 PM PDT by Sherman Logan (Perception wins most of the battles. Reality wins ALL the wars.)
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To: Sherman Logan

“Rock climbing and cycling similar percentages.”

Also swim teams. I don’t know why.

.


39 posted on 09/26/2014 12:10:26 PM PDT by Mears
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To: MNDude
Oops, not Archie, but Lionel during a discussion of proportional distribution of the races across the board:

Lionel: "If you follow that thinking, 80% of the Harlem Globetrotters ought to be white."

40 posted on 09/26/2014 12:20:02 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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