Originally published via Armageddon Prose:
I swear to God, as soon as I read the headline — “Birders argue over plan to change dozens of bird names” — I instinctively knew, like a trained bloodhound on the scent, the allegation regarding the birds’ names, and hence why they must be amended.
Not that it requires any supernatural gifts of divination when, to these people, “everything is racist.”
Via NPR (emphasis added):
“Say goodbye to Bachman’s Sparrow, Scott’s Oriole and Townsend’s Warbler. Those three birds are among a half-dozen that will get renamed first under a plan by the American Ornithological Society to do away with common bird names that honor people…
The goal was to rename over a hundred North and South American birds, to purge bird names of links to racism and colonialism without having to engage in contentious and time-consuming debates about the morality of every historical figure that had ever been honored in a bird’s common name.”
Related: New Hollywood Hate Flick: White People ‘The Most Dangerous Animal on the Planet’
“Why now, of all times, must the birds be flushed down the historical drain like a dystopian sci-fi-style?” one may ask.
The answer, my child, is that St. George died for your sins, and He commandeth it be so.
Also, a white lady once called the cops on a Rosa Parks-type black guy who interrupted his bird-watching to harass her in Central Park about her unleashed dog, which basically turned into a modern-day lynching.
Continuing:
“On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed on the same day that a white woman called the police on Christian Cooper, a Black man out birding in New York, heightening awareness of social justice issues in society more generally and in birding specifically.
That year, the American Ornithological Society took action on a proposal to rename a bird that had previously been named after a high-ranking Confederate officer. McCown’s Longspur suddenly became the Thick-billed Longspur.
This renaming proposal had been rejected a couple years earlier, but times had changed. Confederate statues and monuments were coming down in cities and towns.
And a group called Bird Names For Birds was urging the society to do more to address problematic bird names, likening eponymous common names to “verbal statues.”
After forming an ad hoc committee to study the issue and make recommendations, the society announced its plan to rename all birds named after people, along with changing any other names deemed offensive.”
Related: 'The Good Men Project’ Denounces Whites as Racist for Being Anti-Racist
Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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