I'm reading "Birds in the Americas Will No Longer Be Named After People/The American Ornithological Society has committed to replacing all bird names derived from people so as not to honor figures with racist pasts" (NYT).
The American Ornithological Society, the organization responsible for standardizing English bird names across the Americas, announced on Wednesday that it would rename all species honoring people.... The organization’s decision is a response to pressure from birders to redress the recognition of historical figures with racist or colonial pasts....
Advocates of this change believe that many English common names for birds are “isolating and demeaning reminders of oppression, slavery and genocide,” according to a petition in 2020 that was addressed to the American Ornithological Society. The petition was written by Bird Names For Birds, an initiative founded by two ornithologists to confront the issue of these bird names, which it describes as “verbal statues” reflecting the values of their eponyms....
[John Fitzpatrick, an ornithologist at Cornell University] said that he initially felt bird names should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis but that further discussions convinced him that “there is no formula by which we can figure out which names are good enough.”
A uniform rule is easier to apply, and this way you avoid calling anyone a racist or fussing over the line between racist and not racist — or deplorably racist and just racist the way everyone is a bit racist. And the concept of "bird names for birds" is appealing: Don't name a bird after a person; name a bird after something about the bird — its color, its habitat, etc.
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77 comments:
I guarantee, they will go further, and change other bird names.
Like boobies.
Because, people giggle a bit when the topic of Blue-footed boobies comes up.
Can't have that. THAT'S NOT FUNNY.
I appreciate the gesture.
I'm not a bird-watcher, but I hope those who are continue to call the birds by their traditional names. The birds aren't going to object to being "dead-named", and the humans who do object deserve every bit of mental and spiritual pain they get from hearing the old names.
If we change the names of birds named after people, we should change the names of anything and everything named after people. After all, “there is no formula by which we can figure out which names are good enough”.
Audubon's owning slaves should also lead to the renaming of the German highway system.
What about the Great Tit and the Bushtit? I could imagine that they might prove "problematic".
James Tate's The Blue Booby is good
Our experts are morons.
Georg Wilhelm Steller was a German working in Russia early in 19th Century. Could be a racist, any lack of evidence notwithstanding.
So first erase Steller Jays, then Steller Elders and Steller Sea Eagles. But can’t be preferential to the birds only, other animals suffered for so long too. No more Steller Sculpins, no more Steller Sea Lions, no more Steller Sea Cows. (So what if that Sea Cow is extinct, it also suffered the indignity!)
Any specific examples of birds with racist names?? Will we still have blackbirds?
FFS, in science, since forever, those who discover something get to name it. What's next, mountains, craters on the Moon, stars, constellations & comets? Let's rename the planets, after all they are named for the Gods of the European whites millennia ago. The abject insanity running through today's institutions doesn't bode well for the future of Civilization, especially of the liberal Western world.
'I guarantee, they will go further, and change other bird names.'
The 'tit' names are out as well...
Loon seems quite appropriate for the Democrat Party. So we can leave that one alone,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Gavia_immer_-Minocqua%2C_Wisconsin%2C_USA_-swimming-8.jpg
Along with the sub-species, the looney bird,
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lPnR-oHz2RE/maxresdefault.jpg
How long until Thermidor?
"Because anybody might be a racist."
Actually, anybody might be anything. Whatever serves our prog overlords, that thing. In identity politics, progs do the identifying.
An entire Phylum needs a new name. We cannot have Robert BIRD honored by taxonomy.
This is a fun game. The American Ornithological Society is now Bird Brains America.
I’m really excited about this change: Corina Newsome becomes Corina Noisome.
I’m really excited about this change: Corina Newsome becomes Corina Noisome.
If I have the same name as someone who owned slaves 200 years ago, do I have to change my name?
To avoid any possible racist, sexist, or colonial associations, new species (and -- eventually -- all bird species) will be designated by a random string of letters, numerals, and symbols.
These designators must also be incorporated into national, state, regional, and school mascot names. Example: The Baltimore QAZ2388@#$'s.
Orlando Cepeda was a Puerto Rican drug dealer who was convicted and served time in federal prison.
He has a baseball stadium named after him because he also played major league baseball.
Having the govt name a stium after a drug dealer sends the wrong message,it seems to me.
This post is on topic because Cepeda identified as a Cardinal at least for a couple of years.
John Henry
I vaguely paid attention to that article, at least in the sense that I thought 'there's no way the Audubon Society and CornellLab will continue to get any money from me' etc. On the other hand, I've ignored their DIEJ or whatever nonsense until now so I suppose I will go on ignoring it.
But they will take 'Steller's jays' away from me over my dead body.
We need to remove Washington and Jefferson from Mount Rushmore next.
Replace them with President emeritus Trump and Ron Paul
John Henry
I intend to continue to call Audubon Shearwaters Audubon Shearwaters. And Scott’s Orioles Scott’s Orioles.
From their website. “For several years, the AOS community has engaged in a conversation about eponymous English bird names through a variety of activities and forums”. When you see the word community in the same sentence as the word conversation you are reading something written by a fool. Always. Regardless of subject. .
Waiting for all the eponymous diseases, syndromes, anatomical structures, etc to be purged from medicine.
While they’re at it they need to rename the red-bellied woodpecker. The name may no be racist, but neither is it descriptive — its belly is not red.
"We need to remove Washington and Jefferson from Mount Rushmore next.
Replace them with President emeritus Trump and Ron Paul"
All you are likely to get is Barack Obama and Barack Obama.
Birds of all kinds used to be able to shit on Robert E Lee, but not anymore.
They're waiting to see who they'll shit on next.
The Vatican should follow their example. An awful lot of their saint days are named after religious fanatics. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of the early ones owned slaves or serfs. And shouldn't women have a more relevant role model than The Blessed Virgin Mary? Jesus is sort of okay, but most theologians are now agreed that He should have taken a more forthright stand against the institution of slavery as it existed during His day.
You're right a uniform rule is much easier to structure and enforce. A good place to start with uniform rules is 'change nothing'.
As Elon has said, the Mind Virus is a communicable disease, but I think it's taking its toll on the host now.
My grandfather was a racist; I know this from hearing him talk to a friend when I was a child. I never actually saw him discriminate against a person - he was a family lawyer and family court judge, having retired from the FBI before I was born - but I did hear that one comment. His brother, a Wisconsin industrialist, funded the first cancer lab building at UW Madison and, just guessing, maybe was also a racist. The Cancer Lab still bears his name.
Go on. Do it. What do I care about the good my great-uncle did in the world, since after all he probably made some racist comments?
With regard to my last comment - I kind of mean it. Or at least I'm resigned to it. Great-uncle Michael died before I was born, and none of his siblings are alive, though his nieces and nephews might still have something to say about it.
As long as they don't rename it after a person reprehensible in some other way, simply because that person is currently viewed as a "victim of oppression."
In Africa there will still be a bird whose name translates to ‘babbling woman’…
"If we change the names of birds named after people, we should change the names of anything and everything named after people."
I would imagine it would cost the state of West Virginia a fortune to remove Robert Byrd's name from everything that was named after him.
That will be fun for people doing research with old observation records. They can now learn two names for all these birds.
The AOS press release does make clear that this renaming is broader than birds named after people:
“The AOS commits to changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named directly after people (eponyms), along with other names deemed offensive and exclusionary, focusing first on those species that occur primarily within the U.S. or Canada.“
But its claimed jurisdiction is the Americas, which is also problematic:
“Additionally, the AOS has come to see its authority over the English names of Latin American birds in a new light and has committed to engaging in a broader set of conversations with ornithologists and organizations in Latin America before proceeding with Latin American name changes.“
I have no problem leaving the obscure bird names to the obscure birds, but I do think it is problematic for this organization to rename more common birds. For example, Steller’s jay is the official bird of British Columbia - maybe its legislature would like to have something to say about this. And good luck renaming the Baltimore oriole, the state bird of Maryland and namesake of its major league baseball team.
Then there was the little old lady who used to live next door whose Major Mitchell's cockatoo was named "Yes Sir."
Is it still acceptable to name people after people, or we henceforth have to give every infant a unique name in order to avoid inadvertently honoring a racist? "This is my progeny, Axluthiasthe5mes."
So... What are the going to rename the crow?
Aw geeze.
They seem to think this will increase the popularity of bird watching.
It will not.
By the way, you can now get an app for your phone that will "identify" bird noises, sort out all the background stuff and tell you what birds are out there. Not the same as actually being patient, sitting still, peering through binocs, but very New and Modern. I'm pretty sure the app will be able to Dog Whistle Detect and tell you when Racism is somewhere nearby....
Tacitus
This is a rather saddening development. I find this especially so because ornithology, more than other sciences, has progressed by the observations of thousands of amateurs. For example, Cornell Lab of Ornithology is currently running their annual “Feeder Watch” in which people record the birds that visit their environs. This group effort helps establish bird ranges and populations.
But, if I understand the Bird Names for Birds objection, some people cannot participate in this program because the names of the birds cause them trauma. They feel harmed and excluded by a name, a name that they had to be taught was of a person with problematical views. Rather than seeing a name as honoring a person that made substantial contributions to the science of birds, they see the name as a totemic emblem of the racist or white supremacy views of the person – even if such views were common in that person’s time and place.
The response to this objection is to destroy all eponymous names. So the good is thrown out with the bad because it is too difficult, too fraught with rancorous controversy, to sort them out. Yes, I understand our hostess’ point that birds should be named after characteristics of the bird. But this loses an important historical dimension of the discovery and study of the bird. To now call “Wilson’s Storm Petrel” the, say, “South Atlantic Petrel” is to lose the historical perspective of Alexander Wilson (widely regarded as the father of American ornithology) traveling 12,000 miles drawing and recording over 230 species of birds between 1807 and 1815.
I encourage readers to view the short video below in which people that support the re-naming of birds state why this is necessary. The far-left jargon is mind-numbing, and displays how academic indoctrination is wrecking another scientific field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da2t759y6ng
Next do blackbirds and Baltimore orioles.
So I suppose that "Kingbird" is right out. Lots of people named "Brown" and "Black".
My dog is a Springer Spaniel. I wonder if she was named for a person or for the way she behaves in a grassy field.
Now I have to wonder if Springer might possibly have been implicated in a woke crime.
Baltimore Orioles became Northern Orioles several decades ago. I'm not entirely sure why.
Ruffling feathers again!
It won't stop at birds any more than it stopped at statues. And as it's only English in particular, western in general policing, things in other cultures will continue to be named after their people as they see fit with no push back.
And so inevitably, the call will go out maybe in a year, maybe in ten: your people never did anything and arguably they weren't even around to do it. If they had, there would be achievements names after them, but there aren't so you didn't.
Iconoclast zealots marrying year zero leftists. What a time to nonexist in.
Who decided that the American Ornithological Society is in charge of naming birds?
The AOS website says, "Dr. Scarl has a strong passion for and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in science and conservation, indispensable assets to help diversify the society."
Her commitment to DIE will ruin the AOS. Not many people care about bird names, but she made another controversial and partisan issue where no issue existed. A responsible person would respect tradition and apply the new policy to the naming of new bird species.
Renaming bugs and fungus will be next. Dr. Scarl and the AOS should shunned and stripped of any authority immediately.
Birdbrains.
I note that James Madison owned slaves. I guess that means that a new name will be required for the UW campus hometown. Any suggestions?
traditionalguy said...
"An entire Phylum needs a new name. We cannot have Robert BIRD honored by taxonomy."
We need to develop a backbone and stand up to this nonsense!
(Birds are in the phylum Cordata [backbone]; they are in the Class Aves [birds])
If one of the bird species is named Toby, I am totes fine with renaming them. The others not so much.
It's for the birds. But I always worry that the seven peaks named Mollie's Nipple will get renamed.
What about insects? I had an invasion of gypsy moths in my yard this summer and while researching how to deal with them I found that the name has officially been changed to spongy moth. True story!!!
I misplaced my shocked face
Next up: tagging birds with their preferred pronouns.
Next they will come for the elements, einsteinium out due to potential Zionism, mendelevium out because of Russian interference in our elections. Berkelium may be ok.
"So... What are they going to rename the crow?"
Jim is going to be forced to change his name to Bob
So Cornell is using the same methodology for anti-Semites and bird names.
But think of the paper that will take!
The easy solution is to replace all the bird names by numbers. We have UCS numbers for symbols, why not a similar system for animals? We live in the digital age ...
I'm not an ornithologist, but I imagine I would be annoyed if I was. This is just going to make that field more difficult. You're going to need a lookup dictionary when going through older literature. Huh, I think I just came up with an app idea.
All that aside, what's the plan for other scientific discoveries and inventions made by racists even if they're not named after them?
rhhardin said...
Audubon's owning slaves should also lead to the renaming of the German highway system.
***********
badda BISH!!!
If someone called me “yellow-bellied sapsucker”, I would take offense for sure.
I hope this means the tits are safe. Unless they are to be renamed chests.
Resist! The AOS has no authority over the language granted by anyone, consequently, their "renaming" project is illegitimate.
Ficta writes, "How long until Thermidor?"
The woke clowns are already feeling that cool tickle on their necks, that's why they're rushing to do as much damage as possible before they're shoved into the tumbrel.
How is this society organized? Are the officers elected by the members? If there is any way to dismiss the current "leadership" do it and kick them to the curb if not under the bus. The proper way for these grievance mongers to be dealt with is hearty laughter and then loud, repetitive gaveling to indicate the issue is closed.
How is this society organized? Are the officers elected by the members? If there is any way to dismiss the current "leadership" do it and kick them to the curb if not under the bus. The proper way for these grievance mongers to be dealt with is hearty laughter and then loud, repetitive gaveling to indicate the issue is closed.
These leftist idiots would be exhausting if I bothered to pay attention to them.
I think it would be OK to adopt this proposed new rule (don't name bird species after the discoverer) for newly discovered species, but not to apply it retroactively. And I can't believe that many long-time birdwatchers, bird lovers, biologists, or ornithologists would be willing to apply this rule retroactively. That's unlikely, as such people generally understand that naming a species of any living thing is an awesome undertaking with many rules, and tracing what has been said and written about a species would be made much, much harder, and sometimes impossible, if the name of a species were to abruptly be changed. No... just no.
I'm still going to be a Peckerwood.
Renaming bugs and fungus will be next.
There are not many eponyms in mycology. Offhand I can think of only three common names out of the more than 300 I know that refer to an individual. Fungi tend to be named for their morphological features, resemblance to other organisms, or localities, perhaps because that is a more efficient way than eponyms to remember the edible varieties. They can be quite colorful and descriptive: Lawyer’s Wig, Chicken of the Woods, Lion’s Mane, Bleeding Tooth, Destroying Angel, Hedgehog, Lobster, Oyster, Man on Horseback, Parasol, Death Cap, Penny Bun, and many more.
Scientific binomials are a different matter; I’m sure that someone who is bound and determined to find a way to be righteously offended can find obscure species named for an obscure mycologist who once owned a slave or said something unkind about women.
There IS a simmering controversy about one mushroom, Auricularia auricula-judae. This is known as “black fungus” in Chinese cookery, where it is a common ingredient in many dishes, for example, hot and sour soup. In the English language, it was historically called a “Jew’s Ear”, but this is a late medieval corruption of “Judas’s Ear”, alluding to the elder tree from which Judas Iscariot is said to have hanged himself after betraying Jesus Christ. This species very commonly grows on elder trees. The common name has been deprecated for a decade or two, and it is nowadays much more commonly called “wood ear” or “jelly ear” or “cloud ear”. The scientific name is under attack too, with many of the wokesters anxious to trim the “-judae” genitive modifier from the species name.
The people they are trying not to offend have no interest in the hobby.
How very Maoist of them.
The Cultural Revolution continues apace.
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