"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history."
― George Orwell
"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."
― Edmund Burke
Recently you may have heard social justice has gotten all the way to birding in the burgeoning effort to rename some of the eponymously named North American birds. Reason? Some of the naturalists who first named these birds or the people they named them after were colonialist racists, and some even owned slaves. But while we're at it, the argument suggests renaming all eponymously named species to more descriptive names like Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue Grosbeak, and Marsh Wren. I have questions: Who said this is a problem? Will this effort actually solve a problem? Where will this all end?
Take the Henslow's Sparrow, which is one of my favorite sparrows. John James Audubon named it in honor of John Stevens Henslow, who was a British priest, botanist, and geologist. Henslow was also a friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin. In fact, it was Henslow that gave Darwin the opportunity to go on the HMS Beagle as a naturalist, which ultimately rendered one of the most significant biological discoveries of all-time. In his writings about the voyage, Darwin referred to certain indigenous people as "savages" and the HMS Beagle Captain Robert FitzRoy was an advocate for the civilizing effects of slavery. Well, birds of a feather, so it's probably safe to assume Henslow shared similar racial sentiments.
So here you have all the ingredients and justification for renaming this sparrow. But what shall we call it? Who decides? The American Ornithological Society? The irony is not lost on me that two of the biggest proponents behind the renaming just happen to be popular field guide authors who stand to make a whole lot of money on new editions. But I digress.
Recently the Henslow's Sparrow was moved from the genus Ammodramus to Centronyx for genetic and taxonomical reasons. This is science at work as we glean more information about how certain species fit into clades and what not. However, it still retains henslowii as it scientific species name. Uh oh. If this all does come to pass, we'll likely see new Latin names as well. Since Centronyx means "spurred claw" perhaps we should change its common name to Spurred-claw Sparrow (SCSP). I guess we can keep the Latin genus name, but we'll have to figure out something else for its species name.
Anyway, can you imagine how much fun it will be with other birders trying to get this down?
Mike: "Hey! Spurred-claw Sparrow just past the sedges."
Birder: "Huh? What's that?"
M: "Oh, it was renamed. It used to be Henslow's Sparrow."
B: "I know that bird — why was it renamed?"
M: "Because Henslow, Audubon, and Darwin et al were shits."
B: "What did they do?"
Will we be able to say? Should we say? How long will it take before this conversation doesn't take place for those ~150 species? What about the names of natural areas where we go birding? Names of streets and towns? What about non-avian species — will they have to be renamed, too? What about species like Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Kentucky Warbler? Will they have to be renamed because those were confederate states or cities during the Civil War? How might this shift into optical devices used by birders? Take Swarovski, Lecia, Zeiss — will these popular European sport optics companies need to be renamed? Did you know some Swarovski family members belonged to the Nazi Party?
"Members of the Swarovski family were early, active and enthusiastic champions of National Socialism, and at least six of its members maintained membership in the illegal party prior to Austria’s annexation to National Socialist Germany on 12 March 1938. Three weeks earlier, 500 marchers in the Tyrolean town of Wattens held a torchlight procession that ended with chants of 'Sieg Heil' and 'Heil Hitler.' The majority of the participants, police determined, were Swarovski plant employees, among them Swarovski family heirs Alfred, Wilhelm and Friedrich."
Schreiber, Horst (1994). Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte der Nazizeit in Tirol. Innsbruck: Geschichte und Ökonomie. ISBN 9783901160356. Archived from the original on 26 December 2019. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
Szigetvari, András (23 December 201). "Swarovskis Kampf mit seiner NS-Vergangenheit". DerStandard.at. STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H. Archived from the original on 26 December 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
But Leica has merits! Well, there was a lawsuit accusing them of profiting from Jewish slave labor. Not as much to celebrate with respect to Zeiss.
But Leica has merits! Well, there was a lawsuit accusing them of profiting from Jewish slave labor. Not as much to celebrate with respect to Zeiss.
Will you sell or throw away your European binoculars and spotting scopes? Will you put tape over what some may see as exclusionary or harmful company names? Will I need to go back through 1,500 blog posts and change names of all the species that get tagged by this effort? Once we have new field guides, should I toss out all my old ones? CDs? DVDs? Think about this, really: Can you measure the herculean effort to rid the world of the harm inflicted upon humanity that the name Henslow conveys?
You know what this is? It's doing nothing to make it seem like doing something.
Oh, beautiful prairie — save me from woke birding! Yeah, should this eventually come to pass, I'll start using the new names when the National Audubon Society rids their title of its namesake evildoer. To be sure, North American birding is a very white thing, but I just don't see how renaming these birds increases diversity and inclusion. We're losing many birds for a multitude of reasons — make birding cool to get more folks interested in it, but don't erase its checkered history in the process.
No matter what names are changed, the history is still the history.
All images © 2021 Mike McDowell