this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
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Racism, misogyny prompt American Ornithological Society renaming of birds (www.upi.com)
submitted 1 year ago by ZeroCool@feddit.ch to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I couldn't find a single example of a racist bird name in that article. You'd think they would give one.

[–] betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] infinitepcg@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yet often it was his own stubborn and uncompromising nature that defined his life – his choices paint a picture of a man who was unable to heed the words of others. This undendinly antagonistic nature cost him friends, honours and ultimately put him into the dark role of colonialist.

He was "stubborn and uncompromising", which makes him "antagonistic", therefore a colonialist and racist. That's a pretty low bar. I don't think it makes sense to define racism in a way that makes all 19th century naturalists racist.

[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You could have also picked the dude that desecrated indigenous graves to do phrenology.

Edit: Jesus Christ you left out that this dude was a literal colonizer in New Zealand. He was an officer in a militia during the New Zealand Wars.

He was also a committee member of The New Zealand Company, which existed to systemically colonize New Zealand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_John_Swainson#New_Zealand_estate

So maybe it is slightly misleading to say he was labeled racist for being “antagonistic”??

[–] infinitepcg@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Admittedly, I only checked this one article. I think it's hard to judge how evil he really was. Either way, not a hill I'm going to die on.

[–] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

This is a terrible source, as is Lemmy tradition.

Here's a better source I really wish that op would have been better about that. It's linked in the article they linked.

It appears that they are concerned with the tradition that the first person that scientifically describes the species gets to name it.

And, well, those people have been white.

[–] asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seems like stupid rationale IMO.