Black Birders Week: Celebrating Progress in Naturalism While Revisiting Legacies

By Julius Marinov

This week marks the fourth continuous year of Black Birder’s Week. A time to appreciate the achievements done by black environmentalists, artists and of course– birdwatchers. 

“Black Birders week is an event which occurs in the third week of May. This event was created due to an incident in Central Park when a Marvel writer, LGBTQ advocate and birdwatcher, Christian Cooper, was racially profiled by a white dog walker. 

This hate crime received much attention as it occurred on the same day as the death of George Floyd at the hands of police brutality. These two incidents further emphasized the major problems the American Racial Justice movement had been fighting against since the early days of the Civil Rights Era. 

From then on, Black Birders Week would be created and quickly it would explode in popularity. The event had developed a mission to encourage people from different cultures to enjoy the life that’s around them. To add on it had also started the transition to expose the dark truth of some of America’s most remarkable naturalists. 

Where it Begins 

Naturalism, the study which includes zoology and botany, has been around for thousands of years. However, whether it’d be because of religious beliefs or societal disruptions, the study would never be able to flourish. 

Eventually as secularism and new different perspectives began to open in the world. Christian philosophers, Islamic and Renaissance scholars would independently provoke study of the natural world. 

Yet it would pale to what the Industrial Revolution influenced. For just as marvelous inventions were being created. Our understanding of the organisms around us would be revised to a revolutionary level.

New subjects like geology and physiology would be heavily studied which would allow medical knowledge to be greatly improved and the scientific description of fossils. 

Hallmark figures like Charles Darwin proved many theories of evolution through his travels and research while Alfred Russel Wallace would discover the phenomenon we would come to know as the Wallace's Line in Southeast Asia. 

This was arguably one of the most important events for the popularization of naturalism. Many basic ideas that we value today came from this small snippet of history. 

Yet as this was happening in Europe, the United States emerged as a favorable opportunity for scientists. Ecosystems, animals and cultures that Westerners had never seen before were everywhere and it was all ripe for study. 

This is where the good part of the story ends. 

Compared to the business in Europe, naturalism in the United States was done for monetary gain. Many scientists only cared about the feedback of their publications and quickly disregarded the lives of many animals.

Furthermore, the United States was a time where misogynistic and racist views to others were prevalent (if not the norm) at the time. As a consequence, many at this time were some truly flawed people. 

Take John James Audubon, a man who has been deified in American ornithology and culture. He viewed African Americans as being scientifically important for his studies and saw them as  socially incapable. Audubon was publicly and avidly against the abolitionist movement, owning slaves himself.  

Audubon’s misdeeds were not unique to him. 

Contemporary biologists commonly stole the skulls of buried Native Americans for eventual use in the false pseudoscience of phrenology. Phrenology would only further the prejudice many other people would face in America. 

Today their legacy remains within many of the animals they have discovered. Though eponymous names that only shed discourse among animal enthusiasts today over whether these people should be worth remembering. 

But Why is it important to uncover the history of these figures?

Naturalism is simply a progressive study, this history proves that as we become more knowledgeable of the world and each other, so will these subjects. 

In the past 3 years, more people have begun to enjoy the outdoors and wildlife more than ever, including people who would have otherwise been ostracized or just barred that capability earlier in history just for who they were. 

Only discussing the good of these historical figures while not confronting the bad and the ugly experiences will not open the opportunity for any new stories in the future.

Caring for nature is more imperative than ever as we face the next biggest threat of the century; climate change. 

Despite there being many strides for a anti-racist America, a much more subtle form of discrimination, called environmental racism, is commonly wielded by the government, causing safety hazards in Black, Native American and other non-white communities 

 In response much of the community has been encouraged to represent themselves while working with nature. Fighting to protect the environment means protecting themselves.

It takes a large effort for the world to be preserved.