A Bird Named for a Confederate General Sparks Calls for Change [View all]

[douglas9]

McCown’s longspur has launched a renewed reckoning over the troubling histories reflected in some species names.

ACROSS THE UNITED STATES, people are pushing for the removal of Confederate officers’ names from buildings, schools, and army bases, as protests against racial injustice continue in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police in May.

Something much smaller has also elicited debate over its Confederate name: McCown’s longspur, a bird that lives in the Great Plains and looks a bit like a sparrow. It was named after John Porter McCown, who was involved in forcible relocations of Native Americans during the 1840s, and who left the United States Army to serve as a Confederate general during the Civil War.

By memorializing someone who fought to defend slavery, the longspur’s name, some birders and scientists say, adds further barriers to inclusion in the world of bird researchers and enthusiasts — an overwhelmingly White community where people of color have repeatedly reported feeling ignored, excluded, and even deeply unsafe.

https://undark.org/2020/07/17/mccowns-longspur-confederate-name-calls-for-change/