[Tweeters] Eponymous names, change, & race

[Glenn Nelson]

Hello all,

I have subscribed to and contributed to this list-serve for a few 
decades, and appreciate (almost) all of the knowledge that has been 
shared. Even so, as a non-white person, I continue to struggle to feel a 
part of the world that is represented here. This conversation doesn't 
help, but it also probably shouldn't matter. The one thing all of us are 
powerless to stop is change. And the change in this context is the 
demographics of our region and nation and, reflected in a little bit of 
that, the growing lack of appetite for eponymous names. I wish more 
people would spend more time understanding these changes and what they 
mean and not feel like evolution is the product of being "erased" or 
"canceled." We all do things differently than those who came before us; 
most of the time, we don't feel threatened by that difference and adapt.


>From my perspective, naming things and places after humans (well, mostly 

men (and, well, mostly white men)) is so Western European. In many 
cultures of color, including mine and particularly the Indigenous people 
of these lands, things and places are named descriptively. What better 
way to pass on our knowledge and love for birds and other components of 
nature than to represent them in a many that is innately understood and 
cause to scamper to web searches only to discover that someone's name 
doesn't really contribute to the understanding of creatures, things, and 
places?

The legion of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in the birding 
world is growing exponentially, here and across the country. It's an 
unstoppable force and shouldn't be feared because we have birds in 
common, among other things. It would be a shame to lack any crossover 
between old and new -- to maintain separate circles of bird lovers. The 
new will inevitably replace the old. Don't we want to influence the 
future security of the creatures that we love by sharing our knowledge 
and enthusiasm for them with people who are younger and browner than us?

Yes, things will change (and likely need to) before we're all gone. We 
will adapt, unless bitterness stops us. For a portion of my life, one of 
the main busy roads in south Seattle, where I grew up and still live, 
was called Empire Way. It's been Martin Luther King Jr. Way since all 
the signs got changed by 1984. I've never felt lost, then or now. It's 
only a name, after all. Let's hang on to things more useful and meaningful.

Best,
Glenn Nelson,
Seattle
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