The American Ornithological Society [AOS] is a Chicago-based organization founded in 2016 as a merger of the American Ornithologists’ Union and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Ornithology is the science of birds.
In 2020, the AOS changed the name of the McCown Longspur, named after career military officer and bird enthusiast General John Porter McCown. He fought in the Mexican-American War, the Seminole War, and the War Between the States. He also collected birds to send to ornithologist George Lawrence. These samples included three previously unknown species, and one was named after McCown.
However, because McCown served in the Confederate army, the AOS said his name was connected to “slavery” and, therefore, offensive.
However, the AOS has now removed the mask. They have declared that all birds named after people are “harmful and exclusionary” and “clouded by racism and misogyny.”
The group says they will change the names of approximately 80 North American birds in 2024.
It was never about “slavery” or the Confederacy. It was about erasing all White names.
