The city chapter of the Audubon Society is changing its name to disassociate itself from the darker aspects of John James Audubon’s legacy.
Count it as one more foolish effort to erase history rather than confront or understand it.
Audubon’s “harmful and offensive” views “and actions toward black people and Indigenous people” created a “barrier to entry for many into the organization,” the society claims. Really?
Yes, the man behind the landmark “Birds of America,” and discoverer of 25 avian species, was born into a slave-owning family and himself criticized the fight for emancipation.
But belief in eugenics was rampant among early conservationists, with figures such as Gifford Pinchot, Irving Fisher, President Teddy Roosevelt and others promoting the noxious ideas associated with the movement, such as the sterilization of the poor or disabled.
Ousting the men who held these ideas from the modern movement is a poor substitute for considering how a poisonous and ignorant elitism might still infect today’s environmentalism.
The National Audubon Society has opted against the easy course, arguing that keeping the name helps it “direct key resources and focus towards enacting the organization’s mission” (protecting birds and their habitats), while vowing: “We will continue promoting an awareness and understanding of the problematic legacy of John James Audubon, the man, and the inequalities that have been inherent in the conservation movement.”
We doubt the NAS sees this as confronting the way in which so many green policies (such as the insane rush to decarbonize) promote poverty and suffering, but at least it opens the door to such discussions.
Bleaching embarrassing bits of your history is the coward’s solution.
