Inaugural Black Birders Week Invites Engagement & Inclusivity

Corina Newsome birding. Photo: Katherine Arntzen

On Sunday we kicked off the first ever Black Birders Week, a social media initiative bringing visibility to black birders in the wake of Chris Cooper’s horrifying experience in Central Park. Starting Sunday and running through this Friday, Black Birders Week includes five days of virtual events (none are scheduled for Wednesday), with each day featuring its own theme and Twitter hashtag, allowing participants to connect with one another, post pictures, and ask questions from anywhere in the world. 

Sunday, Day 1, I took some time to reflect on the birding community as a whole. Big task. Maybe too big. So let’s break it down a little. Open a couple of your birding magazines and what color do you see? I’m not talking about the gorgeous, full color images of birds. In the four birding magazines I subscribe to, there are very few images of people featured with the articles. But when I look through the advertisements, which do show images of people, those people had white skin. It is clear that people of color are underrepresented in media as active participants in birding. Photos in magazines may seem like a small thing- but, how can a person feel like they are part of a community when they don’t see themselves represented in that community? We as birders and as a community need to ask ourselves a lot of questions and do a lot of reflecting about our community. Most important though, we need to listen.

This week, many black and brown birders are sharing their stories online: in articles, in blogs and on social media. It is not their job to wake me up, but I am so grateful they are making the effort. I am ready and willing to listen and to learn how I can be a better ally for my entire community. Please follow #BlackBirdersWeek and connect with new people in the birding community.

Amy Simso Dean, ACM vice-chair