Racism and Bigotry in Birding

It's hard to pick up a newspaper these days and not read about something the new moniker "alt-right" are up to. The rise of racism to more mainstream levels is undeniable.

Do we, as birders, need to have this discussion though?

Do we know it's out there, among us? I'm pretty sure we do.

It's tempting to believe the best about yourself, and this extrapolates to ourselves as a group; as birders.

It's tempting to believe that the hobby of birding, taking place in nature, with a holistic, interconnected view of nature, would not harbour backwards, ignorant, scumbag neanderthals, that would discriminate on the basis of colour, creed, ethnicity, sex or sexual preference...over the past two years I've learned, sadly, that this temptation would lead you to the wrong conclusion.

Birding, like any other microcosm of humanity, has it's share of these regrettable people.

When I say over the past two years, I mean, perhaps, I have been just as overly accepting of this behavior previously as anyone else.

I've heard the odd birder over the years, use terms and language at a twitch and brushed it off. Put it to the back of my mind as maybe something said in jest. I can't do that these days. And I won't.

I think the real eye-opener for me came in a mail from the IBN a couple of years ago. Jim Fitzharris, a birder who would be respected by the older generations in Ireland, used the below racial slur in an email on the Irish Bird Network...that garnered virtually zero response from anyone on the forum, save one individual who would realistically not be considered a birder.

The use of a racial slur on the Irish Bird Network

This is a forum full of loudmouths, trolls and troublemakers...not one of them could find the time to call out a racial slur, save for one random lurker.

Brexit brought this to the surface in Britain in an extremely overt way.
You would like to think the sight of that sneering odious toad, Nigel Farage, standing in front of that infamous poster of refugees would turn the stomach of all birders.

Ten Species of Human - Lee Evans Eugenics

Not, however, that of birding's Farage-Fanboy, Lee GR Evans, whose declaration that there's "10 species of Human" drew the ire of, sadly few, birders on Twitter, and who proudly posts hate propaganda regarding "Lutonstan" by Britain's number one hate group "Britain First", recently given a worldwide platform by the Tangerine in Chief, Trump.

Lee Evans - Sharing British Hate Group postings from Britain First

Many in Britain refuse to deal with this racism, often citing LGRE's "enthusiasm" for birding as a reason to respect him.

One does not balance out the other, period.

The most disturbing example of racism popped up in my own Twitter following recently. (Needless to say now blocked).

It's always worrying when you see a "Pepe the frog" avatar. This one, "Dank Memes", I initially assumed to be a bot account, but a quick check of the profile revealed an account occasionally commenting on birding posts.

This tweet was in response to Gary Younge interviewing American White Supremacist, Richard Spencer here

Racist and a Homophobe - Classy

Racism in Potatoland birding. By the Hammer of Thor.

I had even interacted with this account in the past, when it went under it's owners real name, John Gallagher, based in Ireland.

The birding postings were few and far between, utterly overwhelmed by the barrage of homophobic, bigoted and racist postings churned out by what can only be called a complete and utter scumbag.

Of the many such postings, I found this one, responding to a Swedish hate monger, wishing for an Anders Breivik, to be particularly sickening.

Imagine having the sort of person show up beside you at Swords or Kilcoole, maybe asking you if anything interesting is about, who would happily turn a psychotic mass murderer loose on people?

How will you respond? Will you allow such an individual's "enthusiasm" for birds to override common decency? 

Will you indulge in idle chitchat watching some rarity or other?

And if the conversation shifts to brexit, immigration, Trump?

What then?

It's easy to denounce the racism of the Tangerine in Chief from a million miles away. It's harder when they're in your hobby. It's harder when they're standing beside you, but this behavior does need to be challenged.

Update

I wrote this piece last year, concerned with the evident rise of racism and bigotry, in both the U.S and Britain, and particularly with the discovery of an outright racist, Irish social-media follower on one of my accounts.

It shocked me at the time, just how open and blatant such people could be, the common thread being the ease which they could be so from behind a keyboard.

The feedback I received last year was overwhelmingly positive, though there were some racist responses and attacks, and the usual apologetics for racism, (most notably from one obvious Northern Irish bigot) against the posting.

Now, almost a year on, I do not see things improving. The opposite is in fact true; things are worsening, seemingly, as I have said on numerous occasions, galvanized by Brexit.

The Northern Irish bigot, a Mr. Tom Clarke, a birder as Gammon as Gammon can be, continues his tirades against Muslims, gays (homophobia seems to go hand in hand with their racial prejudice doesn't it?), and, bizzarely, the republic of Ireland and it's citizens. People like me, basically.

It's almost quaint. It's been a while since I've seen this kind of insanity directed towards the Irish. There was a time, of course, when we were a favorite target of the British media, but we had hoped that was long since done with.

Ireland is, apparently, the sworn enemy of Britain, evil, ready to send it's secret IRA agents back into action at a moment's notice, and colluding with the monstrous European Union to foil all of Britain's plans.....

Batshit in other words.

Homophobia - classy

Both this Tom Clarke, and Graham Clark below, are frequent respondents and friends of LGRE on his Facebook account.

"I wouldn't defend the holocaust. But..."

This account, below, was highlighted by others on Twitter. Originally a cowardly, anonymous account, It's Islamophobia, Homophobia and racism earned it a permanent suspension from Twitter, forcing it's owner to use what is, presumably, their real name, Laurie Allan.

The banning of their anonymous account has seemingly emboldened them, resulting in even more blatant racism.

I struggled with highlighting this particular account, as they in particular, WANT the exposure, desperate for followers, desperate for validation.

However, the vile nature of this individual, too, must be challenged. Judge for yourself.

The old trope of referring to black people as apes. Unoriginal, but nonetheless abhorrent. In this case, in reference to David Lammy, a UK politician.

Not limiting their racism to within the confines of their own nation either. 

Again, homophobia takes center stage too, a recurrent theme. 

Sodomites - there's a bizarrely outdated reference.

Lastly, we come round, again, to Lee Evans, now moved on from simply sharing content from Britain First, to suggesting he is now, in fact, a member, of what is essentially, Britain's KKK. He has even suggested he was a founder of this group, though that is, of course, more of his ego-maniacal, self delusional, compulsive lies, it shows the sort of person he wishes to be. People like this, attract others to them, like the two Clark/es highlighted above.

This is a group recognized as a hate group by the government of the United Kingdom, an avid follower of which, shouted their name as he murdered a British member of parliament in the street.

This isn't normal. We can't allow it to be normal. Unfortunately, Brexit and the climate it has created and continues to create, has normalized this. 

How do we tackle this issue?

First, we recognize it's there. When I first posted on this topic, one of the principal rationales of apologists was "This isn't a thing. You aren't going to encounter this level of racism in the field."

True. 

You won't. 

Why? 

Because A. These people are cowards, spreading and breeding hate from the safety of behind their screens. 

And B, perhaps most obviously, because birding in Britain and Ireland is predominantly the domain of older white men. 

It will take an extra level of resolve to tackle this issue in this environment. 

So I'm calling on those in a position to exert some power to do so if they can.

Birdfair is coming up. Some of these people may be present, perhaps looking like a reject from a Del Monte commercial. 

If Birdfair can refund ticket costs and deny entry to such individuals, please do so. 

If not, perhaps individual exhibitors/sellers can deny service to them.

Bird news is important to most birders. Perhaps service providers such as Rarebirdalert and Birdguides can also deny service. Do you really want the money from these people?

Moderators, group and list owners on the net, such as the rare birds of Britain and Ireland on Facebook can remove them and deny them access. Please do so. 

People may ask why, (and have) I am concerned about this issue in Britain? What business is it of mine?

Putting aside the obvious, that racism is a global issue, and must be fought globally, Britain is a neighbor to my home country, Ireland. What happens in Britain, affects Ireland. It IS affecting Ireland. Right now. At the border to the North.

Nigel Farage recently attended a conference in Dublin to push for an Irish exit from the E.U.

This toxic environment on the rise in Britain, could spread. 

It will spread, if not fought.

I refuse to believe British Birders will remain tolerant of such individuals. I refuse to believe they won't stand up to this. I hope I'm not wrong.

Update - 08/06/2019

I feel the need to update this blog when I see another example of racism in Irish birding in particular.

This is Seamus Feeney. These are some of the casually racist things this man has said of late.

This tweet concerned the recent Israeli moon landing attempt. Those following the news will be aware that a private company, akin to Space X, but which happens to be Israeli based, made lunar orbit, but failed to land successfully, crashing into the surface. It was none the less an astounding scientific achievement on a very limited budget.

So imagine the kind of casual racist that would wish a few dead israeli citizens were on board? Got that image in your head?

Here he is again.

There are people who use any excuse to vent the kind of racist tropes in the above tweet, and blame the nature of the provoking material.

Anyone seeing people in that video abusing an animal would be outraged, but you have to ask what kind of person goes straight to those kinds of racist slurs?

It's an easy question to answer, isn't it?

If you're an Irish birder reading this, I'm sure you will think of yourself as the kind of person who abhors racism. I hope you do, I truly do.

I'm also sure you will rationalize this behavior away. I accept he's not the full shilling. That's not an excuse. 

Call it out.