Ethnic diversity in the wildlife watching community.......

[Box Brownie]

Hi all

In the light of what has been going on in the USA and indeed here in the UK following the death of George Floyd.

I use the Merlin Bird ID app and get regular email updates from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology (who made the app) and this link was in the email

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/...il&utm_term=0_47588b5758-c1f35611bd-319373369

Now, I can only surmise that TP is quite ethnically diverse but have no real idea and anyway 'real diversity' should not need to be announced on a public forum.......are we not all the same here in regard to being photographers, afterall that is the raison d'etre of TP and ethnicity should not be a factor ~ should it?.........but suffice to say when it comes to bird watching and other wildlife watching I can only (for now) think of two Black public figures ~ Gillian Burke and David Lindo.

I find it tragic and sad that as in the case of the link above and possibly here in the UK as well (I think I recall Gillian Burke being asked/mentioning it in passing in Springwatch) that it appears that even in participating in innocuous pastimes 'fellow citizens of colour' see abuse and lack of acceptance.

Sometimes I despair of what a sad world "we" have created

 

[the black fox]

From my personal observations over the years , although mainly white folks are in the Majority there are quite a lot of others mixed in ,everyone that I’ve ever met or seen seems to be accepted without question . . Race,religion ,colour or creed doesnt come Into it we are just twitchers and photographers

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

it appears that even in participating in innocuous pastimes 'fellow citizens of colour' see abuse and lack of acceptance.

Humans are status conscious animals like many other mammals and our main sensing is done by sight. We can't help but categorise every other human we see. The less a new aquaintance looks like people we already know, the more wary we are. The degree to which this affects our behaviour depends on many physiological, mental and environmental factors. You may not like it but it's just another fact like our susceptibility to colds and hemorrhoids.

 

[john.margetts]

When I first met Bestbeloved and we went birding two thing stood out. One was men leaving a hide when she entered - this was mostly in Yorkshire. The second was other birders wanting to know about what we had seen - they still usually ask me even though Bestbeloved is the one who knows about birds while I 'do' insects and lichens. This is gender bias rather than ethnicity but underlines the lack of social equality in this country.

 

[Gremlin]

Never had a problem, most people I meet in hides or out on walks are friendly, pass the time of day or stop for a quick chat about what we have seen etc. Today I spoke to a few dog walkers on the common and was able to help a guy looking for a particular location, know nothing else about them, didn't need too

 

[mikew]

Not many years ago i read an article in a fishing mag that surveyed Black fishermen and most said they didn't feel safe fishing on their own.

 

[woof woof]

Things can only become more diverse if more diverse people come along. For example my last place of work was almost exclusively white English working class as that's what the catchment area is with a low immigrant population. Now and again we had the odd one or two non English workers but like everyone else they came and went as people do so the count stayed low. Could this be the issue with some pass times and hobbies? Could diversity be more to do with the area, town or country than ethnicity?

This may not be so true now but I think it's relatively safe to say that at times in the past some immigrants have tended to head towards the larger urban centres rather than the smaller towns and villages and this could maybe affect the hobbies and pass times they go for? That's my thinking, if it's a possible part explanation. It could be that immigrants of any type heading for the cities may be less interested in tramping up and down cold wet hills than those who ended up in smaller places in Yorkshire and Cumbria where they would be perhaps closer to nature and the opportunity to go hiking, bird watching or whatever?

If that's even true in some small part through time as new generations come along and possibly move out of the cities or otherwise become more interested and involved then I'd expect diversity to increase. There'll always be a few stick in mud old school types in clubs who may resist new membership and a part of that could be racist and if so it should be condemned but it could also just be non racial not people like us bias that we sometimes see where you're not a local and not all that welcome unless you're family has lived there for generations.

Just a thought.

 

[dcash29]

Friends and acquaintances, involved in the same pursuits have always been made welcome and have never experienced abuse to my knowledge. In my opinion certain parts of society strive to balance the colour scale, fuelling racial tension and quite frankly I'm sick to death of hearing about it especially when other groups are allowed to totally ignore and abuse it.
Leave people alone to form their own future and if there's abuse let them or people around them, to report it using the appropriate channels.