Out of fear of racism, Sweden changes the names of bird species

By Rick Noack February 24 at 5:00 AM

Bird watching has long been a popular and seemingly harmless weekend activity in Sweden. Its innocence, however, came to an abrupt end when many of the country's bird lovers were suddenly confronted with allegations of racism.

For centuries, it has now been revealed, the Swedish had given birds some names that now could be considered offensive to certain groups. One species, for instance, was called "gypsy bird," whereas another was named "negro." The insult "caffer," which was used by white against blacks in South Africa, also resembled a Swedish bird species called "kaffer." There were other offensive bird names in Sweden, such as "Hottentot" — apparently inspired by the name of the language of an indigenous southwest African tribe called Khoikhoi, yet also a derogatory term for that tribe.

Despite the prominence of bird watching among Swedes, the existence of these names and others like them had sparked little outrage and publicity until recently. When Sweden's Ornithological Society completed its first-ever global list of all 10,709 Swedish bird names two weeks ago, the organization also announced some awkward name changes.

In the process of categorizing the names, staffers had raised concerns over some that had a potentially offensive nature. As a result, several of them have now been changed: "negro" bird, for instance, will now be called "black" bird. "When working on the list, it became obvious that some older names no longer were appropriate," Anders Wirdheim, Communications Officer at the Swedish Ornithological Society told The Washington Post.

Wirdheim does not think that the bird names should be used to draw broader conclusions about the Swedish society. "Out of thousands of names, there were only 10 which could be understood as condescending or even racist," he said. Nevertheless, Sweden's Ornithological Society was surprised by how serious some have taken the racism allegations. "We had expected a few responses, but certainly not the flood of comments that followed the publication," Wirdheim said.

"Here in Sweden, an overwhelming majority is for the changes we have implemented. However, the news has reached far beyond our borders and most outraged reactions have come from abroad."

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Rick Noack writes about foreign affairs. He is an Arthur F. Burns Fellow at The Washington Post.

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Allan Nichols

11:59 PM EST

In other words this is what the WaPo want's us to aspire to here in the USA, If you are sick of people hurling the word racism around PLEASE STAND UP!

Let's also admit a few things:

#1 Mainstream Left wing Democrat politicians across the free world and in the USA like Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and our President Barack Obama along with demagogues like Al Sharpton have reduced the once very important word to a meaningless insult you hurl to shut someone up you do not agree with or attempt to gloss over your own racism by shining the light on anyone else which is exactly what we have here!

#2 Mainstream middle of the road people across the west like David CamMoron in the UK along with Republican politicians in the USA like John McShame, Lyndsey Gramnesty, Mitch The Gobbler McConoll and the Drunkard of the house John Boehner play right along with the charade so they can manipulate us against each other with the classic divide and conquer political template they apply across a wide range of issues. (Black/White, ProLife/ProChoice, Gay/Strait, Patriotic/Anti-American and so on)

#3 The pop culture worshiping moron citizens in the west seem to ignore the fact they enjoy the most comfortable, lavish, free, healthy, cultured, least violent, safest, most accepting of others and most educated lifestyles the planet has ever seen.

Yet the morons heads are stuck in a drug induced pop culture haze to ignorant to realize that even though watching a Harvey Weinstein movie or the nightly news it can seem like we live in horrible times, yet do not have the brain power to make the connection of what it was really like a recent as the 50's when men could beat their wives or sexually abuse a woman and no one cared or knew because the woman was too afraid to say anything and would have most likely been blamed if she did. They seem to forget that just 50 years ago in cities like NY where every racial group beat up every other one on the daily. The are but two example

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Tice

10:50 PM EST

The Idiot Swede is one our favorite birds here in Middle Georgia. It is a lovely bird. But spends a good deal of the day wasting time and energy on pointless and meaningless endeavors, so that we have to go to the store and buy it special Idiot Swede bird food, rather than just eating the worms God provided.

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