Birding while Black: Understanding our Different Experiences

Photo: Camilla Cerea

Resources from National Audubon

David J. Ringer, Chief Network Officer for the National Audubon Society, shared these resources with Audubon chapters around the county. We think they offer a helpful introduction not only for our ASNV board but for anyone who wants to better understand how the outdoors and specifically birding, is not equally safe and welcoming for everyone, especially for people of color.

• Read, watch, and share these pieces about birding while Black:
  What White Birders Can Learn From Amy Cooper About Their Own Racism by Hannah Waters
  Corina Newsome and the Black Birders Movement from The New Yorker
  Jason Ward’s essay on how the woods can be perilous for Black people
  Journalist Brentin Mock’s interview on birding as a Black man
   

• Buy copies of these books and have discussions with your chapter board:
  Caroline Finney’s Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors
  Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist
  Dr. J Drew Lanham’s The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature