To add to the tempest-The AOU plans to change the names of birds with surnames such as Cooper's Hawk). If unsaid, still, it seems to me as if they AOU is trying to be politically correct. If they indeed plan to do so, one name must be changed:American, for instance, the American Robin.
America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, one of Christopher Columbus's crew members. When Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola (now named Haiti/Domican Republic), he and his crew not only infected the island's indigenous population with diseases such as smallpox and syphilis, but they also enslaved several of the people and took them back to Spain. There some of them were sold, and a few were even exhibited in the Madrid zoo.
Shall we then change the name of our country, because our history reeks of slavery, genocide and exploitation?
AOU can't have it both ways. Leave the current names stay. Any new species found may be called something descriptive, but given how we are exterminating every native species at a hellacious clip, I doubt that will happen.
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