Heading outside, looking up in the sky for New York City’s diverse array of birds, and observing how they survive the urban environment is a special way for people to physically and mentally connect with the natural world. Yet the freedom that comes with taking part in nature-related activities is not always presented to Black people.
That’s why the BlackAFinSTEM Collective created Black Birders Week, now in its fifth year. This year’s activities run from May 26 through June 1.
Following this week’s Earth Day and Earth Week events, Black Birders Week is the next major naturalist event to look forward to. It has become an annual opportunity for Black nature lovers in the city to connect.
This year, the week’s theme is “Wings of Justice: Soaring for Change.” Collective members say they want to shine a brighter light on the intersections of environmental justice, birding, and the Black community.
The week’s theme is also a callback to 2020, the year Black Birders Week started.
At that time, when most people were sequestered in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, opportunities to head outside for some fresh air had become cherished. But two harrowing incidents that took place within hours of each other on May 25 that year—a white woman threatened to falsely report birdwatcher Christian Cooper for assaulting her in Central Park merely because Cooper had asked her to leash her dog, while Minneapolis police officers tortured and murdered George Floyd hundreds of miles away—demonstrated why Black communities have tended to retreat from regular encounters with nature. Both cases revealed that day that Black people had to be cautious when trying to enjoy outdoor spaces, and that Black people had to deal with life-threatening racism and were challenged to prove their right to access nature.
Justice through birding
“We’re thinking more about the justice elements to #BlackBirdersWeek,” explains Nicole R. Jackson, a Black Birders Week planning team co-chair. “We feel like that kind of fell to the wayside after 2020 and people were just more focused on the birds and birding, but not the people doing those things. We really wanted to kind of circle back to that message around justice and what that looks like through birding and through connecting with nature in the Black community.”
As the research organization Center for American Progress points out, Black people have not traditionally been allowed to access nature. “Historically, the United States has systematically segregated and excluded people of color from public lands and other natural places. Black people have experienced segregation from the Civilian Conservation Corps to the National Park System; the nation’s public lands, beaches, and other natural areas have also been venues in which communities of color have been the subject of legalized and institutionalized racism. The legacies of this exclusion persist in many forms, including in the continued underrepresentation of people of color in hiring at natural resource agencies as well as in the histories of different groups represented by national parks and public lands. It also affects visitation to national parks and other public lands and participation in outdoor recreation, as well as causes people of color to feel unwelcome or in danger in nature.”
Not seeing each other in national parks, out camping, on a hiking trail, or out rock-climbing limits our self-visions. It also reinforces the idea to other people that nature is no space for Black people.
With nationwide virtual and in-person events, Black Birders Week plans to highlight the importance of building relationships with other nature lovers around environmental topics nationwide. The grassroots initiative will have talks and community panel discussions that look at how Black people are impacted when they are encouraged to get out and birdwatch, and they will examine what nature conservation looks like in Black spaces and neighborhoods.
Virtual events like the roll call of introductions, an art contest, educational talks about environmental activists, and bird activities will be free and will take place on the @BlackAFInSTEM social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook. There will also be more in-person events announced on the BlackAFinSTEM webpage.