Please don’t use the death of Sudan the Rhino to perpetuate hurtful generalizations and stereotypes

zookeeperproblems:

Honestly I’ve felt very disheartened and frustrated as I’ve read responses to the death of Sudan, the last northern white rhino. Because many of these responses such as comments on news articles or original posts by the public, zookeepers, or even zoos have played into negative generalizations and stereotypes. I could go into a lot more detail here, but I’m really not a scholar so I’m just trying to hit the high points. Here’s a few responses you might see and a quick breakdown of why they aren’t okay… 

• Using “Africa” and “Africans” as catch-all terms. Sudan lived in Kenya. There are 54 countries in the continent of Africa and rhinos are found in about 13 of them, mostly south of the Equator. Using these catch-all terms and viewing Africa as a monolith instead of as a diverse place contributes to erasure of individual countries, cultures, identities, etc.
• Characterizing “Africans” (see above) as uncaring about rhino poaching. I’ve seen many posts that basically claim that “Africans” don’t care enough about rhino poaching or about rhinos themselves, which led to this problem. This is incredibly hurtful and can be dehumanizing towards the people who live in the countries where these rhinos are found such as Kenya and South Africa. There is SO much being done to try and fight rhino poaching and so many other forms of wildlife crime. These characterizations play into colonial stereotypes about westerners needing to “save” animals from non-western countries because the people there don’t “understand” or “care” enough and it’s not right. The effort that the people in these countries make, as well as the people themselves, deserve our respect. 
• Bringing out the old “rhino horn is used as an aphrodisiac in Asia” myth. So just so you know – this is not correct. It’s a harmful and negative stereotype hyped by Western media. I say harmful because as the article states “ ‘Use of rhino horn as an aphrodisiac in Asian traditional medicine has long been debunked as a denigrating, unjust characterization of the trade by Western media. But such usage is now, rather incredibly, being documented in Vietnam as the media myth turns full circle,’ according to the TRAFFIC report.” Basically, the traditional use never encompassed this, but the media being unwilling to let go of this stereotype actually put the idea into people’s heads as they try to sell more rhino horn.
• Saying “These Chinese people are stupid for using traditional medicine and they’re killing all these animals because of it!” I seriously hate to have to type this with my own hands but it is unfortunately a real thing that is frequently perpetuated and I hope that by having to read it, you really examine how you approach this topic. Firstly, just as I pointed out above with “Africans”, using generalizations like this is harmful and disrespectful. Second, for the love of zoos and conservation, stop characterizing traditional medicine as “stupid.” There are countless things on this earth that are used as medicine that don’t have science to back them up and traditional methods of medicine in southeastern Asia have been practiced for thousands of years across so many diverse cultures. Just because one part of the tradition could be perpetuating rhino horn poaching (keep reading below as to why this isn’t the only thing contributing) does not mean that the entire culture, history, and tradition deserves to be disrespected. Calling traditional medicine stupid characterizes anyone who uses it as stupid, and usually by extension, anyone from China, Vietnam, or southeast Asia is stupid. This is not okay. The idea of traditional medicine being stupid, worthless, and wrong has unfortunately become so ingrained in the way we talk about poaching that it is incredibly common in zoos around the country – keeper talks discussing how rhino horn is “just keratin! Chew on your fingernails for the same medicine!” and even signage declaring “I am not medicine” in reference to rhino horns. Poaching is horrific, but talking down about huge groups of people does us very few favors. Also as the Scientific American article I quoted earlier points out, people are NOT just buying rhino horn for medicine and that may not even be the biggest market. Other popular rhino horn uses include drinking in wine or general status symbols, and popular objects include antique carvings, figurines, necklaces, bracelets and beads. Our attachment to tearing down the “stupidity” of traditional medicine is not only disrespectful, but it also can distract from seeing the true complexity of illegal rhino horn trade which in turn can hurt conservation work. 

In conclusion – the death of Sudan the rhino is heartbreaking, but if we use it as an opportunity to perpetuate stereotypes and incorrect generalizations, we could be making this worse. Animal death and racing extinction shouldn’t be used as excuses or justifications for being disrespectful and hurtful. This is a long, complex battle and it’s going to be much harder if we continue to alienate those we should be working with.