His binoculars do not leave him. And it is with them that Christian Cooper takes to the skies to observe birds, a passion that has captivated him since he was 10 years old and his “sparkle” bird, a red-winged blackbird. He thought he had discovered a new species of crow, he admits with a laugh.
Today, at 60, the ornithologist and former Marvel Comics screenwriter is the host and associate producer of the documentary series “Christian Cooper and the World of Birds”. broadcast from September 9 on National Geographic. In six episodes, he sets out to meet his favorite dinosaurs in the United States, but also the humans who do everything to protect them.
The Central Park Racist “Incident”
In France, his name might mean something to you if we talk about the viral video of the racist incident in Central Park. On May 25, 2020, in full confinement, the New Yorker walked and observed… the birds in a protected part of the park where animals must be kept on a leash. It is there that he crosses paths with Amy Cooper, a white woman who was walking her dog, detached, which he points out to her. Christian Cooper begins filming the conflict and we see the woman calling the police, shouting that an African American man was threatening her, which was not the case.
But Christian Cooper does not want to be summed up in what he calls “the incident”, which received worldwide attention after he posted video on facebook. “It was only 2 or 3 minutes of my life,” he emphasizes to 20 minutes. A lot of people say to me, I’m sorry you had to go through this trauma. What ? Trauma? She doesn’t have the power to traumatize me with a few words. » For him, Central Park has been associated, for thirty-five years, with memories of “the wonderful birds” he saw there.
It is “on racial prejudices that we must focus our attention”
His experience and his political awareness of racism is also what made him decide not to contribute to the investigation into this case, a choice that may have caused disagreements in the black community. If he is motivated by a feeling of compassion for the woman whose life has “imploded”, it is mainly explained by the desire to concentrate on what is, for him, the heart of the matter.
“If I had sued him, the focus would have stayed on her, as if what happened was her concern. This is not the case,” he assures. “She is a distraction” and it is “on racial prejudice that we must focus our attention,” he said, recalling that on the same day in May 2020, George Floyd suffocated to death under the knee of a white police officer. , while his colleagues stood nearby.
“Gays are not going to cease to exist”
From his “incident”, he made the comic It’s a Bird (DC, 2020, untranslated), where he interweaves the birds, his history, that of black people killed by the police and the racism of American society. George Floyd is associated with a yellow warbler, Amadou Diallo, killed by 41 bullets by the police in 1999, with a scarlet piranga, Breonna Taylor, shot with 9 bullets in 2020, with a blue bird. “I also don’t want to downplay what happened in Central Park, because it’s important in what it reveals about racial bias, how deeply ingrained it is in the United States and infects the culture and society,” continues the man who also integrated the first LGBT+ characters into Marvel comics.
After serving as co-chair of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad), which denounced homophobic media coverage during the AIDS epidemic, in the early 1990s he created Marvel’s first lesbian heroine in Darkhold: Pages From The Book Of Sins, and the first gay human character on “Star Trek.” “It was a very exciting time,” he remembers. Marvel had the Star Trek license and a whole series of comics were coming out. I said to myself: “This is a utopian future. Gays are not going to stop existing, so I put one in.” »
An environmental defender
With great energy and humor, the gay activist for racial justice and the rights of LGBT+ people turns into an environmental defender. The birds, always, carry this commitment. “In fifty years, since I started observing birds in the 1970s, their numbers have declined dramatically,” he says, “North America has lost a third of them. »
The ornithologist remains marked by the filming of the episode in Hawaii for what it shows about the impact of human beings on their environment, but also for the hope he retains from it. “Three quarters of native birds are already extinct,” he exclaims, due to diseases brought by mosquitoes with the arrival of Westerners.
“Those who remain are high up,” explains Christian Cooper. But what is happening with climate change? It’s warmer and the mosquitoes are creeping up. The people who are fighting to save these birds do not want to abandon them. They are a true source of inspiration,” he defends with admiration. “I think that’s the attitude we all need to have: We won’t give up. We will save what we have left and bring back some of what we lost. »
Always something to learn from birds
In his memoirs, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World (Randon House, 2023, untranslated. “Better Living Through Ornithology: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World”), he compares himself to the grackle “a bird that is often seen and taken taken for granted,” which taught him self-confidence. How is it possible ? He shares his thoughts with us.
On a school trip, children pointed out to him how beautiful this bird was, which touched him. “Growing up in the United States, the fact of being black means that you are not in the norm, that the norm is to be white, it’s absurd, he remarks, but it’s is the message that society sends back to you, and you end up having low self-esteem. »
During a trip to Argentina, many people flirt with him. “I wondered what was going on,” he says, with a touch of humor. And it’s because I was black, it’s as if, suddenly, I was the grackle! » For Christian Cooper, there is always something to learn from birds, to forge links in their flight: “It gives you energy and makes you alive,” he proclaims. A “strange” passion and assumed as such that he hopes to transmit as much as possible.