Atheism has a big race problem that no one’s talking about

[rug]

97. Well, I'll give you this. That's a better tack than the start of this subthread.

Specifically,

So I'm wondering what race problem atheism has?

The author has not only explained, but demonstrated that the usual issues of atheist groups do not match the reality of what black nonbelievers experience. There are daily experiences in which billboards and school prayer arguments don't really cut it. And she is very eloquent on what women nonbelievers experience in the black community compared to what male nonbelievers experience.

As a pure academic point, atheism or nonbelief goes no further than that. But when people do form groups that are explicitly organized around the concept of atheism, and when these now organized groups step out and taken positions on social issues, it would behoove them to make sure their work reaches all nonbelievers, particularly when those nonbelievers are minority.

Ultimately, I agree that social problem do not stem from nonbelief -or belief itself as I've argued incessantly - but from the economic forces that strive for power and readily use division based on race, sex, and belief, or nonbelief, to buttress that power. Ultimately the answers to these problems stem from political action not from atheism or from theism. In the meantime these divisions must be addressed.

She is well worth listening to.