I used to be a huge fan of Melissa Harris-Perry. In the last few years though her definition of blackness has thrown the areligious under the bus. All her slams of atheists have built up to the point where I don’t read her any more. Essentialism like that is bullshit and I can’t stand bullshitters. She has the education to know better. Other leaders and media figures are just your usual delusional godbots (yay Steve Harvey is getting his own show!)
The church is a double edged sword for black folks, I agree. AIDS epidemic, down-low culture, being forced in the closet about lgbt AND atheism etc; all to keep this necessary bulwark against white supremacy and systemically racist institutions and structures.
My hope is that as we improve the welfare state in the US, and improve our democracy and institutions to weed out the racists and racism that the necessity for church life in black communities will just go away, so that black folk in the south can be out without losing their community and the community systems they fall back on when the dysfunctional (underfunded) or racist state services won’t help.
Jennifersays
It kills me to hear someone obscuring the brutal history of slavery by describing the spread of Africans throughout other countries as a “diaspora,” in which all those Africans maintained a unifying belief in god. Good grief! We’re talking about a diverse collection of people who (voluntarily or not) have largely adopted the particular Christian beliefs of their enslavers.
Very interesting. And all the people interviewed have a really good on-camera “presence”.
BTW,
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blackskeptics/2012/07/16/research-participants-sought-people-of-color-identifying-as-nonbelievers/
I used to be a huge fan of Melissa Harris-Perry. In the last few years though her definition of blackness has thrown the areligious under the bus. All her slams of atheists have built up to the point where I don’t read her any more. Essentialism like that is bullshit and I can’t stand bullshitters. She has the education to know better. Other leaders and media figures are just your usual delusional godbots (yay Steve Harvey is getting his own show!)
The church is a double edged sword for black folks, I agree. AIDS epidemic, down-low culture, being forced in the closet about lgbt AND atheism etc; all to keep this necessary bulwark against white supremacy and systemically racist institutions and structures.
My hope is that as we improve the welfare state in the US, and improve our democracy and institutions to weed out the racists and racism that the necessity for church life in black communities will just go away, so that black folk in the south can be out without losing their community and the community systems they fall back on when the dysfunctional (underfunded) or racist state services won’t help.
It kills me to hear someone obscuring the brutal history of slavery by describing the spread of Africans throughout other countries as a “diaspora,” in which all those Africans maintained a unifying belief in god. Good grief! We’re talking about a diverse collection of people who (voluntarily or not) have largely adopted the particular Christian beliefs of their enslavers.
Hey! Ian has thoughts on this too, so I will link him http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2012/07/20/movie-friday-black-folk-dont-do-atheism/