This Women of Color Beyond Belief conference looks excellent. I’ve been so disappointed in the atheism movement of late, and and it’s reassuring to see people working to revitalize it with more enlightened perspectives.
Black Nonbelievers, Inc., the Black Skeptics Group and the Women’s Leadership Project are partnering to launch the Women of Color Beyond Belief Conference, scheduled for October 4th-6th, 2019 at the Marriott Midway Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The event will be the first national secular forum exclusively focused on the perspectives of women of color atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and skeptics. The conference will highlight the social justice work of women of color within the secular community and provide an intersectional, feminist vision of leadership and activism in secularism. According to conference organizers Mandisa Thomas, Sikivu Hutchinson and Bria Crutchfield, “The conference aims to create more inclusive opportunities in secular organizing, policy and practice. Although the majority of women of color in the U.S. identify as religious, a growing number are examining and rejecting the fallacies of organized religion. Over the past decade, women of color secularists have challenged mainstream secular leadership, pushing for social, racial, and gender justice against the evangelical, conservative right wing tide. We hope this conference empowers more secular women of color to speak up, understand that there are more of us out here, and become motivated to get involved.”
We’ve had a couple black women show up at a freethought group I attend over the years. One was quite firebrandy as an atheist, in an almost no quarter sense. We’ve had a handful of black men show up too, who come and go intermittently about like everyone else.
Prevalence of religiosity is an issue for any atheist coming out to family and friends. Religion has been an important thing in various black communities. Not sure if urban or rural communities differ. The connection to civil rights is obvious, but so is the advent of Pentacostalism. I think most of my black friends are at least fairly religious, though that’s a limited and skewed sample. One of my closest friends is deeply involved with his mom’s church.
I wonder what difficulties black nonbelievers encounter, not only among family, friends and communities, but also the apparently white male biased demographics of movement atheism. There’s a black atheist group that meets around an hour or so from me. I’ve been curious about attending a meeting, but too lazy to do it so far.
The most religious demographic group in the US is blacks, yet white evangelicals (90% of whom are Trump supporters) don’t welcome and embrace their Christian brothers and sisters. I can’t image why….