Atheism: Living Life Unfettered by Supernaturalism and Groupthink -- Interview With Sikivu Hutchinson

By GRETA CHRISTINA - ALTERNET
Added: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Crapsquire for the link.
http://www.alternet.org/story/140685/atheism:_living_life_unfettered_by_supernaturalism_and_groupthink_--_interview_with_sikivu_hutchinson/?page=entire
The LA Watts-Times article referenced below is available via a link in the article or on the post from May 29 on RDFRS.
http://richarddawkins.net/article,3898,Out-of-the-Closetmdash-Black-Atheists,Sikivu-Hutchinson---LA-Watts-Times
What is it like to be a black atheist?

Obviously, I wouldn't know. But via Friendly Atheist, I recently read a piece by Sikivu Hutchinson for the L.A. Watts Times, titled 'Out of the Closet' -- Black Atheists. (A must-read, by the way.) Her piece focused on one side of this question -- being an atheist in the African American community. But I was curious about the other side: What is it like to be African American in the atheist community?

I don't think this is something atheists talk about enough. We're too willing to let our most prominent leaders and speakers mostly be white; we're critical of the negative effect religion has on communities of color, but we don't look very hard at why the atheist movement is so predominantly white, or what we could be doing to make our movement a safer place to land for people of color who are leaving religion.

So when I read Sikivu's piece, I thought she's be a good person to ask about this stuff. She was kind enough to give me an interview, and we spoke -- well, okay, emailed -- about privilege, the intersection of race and religion, the history of Christianity in African- American culture, what atheism has to contribute to society, and more. Here is that interview.

Greta Christina: In your piece for the L.A. Watts Times, you talked about being an atheist in the black community. Can you tell me a little about the flip side of that? What is it like to be a African- American in the atheist community? Have you encountered much racism? Have you found it to be pretty inclusive? Is it somewhere in between?
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