White atheists, particularly men, often wonder why atheism gets less traction among African Americans and women. Sikivu Hutchinson explains the reason, and its not good reason: White atheists have a markedly different agenda. They are, on average, more affluent than the general population. Their children don’t attend overcrowded “dropout mills” where they are criminalized, subjected to “drill and kill” curricula and shunted off to prison, subminimum-wage jobs or chronic unemployment. White organizations go to battle over church/state separation and creationism in schools. Religious people, including the Jesuits, have gotten huge and (sometimes) well-deserved props for going into the most deprived schools and inculcating in kids an unparalleled source of pride and achievement, because those kids could say that if they completed the curriculum, that theyd gotten the best education in the world, regardless of their ability to pay. Teach for America is good in some ways, but its flawed, both because its exploitative of students and teachers, and because America isnt secular. Non-believers, why arent atheists and non-theists standing up to provide the kind of unsurpassed free education for all motivated people that our project requires? Im in. Please let me know if youre working on a secular project to give back in this way. I want to be a part of this, but I dont know how to do it.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 02:08:28 +0000
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