I’m African-American and I meet with a local atheist meetup group in my area. I feel like a double minority often, because mostly Caucasians come to the meetings. But, I agree–they’re among the most easy going and accepting Caucasians I’ve ever been around.

Now, other minorities do come. We have people who have migrated from India, South America, China, and even an occasional visitor from Iran. But for a long while I was the only black person in our group. One other black person has finally joined our group and she was so excited to find another black person admitting to be an atheist.

Why is it different for blacks? In most ways, it’s not different. We all have the same kind of “coming out” stories, same fears, and same frustrations. The only real difference I suppose is that African-American history is steeped in religion. The Civil Rights movement thrived largely on the sense of community generated by church. And like a meme, church has embedded itself in African-American heritage. So, to be non-religious is frowned upon; to be an atheist is insane.

So, I think that for African-Americans, it’s particularly harder for us to openly embrace skepticism and atheism. Either the culture is too thick with religion for most, and for others, like me, we’re too afraid to come out and call ourselves atheists or skeptics.

After all, “Gawd” was the one who finally set us free from slavery. We owe him the glory, honor, and praise!

See what I mean?

Right here in California, I feel completely safe to be an “out” Jewmanist… but I know that is probably not true everywhere, and I know about the term, “white skin privilege,” that in the United States, anyway, a Caucasian can go into a Hispanic, Asian or African American community and expect to be comfortable, but it’s not necessarily true the other way around. There are a few people of color who come to IIG meetings and CFI-LA, and I hope that number grows.