It is often difficult and awkward to move disagreements forward to where they become productive in the insular, organized atheist community. Especially for a family that is as actively involved as the Ra family, because a lot of times we know and like and often respect the people involved on a personal level. And to […]
Breaking Love and Reproductive Rights Out of the Christian Frame
I have been pleasantly surprised that the youtube comments on my speech on The Heart of Humanism at The Southern California Secular Humanism Conference are mainly addressing the topic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oJB0bH_1EQ Especially because I addressed how secularists need to examine where their beliefs about love in particular may be influenced by Christian culture such as ideas […]
Giving more than lip service to atheist diversity.
Have atheist of color’s voices been stifled in anyway in our community? Atheism is still predominantly white. In fact, we match the Mormon Church in diversity. Organized atheists can do a better job of giving atheists of color a platform to speak for themselves. There are interesting PoCs out there worth listening to, and they’re not […]
Say it ain’t so Bill Nye! Bill Nye debates Ken Ham.
So Ken Ham won’t debate Aron Ra and PZ Myers because… reasons! He complained that the debate invitation was rude, but look how rude he was to Bill Nye… “Bill Nye still doesn’t understand the difference between historical science and observational science — so he may be known as ‘Bill Nye the science guy’ — […]
Ani DiFranco and white feminist gate-keeping to the point of absurdity.
Of course many white feminists get that advocating for gender equality is valueless if you don’t include equality for people of color too. Supporting women of color is a no brainer. Then there are a few with blind spots, who ostensibly get this idea, but then in practice fail to question their own internalized racist […]
Reaching the choir
Much discussion has focused on bringing women and minority groups into the secular fold. Considering the gender gap in secular communities (these numbers are from America) this is a laudable goal. Conversely, in religious communities there is an inverse relationship in the ratios of women and ethnic minorities. From Protestant communities where there are 8 […]
Asian Cultural Sensitivity 101: Why is Katy Perry’s “Geisha” performance considered racist?
I know no one asked me to weigh in on this, but what the heck. I am the resident East Eurasian here. Seriously though my social media is awash in East Asian outrage and also cultural insensitivity over Perry’s performance yesterday at the AMAs dressed in modified,sexy geisha apparel. There are a number of comments […]
Do we live in a post-racial society in the secular community?
People of Color Beyond Belief is hosting a webcast to debunk the notion that we live in a post-racial society. It is starting right now, and is moderated by Sikivu Hutchinson. The panelists are Kimberly Veal, Black Freethinkers & Black Skeptics Chicago Donald Wright, Houston Black Non-Believers Raina Roades: Black Freethinkers – The RSS Feed & Rhoades to Reality. […]
We finally pulled in to Skepticon
Only to be told we have been bumped from The University Plaza to the Holiday Inn because the event hotel is overbooked. It is 2:00 AM local time here, and Aron is still fussing over his speech about Pterosaurs for tomorrow at 10:00 AM. Normally freethinking events are a respite for me from problems that […]
What Thunderfoot knows about Rape Prevention.
I will be finding out the exact extent of that tomorrow in a discussion with him about his latest video on the Magic Sandwich Show at 2:00 CST. Private discussions with him on all topics related to feminism have been fruitless so far, but as they say hope springs eternal. Hopefully it will do some good.