Being an atheist in America is tough. Being a black atheist is even tougher. Remember a couple of years back when comedian and self-styled relationship expert Steve Harvey launched into an ignorant diatribe against atheists? I’ll bet his remarks had a familiar sting to the black unbelievers who heard them.
I stumbled across a short article at MadameNoire.com that asks the question “Would you date an atheist?” The writer makes the sad but safe assumption that the vast majority of readers would NOT be atheists. At any rate, this article sparked some fierce debate. The bigots came out of the woodwork (one swore “I wouldn’t even have a cup of coffee with an atheist”). But there were also a few black atheists who left impassioned pleas for the black community to abandon religion and embrace reason.
I’d love to hear from black atheists about their experiences.
Growing up in a household full of Baptists made me feel like an outsider. I’ve been a Black atheist since I was 6-7 years-old, I didn’t tell my guardians that I was atheist until I was grown and out of the home. For a long time, I thought I was the only black atheist until I found out I wasn’t through social media.
I look around and see my relatives and other Blacks holding on to religion so tight, it’s saddening. Telling a religious Black person you don’t believe in god is almost like hanging a death wish above your head. When I came out to my family, my cousins in Cali were shocked and they added me on Facebook just to tell me how wrong I am. Every day, I get text messages filled with bible scriptures from them. We don’t talk much because they won’t let the bible go. They treat me differently now and you know what? I couldn’t care less. It’s my life and I can believe or not believe in whatever I want.
Being a Black atheist has caused me to lose friends; some were even beaten. I lost an Aunt who was an atheist, she lived down South and word got around that she was an atheist and she was murdered.
It’s harder for us because Blacks feel they have more to lose, and that all hope is lost if they don’t believe in a higher power. If they knew their history, and read that book they have clinched so close to their hearts, they would be a lot more Black atheists than it is.
-Lee (www.facebook.com/BlackAtheists)