A few points of conflict with Jackie L's (Eilonnwy) article.

[theVOID]

I'll start fresh with this one.

"While the demographics of atheists have some statistical issues, it is a well known fact that most people who identify as atheist, especially in the US, are white men. While many women and people of color do identify as atheist and that number has been growing, there is still a very large disparity here, especially between white atheists and people of color."

And that likely has something to do with racially disproportionate poverty caused by historical wrongs leading to generally lower education. As for females I can only assume on experience it is because more non-religious females identify as spiritual or something to that effect. That could be completely wrong, however all else being equal I can think of no other reasons that might tip the scales off the top of my head.

discussions is the way we look outward and consider why people of color may not want to abandon religion, or identify as non-religious. One such explanation is that their racial identity is more important than their religious identity, or that religion is tightly associated with their racial identity.

Is that not the fault of the community around this person who may be discriminatory themselves? The reasons why one may not to be a public atheist are the responsibility of white male atheists.

Also, if one thinks that cultural Christianity and atheism are inseparable one need's look no further than Bob Price, the church going atheist who believes Jesus never existed.

However, what I never really see is an inward look as to why people of color may not want to identify as atheist. As stated above, the atheist movement is largely made up of white men. I will go even further and state that they tend to be made up of straight cisgender white men.

That is an 'inward look' that would be futile to anyone but the racial minority.

However it is always important to recognize that there are inherent social privileges and/or disadvantages based on your skin color, gender, sexual orientation, etc.... The concept of social privilege is a complicated one, so I will not delve into a detailed explanation here, but simply link you to pages that very well document white, male, straight, and cisgender privilege.

Sure, I agree all these things exist. Now when are we getting to the part where I am supposedly abusing my privileged?

Christopher Hitchens, a man I tend to admire for his cunning wit in debates with Christians, once made the claim in a debate I attended that women tend to be more religious because they are mothers and will do anything, including pray, to keep their children safe. What may seem like a logical consideration on the face is really sexist at its core. All it does is try to simplify the answer and imply women are not capable of considering religion with reason because they are mothers with a life to worry about.

I don't buy the argument that Hitchens made at all, but...

Women usually are more emotional than men, and men usually are marginally more intelligent, this is confirmed by pretty much all of the largest studies known so while I'm not personally that comfortable with claiming it out loud, it's certainly the best evinced conclusion. If that is the case and religion is more emotional whilst atheism is more intellectual then this could explain some of the stats for racially equal belief stats.

I have seen atheists argue ad nauseum for a woman’s personal responsibility in not getting raped and failing to see how that is victim blaming and contributing to rape culture.

I totally disagree with this sentiment, not only that but I know almost nobody who thinks that a women being provocatively dressed justifies the action in any way at all. I know women who think that the moon causes their period cycles, yet I wouldn't generalize that for a point that women are shit skeptics, which is exactly what you've just done.

Better yet, go find some neo-nazi's. They're largely white men too

Learning when you have done wrong and trying to educate yourself to change certain previously held attitudes is to be encouraged. In fact, I think many atheists encourage that type of behavior in respect to religion, as most are first generation atheists and have undergone a personal transformation when their belief in god and religion changed. Now we need to encourage this type of behavior when it comes to understanding privilege and taking a personal inventory of certain attitudes that have serious social consequences.

I agree.

In an effort to educate myself, I have viewed many statements by atheists on the topic of race and been taken aback at the obvious white privilege dripping from their words.

Do you not feel somewhat cheap in making all these generalizations?

I have seen blatant racism in some instances, and in others I just see someone who doesn’t understand their own privilege and I can see why these people have no idea why what they say is problematic. Yet, their inability to be aware of their own privilege does not excuse them and I look back at these discussions of why the atheist movement lacks more people of color and shake my head in disdain.

So the privilege of person x lowers the chances of person y being an atheist? How so? You've made no connection thus far.

In truth, I have started to become disappointed and disillusioned with the atheist movement. Atheists will decry religious discrimination, as they should, but not recognize that a program to sterilize drug addicts for money is discrimination too.

1) If you expect anything from an atheist movement other that being a movement regarding religion it's no wonder you are disappointed, it would be like showing disappointment when my boat can't drive me home. If you want an anti racist movement then plenty already exist.

2) Discrimination is not always bad. I'll gladly discriminate against drug addicts, and that being as a regular drug user. The line in the sand is pretty damn clear, and when you're putting yourself in that situation where your procreation could lead to a miserable life for a child then it's not unethical to take an incentive to have a vasectomy.

3) Most of these drug addicts are white males

When Bill Maher was criticized for receiving the Richard Dawkin’s Award because of his crazy comments about medicine, he was not taken to task for his extremely misogynistic remarks. In fact, I will often hear atheists pat themselves on the back for being more educated than religious people and then spit out the most vitriolic racist and sexist comments, or make classic derailing arguments, and then wonder why more people of color and women are not atheists.

1) I've heard more Maher jokes against white men than women

2) You're massively (and falsely) generalizing again.

3) People of color or women who don't campaign for religious freedom because of some unrelated comment by proponent y then how are they commendable? If you don't believe in God but won't campaign because of what Maher said, then fuck you.