(September 27, 2021 at 2:38 pm)UniverseCaptain Wrote: Wanted to hear some thoughts. As someone from a mixed ancestral background I am more comfortable classing myself ethnically atheist than anything else at this point . Is it allowed though?
I typed atheism as ethnicity in google and scanned this very vaguely (link below), doesn’t seem much else on it though haven’t looked hard
I am starting to suspect atheism is a post post (yes post twice over is deliberate) modern ethnicity, not sure if I’m explaining this right . I have no attachment to other ethnicities or lifestyles so thought I would bring this one up and see if anyone is thinking similar
https://www.convergemedia.org/atheism-new-ethnicity/
Fortunately I can get away with this as my family stupidly made us celebrate two religions growing up and my ancestry is
No.
The older I get, the more it bothers me that humans attach labels to skin color and geography.
Islam is not a religion, Catholicism nor Buddhism are philosophies, Hinduism and Buddhism are not a race, and the biggest flack I get is saying that Jew, is not a race.
Humans, when we are born as babies, none of us can help our genes, or skin tone, or what nation we are born in. But we also grow from babies to adults and migrate and switch one religious/political/geographical location all over the world.
For example, one could not call someone strictly Chinese, if their parents migrated here 40 years ago and were raised in America. You also cannot call Ayaan Hirsi Ali a Muslim, and treat her dark skin as being equal to always being Muslim knowing she is westernized and no longer a Muslim.
Reginald Finley, famously known as "The Infidel Guy" grew up in the Southern Church in America, but is now a black atheist and teacher.
A Phillip Randolph was a 1960s black civil Rights advocate and an atheist who was a huge supporter of Martin Luther King Jr.
Even with Jews, in Penn Jillette in his book "God NO", describes a fan whom after one of his shows, met him back stage and divulged to him that he was no longer a "Jew", and Penn took him to an all night diner and his fan ate a bacon cheeseburger in front of him.
Does racism exist? Yes, of course. Do people judge based on geography, culture, skin color, ethic, absolutely.
There is no such thing as "ethnic" atheist, anymore than "ethnic" Jew. There are white atheists, black atheists and Mexican atheists and I have a Pakistani friend to this day whom is also an atheist. Sammy Davis Jr, if you have not looked him up, was a black Jew.
"Labels" of any kind are 99% about social traditions, what society/parents sell youth, that have little to do with skin tone or geography, and mostly to do with tribalism. It does not mean bigotry and racism do not exist, they most certainly do. It has more to do with our species lacking a bigger picture in the fact we are not a separate species.
