“There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives.”

– Audre Lorde

The weekend of October 11th and 12th marked the first Moving Social Justice Conference presented by People of Color Beyond Faith, a project of Black Skeptics Group. The goal of the conference wasto address issues of social justice from a radical humanist perspective and brought together organizers, activists, community leaders, and thinkers from different walks of life to discuss topics ranging from feminism to the school to prison pipeline. So it was a real departure from the general topics addressed by mainstream secular/ humanists groups that narrowly focus on issues of visibility, anti-theism, and science education. This conference embodied, as Debbie Goddard stated during the conference, that “intersectionality is our lives”. And for those of us who stand at the various intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality those lives are in danger. Those lives face danger from discrimination in education, housing, healthcare, employment, the justice system, and at almost every level of society that is imaginable. The conference did an excellent job at highlighting the need for intersectional analyses in social justice activism as well as in the secular/humanist movement. If you would like more information about the conference and panels I recommend you read Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson’s blog entitled “Radical Humanists in the Hood: Moving Social Justice 2014” and Ian Dodd’s piece over at the Sunday Assemblies Blog.

But what the conference reinforced for me that “being good without god” takes more than words, more than memorizing all the “latin terms for logical fallacies” (Thanks again, Debbie.), and more than listening to speakers with the entire alphabet behind their names assuring us that we are better than those who sit on benches and pews in their houses of worship. Being god with or without god is about what you do. Last Week, on a panel entitled “Captive Bodies: The Sexual Politics of Policing Blackness”, part of a conference entitled “Are The Gods Afraid of Black Sexuality”, I heard Janet Jakobsen, Associate Professor of Sociology, Barnard College, speaking on civil religion and how it relates to the oppression of black bodies. It was a fascinating discussion, but I want to borrow a phrase she used during the discussion that took place after the panelists gave their presentations. Dr. Jakobsen essentially commented that in effect a school to oppressor pipeline exists in addition to school to prison pipeline. Meaning that, in effect the class system offers protection to those of us who participate or are complicit in the violence that the state does to others. So think about the atheist/secular/humanist community, a community that prides itself on being more educated, ethical, and logical. Think about that. And then think about what violence our silence contributes to? And think about what violence some of us support with our voices? We should ask ourselves questions like:

How does scapegoating black churches for homophobia, HIV, teen pregnancy, etc. further marginalize the black community?

How does focusing narrowly on marriage equality marginalize issues related to the hyperpolicing, employment, and housing of persons of color who identify as LGBT ?

How do our conversations about Islam further marginalize Muslims (or those perceived to be Arab or otherwise foreign) by constructing them as the savage other?

How do our assumptions about logic and reason reinforce gender binaries and contribute to gender based violence?

How does narrowly focusing on ridding the school science curriculum of creationism marginalize the education of children in rapidly re-segregating schools or in schools where they are literally being pushed out?

How does focusing on opportunistically attacking religious believers on climate change further entrench opposition to science AND further marginalize issues of environmental justice?

For those who call ourselves humanists these questions should matter. They should haunt us when we complain that atheists need rights in a country where even basic civil and human rights are denied to people based on race, ethnicity, sex, gender and sexual orientation, and immigration status. If these questions don’t bother you or if you think addressing these issues is mission drift- then you cannot be a humanist. How can we be humanists and not care about human lives? Or is this movement about securing more privilege for ourselves? Because while some of us are worried about whether we can get our organization’s papers stamped at the bank by the first notary we encounter or getting secular monuments erected or religious ones removed, some of us are fighting for our very lives.

I want to thank all the brave voices that those of us who attended had the pleasure of hearing. But I especially want to thank Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson for her hard work and vision in organizing this conference. I cannot wait to see what next year’s conference in Houston and future conferences will bring.

Please follow @POCBeyondFaith on twitter and if you would like to view some of the live tweets from the conference you can search for #MovingSocialJustice.

Related articles

On the Streets of America: Human Rights Abuses in Ferguson by Amnesty International

Open Letter to Dave Silverman

We’re not in Kansas Anymore: Attending the Moving Social Justice Conference

Recommended viewing

Captive Bodies: The Sexual Politics of Policing Blackness