























So here it is, as promised -- a list of prominent atheists of color.

And, since it seemed relevant -- here, also, is a list of organizations of atheists of color, and atheist organizations predominantly focused on/ participated in by people of color.

If you're helping to organize an atheist conference, and you want your conference to be more diverse and more reflective of the makeup of the atheist community? If you're an atheist writer or activist, and you want your quotations/ citations/ blogroll/ etc. to be more diverse and more reflective of the makeup of the atheist community? If you're simply part of the atheist community/ movement, and you want to be more familiar with the work of a wider range of atheists, a range that's more diverse and more reflective of the makeup of the atheist community? Hopefully, this list will help.

(Note: In case you're not already aware of it, here, in a similar vein, is a large list of awesome female atheists, compiled by Jen McCreight at BlagHag.)

A couple of quick notes before the list itself. First, and very importantly: This is a work in progress, and I'll be updating it regularly. So please feel free to make suggestions. If there are people who aren't on this list who you think should be, or people who are on the list but you think shouldn't be (because they're not self-acknowledged atheists, for instance) -- or if there's information on the list that's inaccurate or incomplete -- please let me know, either in the comments, or by emailing me at greta (at) gretachristina (dot) com. And if you yourself are on this list and want me to either remove you or correct/ update your information, please let me know.

(Important note: If you make suggestions of people who should be included in this list, please don't just tell me their name! I need their name, the URL for their blog/ website if they have one, and a SHORT list of credentials: books, blogs, publications they write for, achievements, etc. If you only give me their name, I have to do a bunch of Googling and editing, and it'll take longer to get them in.)

Second: This is not intended to be a list of famous atheists of color throughout history. That would certainly be a useful project -- but it's not this project. This is meant to be a list af atheists of color who are alive and active now.

Third: I do not want to get into an argument here about why we need this list, or how we should just be color blind and ignore race altogether. In a perfect world, maybe we wouldn't need it. We don't live in a perfect world. Among other things, well- meaning people can unconsciously perpetuate racial bias without intending to... and we need to take conscious action to counter this unconscious tendency. If you think the atheist movement doesn't need to make a conscious effort to be more inclusive, then please read these pieces:

Getting It Right Early: Why Atheists Need to Act Now on Gender and Race

Race, Gender, and Atheism, Part 2: What We Need To Do -- And Why

And if, after reading those pieces -- not skimming them or reading the titles, but actually reading them -- you still think we don't need to make a conscious effort to be more inclusive of people of color, then please make your arguments ON THOSE POSTS. Not here. Comments here arguing that we don't need this list will be disemvoweled or deleted. This post is for people who will find this list useful and informative, and/or who want to make suggestions about keeping it accurate and up to date.

Finally: Yes, I'm aware of the ironies and potential pitfalls of a white person compiling and publishing this list. Most obviously and most seriously, I know that it's problematic for a white person to be the "gatekeeper" of a list like this. Any time a list like this gets compiled, decisions have to be made about who to include and who not to include... and I get that it's problematic for a white person to be the one making those decisions. If a list like this already existed, compiled by a person of color, I'd just link to it and publicize the hell out it. But I asked a whole bunch of people of all races if they knew of such a list, and nobody did... and the general response was, "Yeah, that'd be useful, someone should really do that, HINT HINT." The general sentiment seemed to be that it would be really, really good for a list like this to exist on the 'Net, and that I should just go ahead and do it already.

So I'm dealing with this potentiall pitfall in two ways. One: When in doubt, I'm erring on the side of inclusion. I did decide against some people whose names had been suggested (mostly bloggers who haven't updated in months, plus some people who don't seem to self-identify as atheist). But for the most part, if I was on the fence about including someone, I went ahead and included them.

Two, and much more importantly: For this post and this post only, I am relinquishing copyright. If you want to copy this list and re-publish it on your own blog or forum or website or whatever -- and you want to add to/ subtract from/ make changes to it as you see fit -- please do so. I'm not only okay with this: I actively encourage it. In fact, if you do so, please tell me about it, and I'll link to your list here.

(Other lists, from people who have taken me up on this offer:

Lists of Atheist/Agnostic Contacts You May Not Have Considered, at The Word Of Me...)

So here it is, as promised -- a list of prominent atheists of color.

INDIVIDUALS

Mina Ahadi, founder of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims (Zentralrat der Ex-Muslime) and the International Committee against Stoning

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Infidel and Nomad, activist, politician, founder of the AHA Foundation

Norm Allen, author of African American Humanism and Black Secular Humanist Thought, editor-in-chief of Human Prospect: A Neo-Humanist Perspective, secretary of Paul Kurtz's Institute for Science and Human Values, former head of African Americans for Humanism

Apanage21, blogger

Maggie Ardiente, director of development and communications, American Humanist Association; editor of Humanist Network News (AHA's weekly e-zine)

Homa Arjomand, coordinator of the International Campaign Against Shari'a Court in Canada

Hector Avalos, Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Iowa State University, speaker/ debater, author of The End of Biblical Studies, Strangers in Our Own Land: Religion in U.S. Latina/o Literature, Se puede saber si Dios existe? [Can One Know if God Exists?], and more

Donald Barbera, author of Black But Not Baptist: Nonbelief and Freethought in the Black Community

Dan Barker, co-president of Freedom From Religion Foundation, author of several books, including Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists and The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God

Jamila Bey, atheist comedian and journalist

Naima Cabelle, atheist activist and member of Washington Area Secular Humanists

Ian Cromwell, musician and blogger, The Crommunist Manifesto

Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, founder, Maharashta Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samitee (Superstition Eradication Committee)

Sanal Edamaruku, author and paranormal investigator, founder-president of Rationalist International, president of the Indian Rationalist Association, creator of The Great Tantra Challenge

Afshin Ellian, columnist for Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad and Elsevier; blogger; poet; law professor at University of Leiden

Mike Estes, Atheist Coalition of San Diego; public speaker

Reginald Finley, founder of Infidel Guy radio show

MercedesDiane Griffin, blogger/ activist

Debbie Goddard, campus outreach coordinator at the Center for Inquiry, speaker, head of African Americans for Humanism

Jacques L. Hamel, Scientific Affairs Officer with United Nations, international science and technology policy expert

Zee Harrison, blogger, Black Woman Thinks

Mark Hatcher, founder of Secular Students at Howard University

Sabri Husibi, speaker, Tulsa Atheist Group

Sikivu Hutchinson, writer and editor, author of Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics and Secular America, editor of BlackFemLens.org, Senior Fellow for the Institute for Humanist Studies

Leo Igwe, International Humanist and Ethical Union, Nigeria

David Ince, a.k.a. Caribatheist, blogger, No Religion Know Reason

JeansTake, video blogger

McKinley Jones, president, Black American Free Thought Association (BAF/TA)

S.T.Joshi, literary critic, novelist; author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong and more; editor of Atheism: A Reader and more

Alix Jules, chair of diversity committee on the Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition for Reason

Kenan Malik, writer, lecturer, blogger, and BBC Radio broadcaster, author of Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy, Strange Fruit: Why Both Sides are Wrong in the Race Debate, and more

Derrick Alaiyo McMahon, gay/ feminist/atheist blogger, The Anti-Intellect Blog

Hemant Mehta, blogger at Friendly Atheist, author of I Sold My Soul on eBay

Ian Andreas Miller, blogger, Diaphanitas

Jeffrey "Atheist Walking" Mitchell, atheist street philosopher and member of Black Skeptics

Micheal Mpagi, blogger, Quitstorm

Maryam Namazie, rights activist, commentator and broadcaster on Iran, rights, cultural relativism, secularism, religion, political Islam and other related topics; spokesperson for the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain

Taslima Nasreen, author and activist

Ramendra Nath, professor and author; head of Department of Philosophy, Patna College, Patna University; author of Why I Am Not a Hindu, Is God Dead?, The Myth of Unity of All Religions, and more

First Nation, blogger, Native Skeptic

Kwadwo Obeng, author, We Are All Africans

Adebowale Ojuro, author of Crisis of Religion

James Onen, radio broadcaster, blogger at Freethought Kampala

Charone Paget, producer/host of LAMBDA Radio Report, WRFG, Atlanta; on leadership team of Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta; founder of Queer and Atheist of Atlanta

Ernest Parker, leader of African Americans for Humanism DC

Anthony Pinn, author of numerous books on humanism, head of Institute for Humanist Studies, Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University

Robin Quivers, radio personality

Bwambale Robert, founder, Kasese Humanist Primary School, Kasese United Humanist Association

Sid Rodrigues, scientist, researcher, organizer of Skeptics in the Pub

Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things and more, activist

Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, Midnight’s Children, Luka and the Fire of Life, Grimus, and more

Amartya Sen, Nobel-prize winning economist

Alom Shaha, science teacher, film-maker, and writer

Ariane Sherine, creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign

Labi Siffre, poet and songwriter

Simon Singh, author, journalist, TV producer, libel reform activist

Greydon Square, atheist rapper and spoken word artist

Wafa Sultan, author and critic of Islam and Islamic theocracy

David Suzuki, scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster; co-founder of the environmentalist David Suzuki Foundation

Red Tani, Filipino Freethinkers

Mandisa Lateefah Thomas, co-founder, Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta

Maria Walters, a.k.a. Masala Skeptic, blogger, Skepchick

Ayanna Watson, founder of Black Atheists of America

Wrath James White, author, blogger at Godless and Black

Clarence Williams, author of Truth

Donald Wright, author of The Only Prayer I'll Ever Pray: Let My People Go

Zhiyah, writer/blogger, The Affirmative Atheist

Indra Zuno, stage/ film/ television actress, Mexico and USA, appeared in "The Virgin of Juarez" and "The Violent Kind"



A note about Neil DeGrasse Tyson: When I was solicitiing suggestions for this list, Neil DeGrasse Tyson's name was brought up several times, by several different people. However, as I understand it, while Tyson calls himself an agnostic and a skeptic, he does not identify as an atheist, and does not want to be associated with the atheist movement. If anyone has current information showing that he does, in fact, identify as an atheist -- and can provide a citation -- I'll happily put him on the list. Until then, I'll respect his right to self-identify as he chooses. (Ditto with Ibn Warraq, who identifies as an agnostic but not an atheist.)

GROUPS/ ORGANIZATIONS/ GROUP BLOGS

African Americans for Humanism

African Americans for Humanism DC

Atheist Association of Uganda

Black American Free Thought Association (BAF/TA)

Black Atheists of America

Black Freethinkers Yahoo Group

Black FreeThinkers social network

Black Freethought discussion group, Atheist Nexus

Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta

Black Skeptics

Buddhiwadi Foundation

Central Council of Ex-Muslims (Zentralrat der Ex-Muslime)

Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain

Filipino Freethinkers

Freethought Kampala

The Grenada Free-thought Community

Harlem Community Center for Inquiry

Hispanic Atheists of all Ethnic Groups

Indian Rationalist Association

Kasese United Humanist Association

Maharashta Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samitee (Superstition Eradication Committee)

Maharashtra Blind faith Eradication Committee, a.k.a. AntiSuperstition.org

Secular Students at Howard University

South African Skeptics

Tarksheel Society (India)

Uganda Humanist Association

I hope people find this helpful. Again, if you have any suggestions for additions or corrections, please let me know: either in the comments, or by emailing me at greta (at) gretachristina (dot) com.