OK, I gotta butt in here and say something real quick. This’ll only take a second.

A lot of us have double consciousness on the whole religion question.

Double consciousness is this idea from the black antireligious (probably atheist) badass co-founder of the NAACP W.E.B. Du Bois, who called himself a freethinker, refused to participate in public prayer, and stated: ” I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed. From my 30th year on I have increasingly regarded the church as an institution which defended such evils as slavery, color caste, exploitation of labor and war.”

Here’s the deal with double consciousness: When you’re black, Du Bois wrote in the segregation era of 1903, you’re looking at yourself through the eyes of other people. And the whole problem with this is that the way people see you is simply not — not at all — who you are.

I mean, yeah – that’s what people told you that you were. But it wasn’t who you actually were. You were actually a hell of a lot more than that, according to Du Bois. Black people — first human beings on earth, first great civilizations, rich history, etc….diminished to thinking that they are slaves or second-class citizens. Diminished to bow down to “yessuh” and “yes’m.” Diminished to think that they are scum, that they are naturally violent bums, that they are born with poverty in their DNA, when we — well, the late great Richard Pryor put it as, “We were the kings of the earth.”

Now, you may not be “hotep” enough to jive with all that, but that’s not the point of this post. Keep reading, white people. I’m coming round to you.

What W.E.B. Du Bois said was to get in touch with that — that there was something in us black people that was beautiful drop-dead gorgeous and defiant and beautiful. He opened up a doorway into a new view of our history, giving it some dignity — or at least that was the goal.

And yet, in the midst of this private realization, there is the public realization of who I am — the American context I am striving to get rights in. There is my past, and my heritage, but there is also the current moment, and the two sides inform each other.

And for me, a young black man reading this 1903 essay, this was a revelation. I was not second class. I had a rich history, a rich heritage, a beautiful past I could claim and associate with the history of my skin. Also, I could use my knowledge and confidence from this heritage to craft a black identity in the United States. The two sides informed each other.

As an atheist, though, I’ve run into the same problem. I don’t want to sound like a whiner when I say that people call me names…but people call me names.

And they label me. They tell me I’m a second class citizen in the Bible Belt, that I’m somehow a second-class human being, that if I don’t say I believe a godman rose from a stone-cold grave after he was stone-cold dead 2000 years ago according to some scribblings from who-knows-who, I’m one of the “Unsaved.” An “infidel.”

And they want me to take it. They want me to accept it — and they’re willing, oftentimes, to smile and act nice, as long as I take it and tolerate it.

You may fight it for awhile. You might say that you’re more than that for awhile. You may be insulted and protest for awhile. But sooner or later, you’re supposed to see yourself through their eyes, and Understand.

And then it’s going to be OK. Then you’re going to accept the way they see you, take it into yourself, and live it out. You’ll be satisfied with being a second-class human being, and you won’t make as many waves.

I’m writing that to say this — if it’s gotten to you, I want to remind you that you are not second class. You know this. You know that you come from a history of people who have defied the most powerful religious authorities in history, people who dared to doubt, people who dared to stand up for reason and empathy and dignity in other individuals instead of urging them to bend the knee to a puppet-God controlled by moneyed special interests, politician, and moneygrubbing preachers.

You know this. It’s just hard to remember, sometimes. And it’s oh-so-easy to accept that you’re second class when people smile so brightly when you have the “dignity” to so abase themselves before the “humility” of their turned-up noses.

I’m not saying, you understand, that most Christians are not good people. I honestly think that most people are trying to do the best they can with what they know. The problem is that they don’t know who you are.

But you do. So you don’t have to accept it when they define you as something less. You know who you are, and you can hang your hat on it. And you can let that confidence drive the way you define your outer, public world as you proclaim who you are and live it.

And I’m not just talking about atheists. I’m talking about every single goddamn human being who has ever been said that they are a second class citizen because of their race, their gender, their disability, their bank account, their employment…

Think about your history, your heritage, who you are, who others like you were before you. The courageous line you came from. Not who others think you are — who you know you are.

You can let that confidence allow you to look the public here-and-now full in the goddamn face like you have a fucking right to be here, even if it sends a shockwave through the entirety of your world.

That’s all I’m saying. You don’t have to be restricted to seeing yourself as subservient because of the ignorance of others.

You can use what you know about yourself, your history, and the history of those like you to realize who you are.

Thank you for reading.