Comment

Comment by Sentient Biped on Friday

Commentary on the racism of Upper Nazareth's mayor Shimon Gafsou.   In addition to thinking about the issues presented (The mayor wanting to maintain the "Jewish character" of his community), there is the label "racism".  Here we have someone who, to the rest of the world, is the same race as the people he wants to exclude.  And it's "racism".  Sort of like Hutu cs. Tutsi.  I'm not saying that in a lame attempt at humor - it's an analogy.  

I wonder if a better, more accurate word is possible.  I've thought "tribalism" might be the word.  the baggage of the term is different.  Not sure if more or less accurate, and more or less stigmatizing.

Comment by Sentient Biped on March 7, 2013 at 9:49pm

The Good Racist People - By Ta-Nehisi Coates.  Coates always makes me think.

Comment by Harlem Humanists on February 21, 2013 at 2:48pm

2013 NYC Day of Solidarity for Black Non-Believers

The Day of Solidarity for Black Non-Believers (DoS) is held annually on the final weekend in February. Nonbelievers use this day as an opportunity to build genuine communal relationships and launch a wave of activism among non-theists of color. The DoS event is also an effort to bring out closeted nonbelievers and let them know that they are not alone.

 

The event is Free and open to the public.  ALL are Welcome.

 

Rio II Art Gallery

7th Floor (Main Exhibition Space)

583 Riverside Dr.

Harlem, NY 10030

137th Street “City College” Stop on #1 Train

1pm - 4pm

Sunday, Feb’ 24th 2013

Try to RSVP MeeUp CFI-NYC or Richie's List 

 

Light Refreshments and Snacks will be served.

 

Program - 

Ayanna Watson of Black Atheists of America has sparked a project focusing on the diversity of careers within the secular community. The project includes photographic portraits and some personal testimony about work experience, passion and aspiration.

Ayanna will introduce some of the project’s participants. There will be the chance to ask questions and share stories, including your own. 

 

Seon M. Lewis, The Spice Island Atheist and one of the voices of Caribbean Atheists, is a consistent Harlem Community member many of us know from his sharp observations, broad knowledge and warm easygoing style. He recently completed the book “From Mythology to Reality: Moving Beyond Rastafari”. His liberating intellectual journey from theism, through mystical Afrocentrism, to reasoned non-theism is one of following the evidence to where it leads. 

Seon will share how he came to write his book, which challenges  pseudo-history and false assumptions about a vital resistance culture. It also looks at how an inspiring rebel community can fall pray to sexism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia. The way he respectfully engages family and community in a conversation about mythology and fiction vs. reality and facts is an informative one. How to be Afrocentric without drowning in the dogma of Afrocentrism, or any “...ism” including our own, is part of what he’ll share. 

Sponsored by - Center for Inquiry - New York City, Black Atheists of America, African Americans for Humanism, CFI-Harlem & Harlem Humanists.

 

Dinner afterwards at local Restaurant -TBA

 

After Event Entertainment - "The Vagina Monologues"  to benefit 'Sanctuary for Families'.  6pm at All Souls Unitarian Church

E-mail - black(dot)beyond(dot)belief(at)gmail.com for more info and updates. Or call 646-820-CFIH (2344)

Comment by Sentient Biped on November 30, 2012 at 10:09pm

As we try to unravel the tangled web of human ethnicity...  genetic studies show ancestral native americans and ancestral europeans genetically linked due to migration of hunter-gathers in the northern regions.  "Today the hunter-gathering ancestral population of Europe appears to have its closest affinity to people in far Northeastern Siberia and Native Americans."  I know, we are all descended from Africa, but this study is still interesting.

Comment by Grinning Cat on November 6, 2012 at 9:42am

I agree, Natalie! That "Message for White Voters" is great!

Sentient said, "I know race is an artificial construct, and does not exist genetically as a clear categorization, except as what we view in our minds. I think racism is real."

Perhaps there's a parallel there: gods are artificial constructs; theism is real.

Comment by Natalie A Sera on November 6, 2012 at 12:33am

Ruth, I LOVE it!! Especially because Obama actually has just as much white as black ancestry! He's the quintessential American in that way.

Comment by Ruth Anthony-Gardner on November 5, 2012 at 10:55pm

A little presidential race humor.

Comment by The Flying Atheist on October 21, 2012 at 11:33pm

Sentient,

That's an interesting remark you made:  I also think it's easy for a white person, like me, to say race isn't real, but for many people, their race defines many aspects of what happens in their lives.

I think that's very true.  If you are a minority race in any population you will likely be subjected to, unfortunately, not only discrimination but unfair labeling and treatment.  And those experiences definitely define what happens in their lives. 

But I would say that, for example here in the US, race defines Caucasians just as much.  Our majority status and "white privilege" has served us very well.  We've been quite prosperous; often times only because of our race.  That's also quite defining. 

A major problem with "white privilege" is that it has allowed us to ignorantly view race and discrimination as a problem that some minority group needs to solve on their own.  Many white people have not been able to see the subtleties of our everyday privileged advantage.  

Comment by Joan Denoo on October 21, 2012 at 9:56pm

Sentient, it is a fascinating story and one that has so many implications especially about personality development. Romney seems so detached, unable to read his audiences, speaking as if he were a spoiled nine year old at times, and trying to mimic grown-ups who talk at a different cognitive level than he does. Inappropriate, insensitive, arrogant, hubristic. All in all, I find him a most unattractive human being, full of himself.  

Comment by Sentient Biped on October 21, 2012 at 9:40pm

TFA,

I agree with you idealistically.  I know race is an artificial construct, and does not exist genetically as a clear categorization, except as what we view in our minds.  I think racism is real.  How racism can be real, but race not real, is a challenge.  Ethnicity is also real, in the sense that there are many people who have strong identity in their ethnicity.   I also think it's easy for a white person, like me, to say race isn't real, but for many people, their race defines many aspects of what happens in their lives.

*

I don't think we should be voting for someone because they identify as African American (Obama being bicultural, and not with a strong African American heritage) or trying to appeal to a "Hispanic Bloc" as a Hispanic wannabee (Romney's attempt to convince Hispanics hes sort of "one of them" while keeping WASPS comfortable that he's "one of them".)

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