 |
| Sikivu with Black Skeptics L.A. at CFI-Los Angeles |
By Dr. Kamela
Heyward-Rotimi, Osun State
University, Nigeria
Godless
Americana: Race and Religious Rebels is a pointed and
necessary resource for both public and academic discourses to better understand
the experience of secular people of color forging visibility in the battle of
social justice. Secular activists of
color are rendered invisible and improbable within the community politics of
religious institutions and predominately white humanist and secular
institutions. These institutions
response to secular activism among people of color contributes to an American
consciousness which mythologizes authenticity and denies the complexities of
the human condition. The measure of a
sole authentic story is mired in notions of religious practice, racial
stereotypes, intra-racial conflicts over a recognizable racial self, gender
discrimination, and white privilege.
Hutchinson’s accounts of secular activists catalyzing grassroots
humanist movements’ counters American solace in oppressive definitions of what
a person of color believes.
An accessible analysis, surveys and interviews are
some of the research methods utilized to animate markers of race, identity, and
non-belief. Engaged scholar Sikivu
Hutchinson expertly traverses cultural, religious, gender, and racial landmines
to make visible the experiences of women, high school girls, and men who are,
or, have the potential of becoming secular activists. Historical examples of
early African American freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, and first-hand
accounts of Latina feminist atheists, for example, present a seldom discussed
tradition of people of color and humanism.
Godless Americana queries the
marginality and invisibility of secularists within communities of color and
within mainstream humanist communities by engaging authentic stories of race,
gender, activism, and humanism.
*Now Available on Kindle
