Atheism and racism

There is a significant amount of racism within the atheist population (see: East Asia, China, atheism and racism and Western atheism and race).

Below are resources on atheism and racism.

## Contents

* 1 East Asia, China, atheism and racism
* 1.1 China and racism
* 1.2 Racism in East Asia
* 2 Western atheism and race
* 2.1 Token efforts to extend racial minorities leadership positions in Western atheist organizations
* 2.2 Sikivu Hutchinson's criticism of Richard Dawkins Foundation and Center for Inquiry merger
* 2.3 Atheist organizations: Focus on church-state/creationism issues - minority poor largely ignored
* 2.4 Charles Lee Smith
* 3 Black atheism
* 4 Brazilian atheism
* 5 Atheism/Latino Americans and religiosity and Latino culture
* 6 Cultural diversity of the atheist population
* 6.1 Lack of significant global outreach by atheists
* 7 Evolutionary racism
* 8 Poor international cooperation among atheists
* 9 Creativity Movement
* 9.1 Founding
* 10 See also
* 11 References

## East Asia, China, atheism and racism[edit]

See also: East Asia, China, atheism and racism and China and atheism and Asian atheism

China has the largest atheist population in the world.[1]

China has the world's largest atheist population.[2][3] China has state atheism (see: China and atheism).

East Asia contains about 25 percent of the world’s population. China’s population represents 20 percent of the people on earth.[4]

Razib Khan points out in Discover Magazine, "most secular nations in the world are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed “Confucian societies.” It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s atheists are actually East Asian."[5] See: Asian atheism and Global atheism

### China and racism[edit]

See also: Atheistic China and racism and Black atheism

Leroy Adams writes in an article entitled What is it like to be Black in China?:

“  |  China is a country plagued by racism.

To be Black or African in China is to be labeled unintelligent, dangerous, unattractive, or to see an empty seat next to you on a crowded subway.[6]

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Mao Zedong

Barry Sautman published via the Cambridge University Press about racism in post Mao Zedong China:

“  |  Expressions of anti-black sentiment by Chinese students have caught the world's attention periodically since the end of the 1970s. Demonstrations against African students in Nanjing and other cities between late 1988 and early 1989 received wide press coverage. Because the African population in China is small and transient, some observers saw these events as a manifestation of a vestigial xenophobia, not as part of a developing trend of thought within a key segment of Chinese society. Placed next to the brutal ethnic conflicts that plague much of the world, the episodic, non-lethal incidents in China seemed evanescent, with only fleeting implications for China's foreign policy.[7] |  ”

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An article entitled Racism in China declares:

“  |  The Han Chinese have traditionally considered themselves more advanced and civilized than other ethnic groups in China. In the imperial era, this was almost state policy. The sentiment continues today even though laws have been enacted to protect minorities, racism is officially condemned and Chinese multi-ethnicity is celebrated in propaganda. In recent years assimilation has been encouraged, particularly in Tibet and Xinjiang, whose ethnic groups are regarded as a threat.

The Chinese have many prejudiced views about race, gender and nationality. Chinese often have no compunctions about directly mocking ethnic minorities, and there sometimes seems to be a prevailing belief that anything non-Chinese is primitive.

Throughout most of their history, the Chinese have regarded anyone who lives outside of China as a savage or a barbarian. Europeans, for example, were thought to have more hair than monkeys, larger noses than anteaters and a smell more awful than dead bodies. The Chinese believed some white people tied themselves together to keep from being snatched away by eagles and other had holes in chests so the they could be carried by poles. According to one account some towns in Europe were composed entirely of women who became pregnant by staring at their shadows.

Chinese have also been victims of racism. In World War II, Chinese-Americans were not allowed to become pilots because it was believed that their slanted eyes prevented them from seeing well enough to fly a plane.[8]

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The Internations organization website declares concerning racism in China:

“  |  When it comes to foreign nations against which racism in China exists, the Japanese are particularly disliked. The use of slurs, such as “little Japanese” and even “Japanese devils”, is fairly common. The two countries’ bloody history — particularly Japan’s occupation of China and the atrocities against Chinese citizens during World War II — is neither forgotten nor forgiven. According to a BBC World Service poll, nine out of ten Chinese think negatively of their island neighbors.

Black people are often regarded suspiciously, too, and considered as all coming from Africa, regardless of their actual origin. In a society where light skin is still deemed desirable and seen as a sign of fortune, darker skin is often associated with less favorable traits. There have, for instance, been reports of African-American English teachers (and thus native speakers) being turned down in favor of white English teachers with non-native language skills.

China’s economic investment in a number of African countries may well have helped to create the prejudice that all Africans are poor and profiting from money that should rather be invested at home, thus fostering racism in China. In Guangzhou, where a large number of Africans have settled over the last few years, racial tensions have been particularly high.

Typically, however, racism in China is more common in remote areas than in the big cities with a large number of foreign residents. China’s long isolation from the rest of the world has also helped to foster stereotypes.

However, with the opening up of the country and especially the younger generation’s increasing contact with foreign cultures (e.g. basketball is now immensely popular in China), some of these negative stereotypes will hopefully disperse soon. Until then, while discrimination and racism in China do prevail, they are at least non-violent in the vast majority of cases.[9]

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### Racism in East Asia[edit]

* Race and Racism in Modern East Asia (Brill's Series on Modern East Asia in a Global Historical Perspective, Volume: 1), Editors: Rotem Kowner and Walter Demel

## Western atheism and race[edit]

See also: Western atheism and race

The atheist and evolutionist PZ Myers giving a presentation to a group that is likely largely made up of white males.[10][11][12] In June 2010, PZ Myers commented that atheist meetings tend to be significantly more attended by males.[13]

In 2015, BloombergView reported concerning the United States:

“  |  According to a much-discussed 2012 report from the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life, only 3 percent of U.S. atheists and agnostics are black, 6 percent are Hispanic, and 4 percent are Asian. Some 82 percent are white. (The relevant figures for the population at large at the time of the survey were 66 percent white, 11 percent black, 15 percent Hispanic, 5 percent Asian.)

...Craig Keener, in his huge review of claims of miracles in a wide variety of cultures, concludes that routine rejection of the possibility of the supernatural represents an impulse that is deeply Eurocentric.[14]

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Craig Cobb, a leader in the atheistic Creativity Movement, stated: "I don't understand Christians. They have a need to be morally superior than the next guy. ... They are very threatened by anything with racial cohesion."[15]

See also: European desecularization in the 21st century

In the United States, blacks have the highest rate of religiosity.[16] Among Hispanics, religion has traditionally played a significant role in daily activity.[17]

At the same time, due to immigration, Europe is expected to become more desecularized in the 21st century (See also: Global atheism and Atheist population).

The atheist Sikivu Hutchinson declared “If mainstream freethought and humanism continue to reflect the narrow cultural interests of white elites who have disposable income to go to conferences then the secular movement is destined to remain marginal and insular.”[18]

The atheist community has not had significant outreach to racial minorities within the Western World whereas Christians have done this (particularly among the poor).[19] See also: Atheism and uncharitableness

Sikivu Hutchinson speaking ath the Center for Inquiry.

In 2010, an atheists' conference was organized in the United States concerning the future direction of the atheist movement and 370 people attended. The conference, sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism, drew members from all the major atheist organizationsin the United States. The New York Times described the attendees as "The largely white and male crowd — imagine a Star Trek convention, but older..."[20]

Survey data and website tracking data of prominent atheists' websites indicate that in the Western World, atheism appears to be significantly less appealing to women.[12][21][22] These findings suggest that the atheist movement in the Western world and the New Atheism movement are significantly more appealing to white males.

In 2011, Beliefnetnews reported concerning the race and gender of American atheists:

“  |  From the smallest local meetings to the largest conferences, the vast majority of speakers and attendees are almost always white men. Leading figures of the atheist movement — Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett — are all white men.

But making atheism more diverse is proving to be no easy task.

Surveys suggest most atheists are white men. A recent survey of 4,000 members of the Freedom from Religion Foundation found that 95 percent were white, and men comprised a majority.[23]

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### Token efforts to extend racial minorities leadership positions in Western atheist organizations[edit]

See: Token efforts to extend racial minorities leadership positions in atheist organizations

### Sikivu Hutchinson's criticism of Richard Dawkins Foundation and Center for Inquiry merger[edit]

See: Sikivu Hutchinson's criticism of Richard Dawkins Foundation and Center for Inquiry merger

### Atheist organizations: Focus on church-state/creationism issues - minority poor largely ignored[edit]

See: Atheist organizations: Focus on church-state/creationism issues - minority poor largely ignored

### Charles Lee Smith[edit]

Charles Lee Smith, atheist activist and last American convicted of blasphemy in 1928, was an anti-Semite and white supremacist.

## Black atheism[edit]

See: Black atheism

## Brazilian atheism[edit]

João Carlos Holland de Barcellos sees sperm donation as "an atheist’s way to achieve immortality."[24] These self-hating atheists of Brazil, who are predominantly single women and lesbian couples, order sperm from the United States in order that their offspring might have blonde hair and blue eyes, which they consider to be superior.[24] The United States, however, is one of the most highly religious countries in the industrialized world.

## Atheism/Latino Americans and religiosity and Latino culture[edit]

See: Atheism/Latino Americans and religiosity and Latino culture

## Cultural diversity of the atheist population[edit]

See also: Atheism and diversity and Atheism and white males and Atheism and culture and Evolutionary racism

Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists and agnostics (see also: Causes of evolutionary belief).[25] Charles Darwin's book The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life has been translated into 35 languages.[26]

In terms of its geographic distribution, Christianity is a much more a global religion than most, if not all, religions (See also: Global Christianity).[27][28] The Bible has been translated into 518 languages and 2,798 languages have at least some portion of the Bible.[29]

Collectively speaking, the Christian community has a much greater degree of linguistic and cultural diversity than the atheist community (see also: Atheist community and verbal–linguistic intelligence).

See also:

* Atheist population

* Social Darwinism

### Lack of significant global outreach by atheists[edit]

See: Lack of significant global outreach by atheists

## Evolutionary racism[edit]

See also: Atheism and evolutionary racism and Social effects of the theory of evolution

As noted above, since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists.[25] The errant and ill-founded writings of atheist Charles Darwin (see: religious views of Charles Darwin) ,[30] which became very influential in the late 19th century, provided a pretext for racism.

Evolutionary racism refers to a racist philosophy based on Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory. It assumes that men have continually evolved, and thus some races are more evolved than others. It replaces Christian morality with the atheistic "survival of the fittest" ideology of Social Darwinism.

Charles Darwin wrote in his work The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex:

“  |  At some future period not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes...will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest Allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.[31][32] |  ”

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Charles Darwin

The atheist Ernst Haeckel was a virulent evolutionary racist. The agnostic and staunch evolutionist Stephen Gould admitted the following:

“  |  Haeckel was the chief apostle of evolution in Germany.... His evolutionary racism; his call to the German people for racial purity and unflinching devotion to a "just" state; his belief that harsh, inexorable laws of evolution ruled human civilization and nature alike, conferring upon favored races the right to dominate others; the irrational mysticism that had always stood in strange communion with his brave words about objective science—all contributed to the rise of Nazism.—Stephen J. Gould, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny," Belknap Press: Cambridge MA, 1977, (pp.77-78).[33] |  ”

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When asked in an interview, "If we do not acknowledge some sort of external [standard], what is to prevent us from saying that the Muslim [extremists] aren’t right?", Richard Dawkins replied, "What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question, but whatever [defines morality], it’s not the Bible. If it was, we’d be stoning people for breaking the Sabbath."[34]

The interviewer wrote in response, "I was stupefied. He had readily conceded that his own philosophical position did not offer a rational basis for moral judgments. His intellectual honesty was refreshing, if somewhat disturbing on this point."[34]

Evolutionary racism still exist today. For example, evolutionary racism was recently directed at Michelle Obama.[35] The historic taint of white evolutionary racism within the white atheist community no doubt has been a factor which has hindered the adoption of atheism in the Western World among racial minorities. Leading creation science organizations such as Creation Ministries International, Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research commonly point out the evolutionary racism that has existed within the evolutionary community.[36][37][38][39]

## Poor international cooperation among atheists[edit]

See also: Atheism and international cooperation among atheists

In recent years, international cooperation among atheists has been low (see: Atheism and international cooperation among atheists).

## Creativity Movement[edit]

See also: Creativity Movement

The Creativity Movement, formerly known as the World Church Of The Creator, is an atheistic white supremacist organization.[40][41][42] The movement has denounced Christianity,[41] and purports to promote love for all of mankind.[43] It denounces religion for bringing horror into the world by dividing the white race.[41] Adherents of the Creativity Movement are evolutionists.[44]

Ben Klassen, the founder of the Creativity Movement, described the organizational structure of the movement as "monolithic and... authoritarian".[45][46]

### Founding[edit]

The Creativity Movement was founded in 1973 by Ben Klassen. He founded it as "white racial religion" which seeks to unite whites in a common religion. He described it as an atheistic religion, in which white people are the supreme race.

## See also[edit]

* Atheism, race and gender
* Atheism and diversity
* Atheism and its anti-civilizational effects

## References[edit]

1. ↑
* Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics (Zuckerman, 2005)
* A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live, Washington Post By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey May 23, 2013
2. ↑ Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics (Zuckerman, 2005)
3. ↑ A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live, Washington Post By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey May 23, 2013
4. ↑ The Growth of Christianity in East Asia
5. ↑ Most atheists are not white & other non-fairy tales, Discover magazine
6. ↑ What is it like to be Black in China?, Inkstone News
7. ↑ Anti-Black Racism in Post-Mao China by Barry Sautman, Cambridge University Press
8. ↑ Racism in China
9. ↑ Discrimination and Racism in China, Internations.org website
10. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/us/16beliefs.html?_r=1
11. ↑ http://www.conservapedia.com/Racial_demographics_of_the_Richard_Dawkins'_audience
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 http://www.conservapedia.com/Atheism_appears_to_be_significantly_less_appealing_to_women
13. ↑ http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/06/the_woman_problem.php
14. ↑ The Atheism Gap By Stephen L. Carter, BloombergView, Mar 27, 2015 4:26 PM EDT
15. ↑ Leith, N.D., residents want white supremacist out; he says he is staying. The Grand Forks Herald (August 23, 2013).
16. ↑ Gallup: Blacks Most Religious Group in U.S.
17. ↑ Understanding Hispanic culture
18. ↑ Atheism’s white male problem: A movement needs a moral cause beyond glamorizing disbelief by CJ Werleman, Salon,  October 4, 2014
19. ↑ Atheism has a big race problem that no one’s talking about by Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, Washington Post June 16, 2014
20. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/us/16beliefs.html
21. ↑ http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/reports/NONES_08.pdf
22. ↑ http://www.livescience.com/culture/090227-religion-men-women.html
23. ↑ http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2011/01/atheists-diversity-woes-have-n.php
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Demand for American Sperm Is Skyrocketing in Brazil. The Wall Street Journal.
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 * Dr. Don Batten, A Who’s Who of evolutionists Creation 20(1):32, December 1997.
* Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D.,F.M., Refuting Evolution, Chapter 1, Facts and Bias
26. ↑ Darwin in translation
27. ↑ Many religions heavily concentrated in one or two countries
28. ↑ Christianity in its global context
29. ↑ Bible translations
30. ↑
* http://www.creation.com/content/view/1877
* Barrett, Paul H. Darwin on Man 1974:276
* American Scientist May 1977:323
31. ↑ http://www.aim.org/wls/90/
32. ↑ The Descent of Man, chapter VI
33. ↑ http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/social.html
34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist
35. ↑ https://creation.com/obama-racism-row
36. ↑ https://creation.com/racism-questions-and-answers
37. ↑ http://www.answersingenesis.org/get-answers/topic/racism
38. ↑ https://www.icr.org/article/evolution-modern-racism/
39. ↑ https://www.icr.org/article/ascent-racism/
40. ↑ Contemporary voices of white nationalism in America. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on 2011–03–27. “World Church of the Creator, an organization that espouses an atheistic and white supremacist religious philosophy known as Creativity.”
41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 The new white nationalism in America: its challenge to integration. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on 2011–03–27. “For instance, Ben Klassen, founder of the atheistic World Church of the Creator and the author of The White Man's Bible, discusses Christianity extensively in his writings and denounces religion that has brought untold horror into the world and divided the white race.”
42. ↑ The World's Religions: Continuities and Transformations. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved on 2011–03–27. “A competing atheistic or panthestic white racist movement also appeared, which included the Church of the Creator/ Creativity (Gardell 2003: 129–134).”
43. ↑ Ludwig Feuerbach. The Essence of Christianity. John Chapman. Retrieved on 2011–03–27. “Christ loved men: he wished to bless and unite them all without distinction of sex, age, rank or nationality. Christ is the love of mankind to itself embodied in an image–in accordance with the nature of religion as we have developed it–or contemplated as a person, but a person who (we mean, of course, as a religious object) has only the significance of an image, who is only ideal. For this reason love is pronounced to be the characteristic mark of the disciples.”
44. ↑ What you should know about the Creativity Movement - Creativity Movement website
45. ↑ Ben Klassen PM on Race & Reason - Part 2 of 3 - YouTube video
46. ↑ Tom Metzger's Race & Reason with Ben Klassen PM