“Isn't atheism a White thing?”: Centering the voices of atheists of color.

Abbott, Douglas A.; Mollen, Debra; Mercier, Caitlin; Anaya, Elyxcus J.; Rukus, Victoria A.

doi:10.1037/cou0000399

Cited by 22 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Thus, based on the identity denial literature and recent qualitative research on the experiences of Black atheists (Abbott et al, 2020), we hypothesized that Black perceivers would perceive Black atheists’ as being less racially identified relative to Black Christians and Black individuals who’s religious affiliation is unknown. Additionally, we explored whether Black perceivers’ own racial identity would moderate this effect.…”

Section: Identity Denialmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You don’t believe in God? You ain’t Black”: Identifying as atheist elicits identity denial from Black ingroup members.

Howard¹,

Kennedy²,

Vine³

2023

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

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Objective: Anecdotal narratives and recent qualitative research with Black atheists document experiences of racial identity denial from the target's perspective. However, no research to date has examined whether Black perceivers perceive Black atheists as being weakly identified with their race. Because belief in God is often inextricably linked with Black racial identity in the Black community, we hypothesized that Black atheists would be perceived as less Black than nonatheists. Method: Black/African American adults (n = 343) were randomly assigned to view one of three Black individual's social networking profiles (i.e., a Christian, an atheist, and religion not explicitly mentioned). After, they reported their perceptions of the targets' perceived racial identity and trustworthiness. Results: Black participants, regardless of how strongly they identified racially, perceived a Black Atheist as less racially identified than a Black Christian or someone whose religious affiliation was unknown. Additionally, a Black atheist was perceived as less trustworthy than a Black Christian. Conclusions: Black atheists experience general anti-atheist bias (e.g., perceived as untrustworthy), as well as unique antiatheist bias in the form of racial identity denial. These findings extend previous research on identity denial and intragroup dynamics and advance our understanding of the relationship between religious identification and racial identity denial within the Black community. Public Significance StatementAnecdotal narratives suggest that atheism in the Black community is something that authentically Black people do not do. The results from this study support that notion by finding that Black people perceive Black atheists as being less racially identified compared to Black people who do not identify as atheists. Black atheists in the United States, who are a minority within a minority, face unique anti-atheist bias due to the intersections of their racial and religious identities.

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Section: Identity Denialmentioning

confidence: 99%

“You don’t believe in God? You ain’t Black”: Identifying as atheist elicits identity denial from Black ingroup members.

Howard¹,

Kennedy²,

Vine³

2023

Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology

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“…However, the relationship between positive outcomes and religiousness may be driven by active participation in a personal belief system, rather than strength of identification alone (Berthold & Ruch, 2014) or social engagement (McCaffree, 2019). Secular community involvement among atheists appears to minimally influence mental health outcomes (Brewster et al, 2019); but, secular involvement may often occur online (Abbott et al, 2020). Perhaps in-person experiences of secular community, particularly in the case of shared natural disasters, may ameliorate distress and foster posttraumatic growth.…”

Section: Integration With Previous Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Non)Religious Coping with a Natural Disaster in a Rural U.S. Community

Abbott

Franks

Cook

et al. 2021

Secularism and Nonreligion

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Much research related to individual coping following human-made and natural disasters suggests religious and spiritual coping is associated with positive outcomes (Aten et al., 2019). The presentation of this positive relationship may erroneously infer that nonreligious individuals' outcomes are negatively impacted by the absence of religious coping. Rather, studies of psychological well-being suggest a curvilinear relationship between (non)religiosity and well-being, such that low, as compared to high, levels of identification with a religious or nonreligious identity are associated with lower well-being (Galen & Kloet, 2011). Studies of the relationship between religiosity and mental health, including in the context of disaster, often exclude participation of nonreligious individuals through omission (Hwang et al., 2011) or utilize measures of religiousness that fail to capture nonreligious people (e.g., atheists, agnostics, religious nones; Cragun et al., 2015). Thus, studies of coping with natural disasters that are inclusive of a wide range of (non)religious orientations and examine differences, if any, among people of varying levels of reli-giousness and spirituality, are needed, a problem the current investigation sought to address. Of note, the terms (non)religious and (non)spiritual are used throughout the manuscript to refer to the full spectrum of systems of belief and nonbelief, ranging from atheism to high religiosity, whereas nonreligious/nonspiritual are used to refer to people without a religious and/or spiritual orientation. Natural Disasters and Trauma Natural disasters are sudden, potentially traumatic, often weather-related events (e.g. tornados, hurricanes) that generally occur locally but require national or international assistance due to the far-reaching impact of the resulting destruction (Kilmer et al., 2019). Much scholarship has focused on the psychological impact of natural disasters and the established link between exposure to disasters and the development of mental health problems, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Goldmann & Galea, 2014). However, a wide range in the prevalence of PTSD rates (i.e., 3% to 60%) after a natural disaster suggests that factors other than mere exposure to the traumatic aspects of a disaster determine whether mental health problems develop (Neria et al., 2008). Many such factors have been identified, including peri-traumatic distress, disruption distress, social support, and coping strategies (Baral & Bhagawati, 2019; McGuire et al., 2018).

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“…This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. research and policy decisions (Abbott et al, 2020). Trainings should also explain how subjective, self-referenced evaluations guided by identity can affect how people perceive acts of alleged workplace discrimination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The expanded EEOC (2021) guidance specific to nonreligious and atheist employees was a good start, but workplace trainings and policy documents should more regularly include examples involving atheist employees. Trainings, and EEOC guidance, should also better account for the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, and religion, as atheists of color are underrepresented in research and policy decisions (Abbott et al, 2020). Trainings should also explain how subjective, self-referenced evaluations guided by identity can affect how people perceive acts of alleged workplace discrimination.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-referencing affects perceptions of workplace discrimination against atheists.

Cantone¹,

Walls²,

Rutter³

2022

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

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The number of self-identified atheists and nonreligious individuals is increasing, yet research examining discrimination toward atheists in the workplace remains rare. The present study expands prior work on religious hostile work environment complaints to one involving an atheist employee alleging discrimination. In the present study, 234 students and community members (gender: 133 women, 93 men, 6 nonbinary/ transgender, 2 unreported; religious status: 126 religiously affiliated; 75 "none"; 10 atheist; 6 agnostic; 17 unreported) were recruited to complete an online legal decision-making study. Participants read the complaint of an atheist employee alleging that an Evangelical Christian supervisor's proselytizing constituted discrimination. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions varying the complainant's gender (male; female) and student status (student; worker) to examine the role of similarity. Participants completed legal measures from both the objective perspective required by the law and their own subjective perspective to examine the role of self-referencing. Participants' subjective ratings of whether the conduct would constitute discrimination if it happened to them generally affected their objective ratings of whether the atheist employee had been discriminated against. Religious status similarity, as well as gender, affected participants' legal ratings. In particular, nonreligious, atheist, and agnostic participants were more likely to see the conduct as discrimination, while Evangelical Christian participants were less likely. Results show that self-referencing and similarity affect how people perceive workplace discrimination faced by atheists. Recommendations for future research and workplace trainings are discussed.

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“Isn't atheism a White thing?”: Centering the voices of atheists of color.

Cited by 22 publications

References 54 publications

“You don’t believe in God? You ain’t Black”: Identifying as atheist elicits identity denial from Black ingroup members.

“You don’t believe in God? You ain’t Black”: Identifying as atheist elicits identity denial from Black ingroup members.

(Non)Religious Coping with a Natural Disaster in a Rural U.S. Community

Self-referencing affects perceptions of workplace discrimination against atheists.

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