I live in a bubble. It’s called San Francisco.
It’s lovely here. Just don’t come visit in the summer and expect “California weather.” You’ll be sorely disappointed.
I moved here from New York City. I grew up surrounded by cultures and faces and races different than my own, but because I was never taught that these cultures, faces or races should be looked down on; instead understood, accepted and celebrated, they became part of my own culture – one where I seek out and crave diversity. No one wants to have the vanilla ice cream for dessert every night…right?
My background has made me a strong and unapologetic feminist and atheist. And I’m left bewildered when I hear questions to the tune of “Why is there a Black History Month when there’s no White History Month?” “Why is there no Men’s History Month when there’s a Women’s History Month?” “Why do we need feminism?”
“Why create separate secular groups, can’t we all just be Humanists? Isn’t that just creating more division?”
To quote Lindy West at Jezebel.com:
“I wish, more than anything, that I could just be a ‘humanist.’ Oh, man, that would be amazing! Because that would mean that we lived in a magical world where all humans were born on equal footing, and maybe I could live in a house shaped like a big mushroom and birds would help me get dressed or something. Humanism is a gorgeous dream, and something to strive for. In fact, it is the exact thing that feminism is striving for right now (and has been working on for decades)! Yay, feminism!
“Unfortunately, the reason that ‘fem’ is a part of the word “feminism” is that the world is not, currently, an equal, safe, and just place for women (and other groups as well – in its idealized form, intersectional feminism seeks to correct all those imbalances). To remove the gendered implications of the term is to deny that those imbalances exist, and you can’t make problems disappear just by changing ‘feminism’ to ‘humanism’ and declaring the world healed. That won’t work.”
I may live in a bubble where my lifestyle is rarely called into question, but it’s still a big deal to say the “A” word. I’ve lost friends, alienated people – all this in a city where you can walk down the street naked (ok, maybe only on CERTAIN days…)
The Atheist census says that only 25% of Atheists identify as female, 74% male and 1% other. That’s a pretty significant difference. Is it because there are other mountains for us to climb first? Is it because we don’t see enough of our own faces looking back at us, telling us it’s ok to speak out and be heard?
The World English Dictionary defines diversity as
1. The state or quality of being different or varied.
2. A point of difference.
Celebrating diversity is celebrating our differences. It celebrates the variety of ways individual groups help level the playing field so one day we can come together in solidarity, not just as atheists, feminists, gay, straight, black, white…but simply as humans with a rich, exciting and diverse culture.
And that is why the National Atheist Party will be celebrating National Diversity Month by featuring writing and artwork by and about our own diverse crew.
From diversity and reason, unity.
Join us at http://www.usanap.org/...
by Erin Fortes
Deputy VP of PR and Marketing