Whiteness Makes Atheism Easier Than Antiracism

White people’s lived experience in a society rooted in their supremacy means they often aren’t asking the questions that poke at the fabric of their comfort and privilege. They’ve been taught to believe that the good news can exist in the clouds, abstract and ethereal, untouched by the dirt and grit of real struggle. But for people of color, faith has always had to be something concrete, grounded in the raw reality of survival—a God who shows up when the systems fail. Whiteness allows for a faith that can float, disconnected and theoretical, but for the rest of us, faith has always had skin in the game.

When those white-centered, abstract theological frameworks start to crumble, it might feel like the world is falling apart. But in truth, it’s just the end of a particular kind of privilege. Those of us on the underside of religion and democracy have long had to conjure identity and make meaning in spaces that weren’t built for us. We ask the hard questions because we’ve always had to.

A…