Things I Learned From the Reason Rally
June 7, 2016
by Callie Wright
The Reason Rally was probably my most anticipated event of 2016. I knew that of all the people I’ve come to consider family in this movement, this would probably be the largest concentration of them. See, that’s what these gatherings are really about for me. I remember very little of what any of the speakers said. I’m not actually sure I could name more than 3 or 4 of the speakers off the top of my head. That’s not to belittle the importance of the people speaking or the words they spoke. For me, these gatherings are about family and community. And it’s for that reason that The Reason Rally was a smashing success in my view.
My friend Eli Bosnick, and my friend and podcast co-host Ari Stillman both posted on Facebook a list of things they learned at The Reason Rally, so I’m compiling my own list here (with credit to both of them for giving me the idea). Their lists were mostly funny or heartfelt, and anyone who knows me will expect the funny and heartfelt stuff (of which there is plenty). But there are also some pretty ugly things I learned, and I want those to be out there as well.
First for the not so fun stuff. I’ll get that out of the way before I gush.
I learned that there are still plenty of atheists who think our movement is equivalent in scope and urgency as the black civil rights movement of the 60’s. Ummm…it isn’t. I heard a few of the speakers paraphrase Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech. One of the speakers even appropriated the term “I have a dream…” over and over again to speak about issues pertinent to secular activism. I found this tone deaf and wholly inappropriate. The black civil rights movement was about fighting the systemic use of power to deny black Americans their freedom, their autonomy, their livelihoods, and their very lives. Issues of church/state separation and secular governance are most certainly important, but they are NOT as vital and urgent as the problems the civil rights movement of the 60’s was trying to address. We would all do ourselves a favor by stopping these comparisons and pursuing our goals on their own (plentiful) merits.
I learned that far too many atheists think that secular and atheist activism is enough on its own to address all the social ills of our time. As my friend Sincere Kirabo said in an interview on my podcast, atheist activism is indeed a species of social justice activism, but we are fooling ourselves if we think atheism is a panacea for racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny and the like. I believe with all my heart that a secular worldview is the one most conducive to fighting these problems, but it’s quite obvious that is not a foregone conclusion. The ugliness surrounding the Reason Rally’s very reasonable and near boilerplate anti-harassment policy taught me that this movement is not entirely for me or people like me.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thegaytheistmanifesto/2016/06/things-i-learned-from-the-reason-rally/