Godless Wednesday: NYT Covers Black Irreligiosity

Praise Allah! No less an important media outlet than the New York Times has recognized that African American Atheists exist! SentientMeat brought this article to my attention and suggested it would be a good subject for a Godless Wednesday post. He reads more things than Cactus and Succulent websites after all.

In a piece published this week titled "The Unbelievers" the Paper of Record examines the (ir)religiosity of Black people in this country:

RONNELLE ADAMS came out to his mother twice, first about his homosexuality, then about his atheism.

“My mother is very devout,” said Mr. Adams, 30, a Washington resident who has published an atheist children’s book, “Aching and Praying,” but who in high school considered becoming a Baptist preacher. “She started telling me her issues with homosexuality, which were, of course, Biblical,” he said. “ ‘I just don’t care what the Bible says about that,’ I told her, and she asked why. ‘I don’t believe that stuff anymore.’ It got silent. She was distraught. She told me she was more bothered by that than the revelation I was gay.”

[...]

African-Americans are remarkably religious even for a country known for its faithfulness, as the United States is. According to the Pew Forum 2008 United States Religious Landscape Survey, 88 percent of African-Americans believe in God with absolute certainty, compared with 71 percent of the total population, with more than half attending religious services at least once a week.

[...]

According to Pew, the vast majority of atheists and agnostics are white, including the authors Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens.

Seeking a public intellectual of their own, some black atheists have claimed the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, interpreting his arguments against teaching intelligent design in the classroom to be an endorsement of atheism. But Dr. deGrasse Tyson is loath to be associated with any part of the movement. When contacted last week by e-mail, he noted a Twitter exchange he had in August, in which he told a follower, “Am I an Atheist, you ask? Labels are mentally lazy ways by which people assert they know you without knowing you.”

Methinks Dr. Tyson doth protest too much, don't you? Anyway, it's cool that there are blogs like Godless and Black and Words of Wrath as well as organizations like African Americans for Humanism and facebook pages like Black Atheists of America. Hopefully MadProfessah's Godless Wednesday will join this list of Black Atheist resources.

REPORT: Many Same-Sex Couples Impacted By Immigration Laws

The Williams Institute at UCLA Law School has released a report entitled "Same-Sex Couples and Immigration in the United States" by Craig Konnoth and Gary Gates.

An excerpt from the Executive Summary of the report highlights the fascinating details about the diversity of same-sex couples impacted by unfair immigration laws (and the Defense of Marriage Act) in the United States.

As of 2010,  nearly  79,200 same-sex couples living in the United States include at least one partner who iscurrently not a U.S citizen or was naturalized as a citizen.  Of the nearly 650,000 same-sex couples in the US:
 4.4% or 28,574 are binational couples (one partner is a U.S. citizen and one is not)
 1.8% or 11,442 are dual non-citizen couples
 6.1% or 39,176 are dual citizen couples with at least one naturalized partner 

Under U.S. immigration policy, a citizen may obtain permanent residence for their non-citizen different-sex spouse, and expedited citizenship for a resident, different-sex spouse. Permanent residents may also petition for permanent resident status for their different-sex spouses.   However, these options are not extended to same-sex couples, even if they are married or are in civil unions or registered domestic partnerships.  Currently none of the estimated 40,000 binational and dual non-citizen same-sex couples in US are eligible to use  the immigration mechanisms available to different-sex spouses.


[...]


  Additional findings from the analyses include:

 California ranks first in the total number of binational same-sex couples.  A quarter of them (7,115) live in the state.  California is followed by New York (3,695), Florida (2,545), Texas (1,607), and Illinois (1,596).
 Mexico is the country of birth for a quarter of non-citizens in binational same-sex couples.  Canada, the second highest country of origin, is home to 8% of the non-citizen partners, followed by the United Kingdom at 6%.
 More than two-thirds of binational same-sex couples (69%) are male.
 A third of binational couples (33%) are inter-racial/ethnic.
 Forty-five percent of non-citizens in binational same-sex couples are Latino or Latina, while 14% are Asian/Pacific Islander.  Just over a third (36%) are White.  Among citizens in same-sex binational couples, a third (33%) are Latino or Latina while 54% are White and 7% are Asian/Pacific Islander.  AfricanAmericans comprise just 3% of both groups.
 A quarter of male binational couples and 39% of female binational couples are raising an estimated 17,000 children.  Rates of childrearing are even higher among non-citizen same-sex couples. More than half (52%) of male non-citizen couples and nearly two-thirds (64%) of non-citizen female couples are raising more than 7,700 children.
 Citizens in binational same-sex couples have higher median income levels than their non-citizen partners.  However, the non-citizen partners in binational couples have median incomes that are substantially higher than non-citizens with non-citizen partners.
 Almost two-thirds of binational same-sex couples own their home.  They are more than twice as likely to be home owners as dual non-citizen same-sex couples (30%).
 The vast majority of same-sex partners in binational couples speak English “well” or “very well”.   Among citizens in binational couples, 93% report a very good command of English compared to 81% of their non-citizen partners.
 More than 40% of citizens and non-citizens in same-sex binational couples have a college degree.
 Non-citizens in binational same-sex couples evidence low rates of unemployment at just 2%.  Nearly 8% of citizens in binational same-sex couples say they are unemployed.  

Immigration Equality is the premier national LGBT organization advocating for and assisting same-sex couples impacted by federal immigration policies. (MadProfessah has served on the board of the organization since November 2008).

Interestingly, the estimate of 28,574 is more precise but also smaller than the previous estimate of 36,000 binational couples in the United States but the 40,016 couples who are negatively impacted by current immigration law is slightly higher. MadProfessah is a naturalized citizen from the island-nation of Grenada, and Sentient Meat is a "natural born citizen" so we would be classified in the 6.1% of all U.S. same-sex couples who are both citizens where one partner is naturalized.

MAP: Which States Spend/Cost Federal Tax Money

From Matt Yglesias by way of The Economist here is an interesting graphic showing how much money each state in the Union gives or gets (federal taxes minus federal spending) as a percentage surplus or deficit.

MAP: Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Discrimination in U.S.

This map is what the state of play in sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in employment looks like in the various states as of March 2011. There are 29 states that have no protections for LGBT people in employment in any way (so your boss can say, "I'm firing you because you're a fag!") and you have no recourse what so ever.

As of July 6th, there are now 15 states which ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and there are 21 which ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity (all the states which ban gender identity discrimination also ban sexual orientation discrimination). The six states which do not overlap are: New York, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland and Delaware. (One should note that 3 of these 6 states have already enacted marriage equality!) Wisconsin is  ahead scratcher because they passed sexual orientation non-discrimination way back in 1982, the first state in the country to do so. There was gender identity nondiscrimination legislation pending  in New York and Maryland which died when those legislative sessions ended this Spring.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would prohibit employment discrimination nationwide on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Significantly, A version of ENDA (without gender identity protection, thus some people called it "SplENDA") passed the U.S. House under Democratic control in 2007 but failed to be brought up for a vote in the 2009-2001 111th Congress. With Republicans in majority control of the U.S. House it is very doubtful that ENDA will pass that body in the 2011-2013 112th Congress.

US Applies Crack Sentencing Reform Retroactively

News you might have missed over the weekend: The U.S. Sentencing Commission has decided (unanimously!) to follow the lead of Congressional action in reducing the penalty disparity between powder cocaine and crack cocaine from 100:1 to 18:1 (still not what it should be which is 1:1) and apply these lesser penalties retroactively to (primarily Black and Brown) people who are currently serving excessive time in jail for crimes involving crack:

The Los Angeles Times has the story:

About 12,000 federal prisoners nationwide may soon be going home, some as much as three years early, under a U.S. Sentencing Commission decision to allow retroactive reductions in prison terms for inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses.
The commission voted unanimously Thursday to bring "unfairly long sentences" for crack offenders, mostly African Americans, more in line with the shorter terms given to powder cocaine offenders, often white and sometimes affluent.

Patti B. Saris, the panel's chairwoman, said that when Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act last year, it "recognized the fundamental unfairness of federal cocaine sentencing policy," and the commission sought to bridge the disparity between the two prison sentences.
"Justice demands this result," added Ketanji Brown Jackson, the commission's vice chairman.
When the reductions go into effect in November, the average crack sentence will be cut by about 37 months, and the federal Bureau of Prisoners said the reductions could save more than $200 million in the next five years. Nearly 6% of the federal inmate population would be released.
The reductions are not automatic. Prisoners must file a petition, and will be required to show they are no longer a risk to society. Inmates who used weapons in their crimes or have lengthy criminal histories may not be eligible.
The commission's mail, about 43,500 letters and emails, ran overwhelmingly in favor of the reductions. The Sentencing Project, a Washington group that pushes for reform in sentencing laws, also strongly encouraged approval of the reductions.
Kara Gotsch, director of advocacy for the Sentencing Project, said the panel's vote "confirms that fairness and equal treatment under the law are fundamental principles of our criminal justice system."
But Republicans, most notably Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, opposed the reductions. He had lobbied the commission not to grant the early releases, warning it "merely gets criminals back into action faster."

Good ol' boy Lamar Smith of Texas, always willing to stand up and demonstrate why people should never vote for Republicans. Thanks!

The main take-away is that this move is a move in the right direction towards adding some sanity to what is our insane "War on drugs" public policy.