You don’t believe in God? You ain’t Black”

Identifying as atheist elicits identity denial from Black ingroup members

Bibliographic Data

ID12475014
AuthorsSimon Howard (0000-0002-3355-3133, Marquette University, corresponding author), Kalen C Kennedy (0000-0003-1838-3954, Marquette University), Katherine Vine (0000-0002-7923-2968, Marquette University)
Year2021
Volume29
Issue2
Pages202-207
Publication date2021-07-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1099-9809 • E-ISSN: 1939-0106
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/cdp0000397
PMID34291981
OpenAlexW3185321544
LanguageEN
Citations received6

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 anti-atheist 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. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Ain't · Denial · Identity (music · Ingroups and outgroups · Linguistics · Psychoanalysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology