The Color of Disbelief
About the project
The Color of Disbelief is an OnlySky initiative centering Black- and Latino-led research and reporting on these rapidly increasing nonreligious demographics in the US, launched with financial support from Google’s News Equity Fund.
Along with the larger national story, the project will have a special focus on Black and Latino communities in three rapidly secularizing US cities—Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington DC.
In addition to support from the News Equity Fund, significant additional funding is needed to bring this project fully to life.
Help Support this Project
Though nearly one in three US adults now claim ‘no religion’, the nonreligious are subject to deeply-rooted distrust and stigma at the social, professional, and personal levels. Because religion plays a prominent role in African American and Latino cultures, the situation for nonreligious people of color at the intersection of marginalized identities is even more difficult.
The 2020 survey Reality Check: Being Nonreligious in America found that 61% of Latinos and 62% of African Americans report negative experiences within their families for being nonreligious. Both were up to 33% more likely than the general population to screen positive for depression.
To better understand and support these emerging demographics, OnlySky is launching The Color of Disbelief, a news initiative to study the Black and Latino demographics in the US and to amplify the stories of individuals in those communities. Researchers, writers, and reporters on the project include:
- Dr. Juhem Navarro-Rivera, political scientist, Research Director at Socioanalitica Research
- Dr. Anthony Pinn, author and Professor of Religious Studies, Rice University
- Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson, novelist, playwright, and director
- Dr. Adrian Pantoja, Professor in Political Studies and Chicano Studies, Pitzer College
- Dr. Evan Stewart, Asst. Professor of Sociology, U Mass Boston
- Dr. Phil Zuckerman, author and Professor of Secular Studies, Pitzer College
Their work will be supplemented by interviews in Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, rapidly secularizing cities with large Black and Latino populations. People in each of these communities will produce written, audio, and video content exploring the intersection of race, irreligion, and social and family dynamics.
In addition to a planned limited-series podcast featuring the voices of Black and Latino nonbelievers, the project is hosting Pinn Drop with Anthony Pinn, an exploration of the human drive to create, hosted by one of the foremost scholars of the Black nonreligious experience, Dr. Anthony Pinn.