A Black skeptic, humanist activist and author is the guest on the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Freethought Matters” TV show this Sunday.
Sikivu Hutchinson, founder of Black Skeptics Los Angeles, talks on the show about her latest book, Humanists In The Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical. Hutchinson is a novelist, playwright, director and founder of the Women’s Leadership Project, a mentoring and civic engagement program for South Los Angeles’ girls of color. She’s been named 2020 Harvard Humanist Of The Year and will be receiving FFRF’s Freethought Heroine Award at its next national convention. Hutchinson’s many books and plays also include Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and The Values War and White Nights, Black Paradise (about Rev. Jim Jones of Jonestown, Guyana, infamy).
“The traditions of black liberation struggle have been informed by social justice, self-determination with regard to humanist beliefs and humanist movement organizing,” she discusses her new book with “Freethought Matters” co-hosts Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. “For example, we can look at folks like Frederick Douglass and his absolutely unequivocal critique of the hypocrisy of Christian dogma and Christian idolatry when it came to black enslavement and white supremacy. We can look at folks like the organizer A. Phillip Randolph, who all the way back in the 1930s with his seminal journal The Messenger, sponsored this amazing contest called ‘Is Christianity A Menace to the Negro’ — framing that not only in terms of pushing back against white supremacists’ idolatry and its nexus with Christian nationalism, but also looking at it in terms of ways that Black churches siphon critical funds and critical resources and multigenerational wealth from impoverished African-American communities.”
If you don’t live in the quarter-plus of the nation where the show broadcasts on Sunday, you can already catch the interview on FFRF’s YouTube channel. You can also receive notifications when we post new episodes of Freethought Matters by subscribing to FFRF’s YouTube channel.
This is the fall/spring season’s 27th episode of “Freethought Matters,” airing in over a dozen cities on Sunday, Feb. 28.
Coming shows include interviews with Congressional Freethought Caucus member Rep. Jerry McNerney, Indian actor/activist Sushant Singh, and author, atheist and humorist Malachy McCourt, brother of Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes).
“Freethought Matters” airs in:
- Chicago, WPWR-CW (Ch. 50), Sundays at 9 a.m.
- Denver, KWGN-CW (Ch. 2), Sundays at 7 a.m.
- Houston, KUBE-IND (Ch. 57), Sundays at 9 a.m.
- Los Angeles, KCOP-MY (Ch. 13), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Madison, Wis., WISC-TV (Ch. 3), Sundays at 11 p.m.
- Minneapolis, KSTC-IND (Ch. 45), Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
- New York City, WPIX-IND (Ch. 11), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Phoenix, KASW-CW (Ch. 61, or 6 or 1006 for HD), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- Portland, Ore., KRCW-CW (Ch. 32), Sundays at 9 a.m. Comcast channel 703 for High Def, or Channel 3.
- Sacramento, KQCA-MY (Ch. 58), Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
- San Francisco, KICU-IND (Ch. 36), Sundays at 10 a.m.
- Seattle, KONG-IND (Ch. 16 or Ch. 106 on Comcast). Sundays at 8 a.m.
- Washington, D.C., WDCW-CW (Ch. 50 or Ch. 23 or Ch. 3), Sundays at 8 a.m.
Previous guests from the fall season include: pundit Eleanor Clift, whose interview you can watch here, actor and FFRF After-Life Member John de Lancie of “Star Trek” “Q” fame, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Linda Greenhouse, the country’s leading analyst of the U.S. Supreme Court, and legislative stalwart and feminist and civil rights pioneer U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. One of the most eminent public intellectuals in the world, Professor Steven Pinker, was interviewed a few episodes ago talking about his new course on rationality. Legendary TV host, actor and singer John Davidson was the guest in early December. Recently, the show featured Ann Druyan, the co-creator of “Cosmos,” possibly the most acclaimed TV series of all time. A.C. Grayling, a prominent British philosopher and the author of about 30 books, grappled on the show with philosophy and the pandemic, and discussed how he himself dealt as a nonbeliever with a personal tragedy. And a couple of weeks ago, the show interviewed Robert P. Jones, the CEO and founder of Public Religion Research Institute who is an expert on the intersection of religious and racial extremism.
Watch previous seasons here, including interviews with Ron Reagan, Julia Sweeney and Ed Asner, as well as U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus.
Please tune in to “Freethought Matters” . . . because freethought matters.
P.S. Please tune in or record according to the times given above regardless of what is listed in your TV guide (it may be listed simply as “paid programming” or even be misidentified). To set up an automatic weekly recording, try taping manually by time or channel. And spread the word to freethinking friends, family or colleagues about a TV show, finally, that is dedicated to providing programming for freethinkers!
