Daily Pagan News

And the Comments Keep Coming In: for Wade Long (Kenaz Filan)

Responding on G+ to my earlier post on race in modern Paganism and at Pantheacon, Wade Long (who has also offered his thoughts on the Z Budapest flap) opined:

Well, America’s three quarters white, pretty much across the board. When you take into account that paganism in general is most embraced by white liberals, you’re going to HAVE to simply deal with the fact that there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of blacks in the pagan community. It’s not just PantheaCon, either. It’s everywhere.

Wade is offering as the answer what I presented as the question. I asked why it is that contemporary American Paganism is overwhelmingly white, middle-class and liberal he notes that “When you take into account that paganism in general is most embraced by white liberals, you’re going to HAVE to simply deal with the fact that there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of blacks in the pagan community.” Which is rather like answering “why is the sky blue?” with “when you take into account that the sky is blue…”

I also note that Wade’s response (and those of several other commenters) utterly fails to address the comments I posted from several black Pagans as to why they feel uncomfortable in the greater white Pagan community.   One persistent theme among black Pagans was that they feel ignored and marginalized by white Pagans. Given the way their concerns were ignored by many who responded, I think they just may be onto something. 

Then, when you address the fact that most African Americans who do practice magic don’t, for the most part, actually participate much outside their own neighborhoods … well, you just won’t be seeing them going to events like PantheaCon. They’re too busy doing stuff.

Again: WHY don’t they “participate much outside their own neighborhoods”? You are restating the question and presenting it as an answer.  I’d also add that I have some questions about the statistical sampling you used to determine the preferences of “most African Americans who do practice magic.” Especially since you seemed to miss several comments from African American practitioners in the post to which you responded. 

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