#SSJCon: Finding Economic Justice

Stephanie Zvan

This is part of my coverage of the Secular Social Justice Conference this past January in Houston. I raised money to get me to the conference to report out because conferences like these cover topics that are rarely talked about in the movement. I also raised money to get Josiah Mannion to the conference to take photos. You can see his full conference photoset. If you appreciate the work we do, we’re also raising money cover a portion of our costs to do the same for the Women in Secularism conference in September. You’ll find a donation button at the end of this post.

The second session of the day also consisted of two panels. Choosing was so difficult. Josiah took pictures in the “LGBTQ Queer Atheists of Color” session. I covered the economics session, since I felt my background would be more useful here.

Finding Justice in an Economic System that Proclaims Financial Opportunity for All
James T. Jones, Prairie View University
Darrin Johnson, BSLA
Richard Peacock, Orlando Black Non-Believers
Twaunette Sharp, HBN
Cleve Tinsley, IV, Rice U
Moderator: Donald Wright

I’m really glad the conference ran this session. It isn’t a subject we talk about nearly enough. At the same time, I wish the session had been more focused. I understand why it wasn’t. We have to do the introductions first. We have to do a certain amount of 101-level discussion to make sure we understand the problem before we can really talk about solutions. So, really, any frustration I had with this session is really just frustration that we’re this far behind on this topic.

Live tweeters were more evenly split for this set of sessions. You’re really getting just the highlights here, but you can watch the video of the whole session at the bottom of this post.

A good bit of the value of this panel came from panelists discussing their own experiences and barriers to achieving economic justice. I didn’t tweet much of that, because the hashtag trolls were all over this conference. I would have felt like rewarding their honesty with abuse and mockery. I highly recommend watching the video to catch what wasn’t tweeted.

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#SSJCon: Finding Economic Justice

About the author

Stephanie Zvan is one of the hosts for the Minnesota Atheists' radio show and podcast, Atheists Talk. She serves on the board of Secular Woman. She speaks on science and skepticism in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions. Stephanie has been called a science blogger and a sex blogger, but if it means she has to choose just one thing to be or blog about, she's decided she's never going to grow up. In addition to science and sex and the science of sex, you'll find quite a bit of politics here, some economics, a regular short fiction feature, and the occasional bit of concentrated weird. Oh, and arguments. She sometimes indulges in those as well. But I'm sure everything will be just fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
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