I doubt it's a simple as 'white is right'. Ali doesn't get much play in the states because his left leaning politics is more upfront than his atheism. The same is true of Chomsky so classifies himself as an atheist as well. Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennitt, and Harris put their atheism first in their speaking points and left a lot of the politics ( Hitchen's aside ) by the way side. That makes it a lot easier to link some youtube clips of Hitchens or Dawkins hitting the atheism ball out of the park instead of wading though the mix of religious politics and geo politics that make up a lot of less bombastic, more politically oriented commentators that happen to be atheists as well. Also Hitchens et all mostly come from privileged backgrounds which makes their lives of hitting the speaking circuit, being widely educated and being able to pump out books a lot easier. The racism part mostly comes from the selection, white atheists can afford to be more outspoken and to put out books, while many atheists, even outspoken atheists in other parts of the world don't have the support network or the education background or the finances to be an upfront touring speaker.
The same happened in US history. Many atheists know of Ingersol who probably was the first outspoken traveling speaker for atheism in the US and Mark Twain, the satirist who mocked religion, but when it comes to the nitty gritty of atheism in practice, of seeing people without religion act in supremely moral ways you'd have to turn to the communists and socialists who worked in the South to overturn slavery, segregation, lynching, and Jim Crow laws. They were just as well spoken as Ingersol and immensely moral facing down mobs and gulfs of prejustice. But their atheism was tied to their politics, socialism and communism in this case, which Americans in general and American atheists in particular try to avoid because there is a stigma attached to those political theories.
People here are more concerned with religion than politics and so a figure like Tariq Ali (political) is going to be swept aside in favour of Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens (religious). Personally, I prefer someone who deals with both but has a stronger attraction towards politics, and for me I'm often attracted to someone who is against religious fascism rather than religion per se, like Chris Hedges. Anyway, Tariq Ali seems solid, but I don't know much about him, thanks for pointing him out.
Thing is though, I think secularism/atheism divorced from a larger political context isn't very useful. Any serious headway secularists and atheists have ever made in social/political policy has always been part of a larger political package-- in the 18th and 19th centuries it was Classical Liberalism, in the 20th it was Socialism, Social Democracy and Communism. I think the idea that some atheists have that they're gonna turn this into a civil rights struggle for those who identify as non-religious is nonsense-- it's not gonna happen. Actually, maybe this deserves its own thread.
Topic: Tariq Ali-- where's the love?