I have read an excerpt from the book “Birth of a White Nation” by Jacqueline Battalora. This information focuses on the causes and reasoning behind the emergence of white people. Taking the reasons which initiated this insistence that white be supreme, is a powerful beginning to dismantle white privilege in our country.
I am an SGI member practicing Nichiren Buddhism in Aurora, Colorado

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Buddhists for Racial Justice is, indeed, US-centric in focus. Everyone in the leadership is from the United States, and our intention is to build solidarity among US Buddhists with the intention of addressing the issue of racism here in the this country. We recognize that the issues of racism, colonialism, white supremacy and (connected to these things or not) bigotry and oppression extend beyond this country, but find that our work is most effective when focused here. Your comment has helped us realize that we haven’t made the intentional focus on US racism clear on the site. We will be adding language onto the About page (and, possibly, elsewhere) to make this focus clear. Thank you for bringing this lack of clarity to our attention!

We hope that folks in other countries will be inspired to do work similar to ours, in ways that best serve the people of those countries. Perhaps, at some point, we can create an international network of mutual support, if similar projects crop up in other places. If you know of work that is already being done (to build anti-racism/anti-oppression support networks among Buddhists in countries other than the US), we would be happy to learn of these initiatives.

With warmth,
Eleanor, Coordinator, BRJ

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I am both appreciating and agreeing with what Yumi Hatta wrote, above: “I applaud the important efforts of the POC Call to [U.S.] Buddhists. Yet I, too, was puzzled, curious and dismayed — at the lack of acknowledgement of Asian American Buddhists, both long-time practitioners who have faced historical, legalized racism up to and including mass incarceration (during World War II of Japanese and Japanese Americans, the majority of whom were Buddhists), as well as more recent immigrant Buddhist communities who continue to face challenges related to language, cultural barriers and immigration status. As Andrew Merz suggested in his earlier post, clear acknowledgement of these experiences and POC sectors is currently missing.” [end of quote]

It seems to me that this call to action could benefit from the addition of “clear acknowledgment of these [Asian American and more recent immigrant Buddhist] experiences and POC sectors” to be more inclusive, effective and complete, and to model the bridge building that is called for in the Call to Action.

With gratitude to the authors of this Call to Action, and to Andrew Merz, Rev. Bush, and Yumi Hatta, who have engaged with this dialogue thus far,
Mushim Ikeda
Oakland, California

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As Andrew Merz suggested in his earlier post, clear acknowledgement of these experiences and POC sectors is currently missing. I share my thoughts here as a Japanese American whose Buddhist roots reach back to the start of Buddhism in Hawaii (my grandfather served among the first overseas ministers) and as a member of the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, the first Jodo Shinshu temple on the continental US, and home temple of the Buddhist Churches of America.

For a majority of its 117-year old history in the continental US America, the temples and churches affiliated with the Buddhist Churches of America have been mainly ‘ethnic Japanese’ sanghas, having developed, of necessity, as a ‘safe space’ to practice Buddhism as well as ‘be themselves’ (Japanese, Japanese American and Buddhist Americans), in an environment of racism, discrimination, exclusion and internment.

In the past decade or so, some of our temples/churches have slowly become more diverse ethnically, and racially, although there are still few African Americans and Latinos. This is a major organizational challenge which many of us recognize and that is one of the reasons the POC Call to Buddhists caught my personal interest. The issues are complex and require all of us to keep hearts and minds open in keeping with our Buddhist values.

Doctrinally and organizationally, our Pure Land school of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism has been steadfast in upholding the principles of non-discrimination in all aspects of our lives. Scholar Jeff Wilson’s research found that the first same-sex marriage conducted in a Buddhist temple, internationally, took place here at the Buddhist Church of San Francisco, over 40 years ago. This happens to be my temple, and today we are blessed with an active sangha that is becoming more diverse ethnically, racially, and sexual orientation, while at the same time, respecting our Japanese roots, traditions and elders. It IS possible, although by no means is it a smooth ride all the time! This is always a work in progress. We strive to keep it dharma-centered and arefortunate to have an attentive, engaged ministerial team. All are welcome to visit and join us.

The POC Call to Buddhists’ proposals is a promising platform for a new level of dialogue and collaborative practices for deepening our capacity to listen deeply to the Buddha and guide us to act meaningfully with wisdom and compassion. Thank you for this opportunity to share some thoughts,
Gassho/With palms together.

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Simply put, I don’t feel that this call adequately acknowledges the experiences of many Asian American Buddhists and their communities. These communities are so often unacknowledged in all the conversations about so-called “American Buddhism,” conversations that are usually coordinated by organizations and publications led by white convert Buddhists, despite the fact that they communities are the oldest and largest Buddhist communities in the US.

I think a discussion of the racialized experience of POC Buddhists in America should mention the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It should mention the first Buddhist temple on US soil, built by Japanese American Shin Buddhists in 1899 in San Francisco. It should mention the stories of the Asian immigrants who were the first Buddhist teachers in the US.

I believe that working against the effacement and exclusion of Asian American Buddhists, their history, and their present experience, is an essential part of the healing of racism in the American Buddhist mahasangha. Anything else perpetuates the dominant-culture stereotype of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners, still left out of the definition of “American Buddhism” despite two, three, or four generations of being American Buddhists, and still constituting a majority of American Buddhists.

Perhaps there was not room for all of that in this call, but I’d argue that it would have been stronger had the experience of Asian American Buddhists practicing in predominantly Asian American Buddhist communities been specifically acknowledged at least once in this letter. The second paragraph would have been a good place: it mentions POC practitioners who do not identify as Buddhist because they are “cautious of the risks of cultural appropriation”; what about those who might feel that it is their culture that is being appropriated? Several times, this call names the context of “convert” Buddhist institutions or communities, but never that of communities predominantly made up of people born into that community. The language is awkward, and “non-convert” would obviously be problematic terminology; but spelling it out is worth the effort. I have read this call several times now looking for acknowledgment of these communities, but I only find more small generalizations that do not include them.

This call is an opportunity to address this fundamental racialized fissure in the greater Buddhist community in this country—the exclusion of Asian American Buddhists, especially those whose traditions are not meditation-centric, from the popular picture of so-called “American Buddhism” today—but I believe that the fissure must be called out specifically, many times and by many people, for that healing to be possible.

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