In response to certain comments, I twittered a quote from Resist Racism: People of color are not responsible for the education of white people. This quote resonates with me because it conveys the point that if people of privilege want to be educated about racial issues, then there are other (and better) ways to do so without finding a person of color and asking her to set aside a chunk of her life to write up a 30-min summary. One spectacular alternative is self-education. After all, we have ethnic studies for a reason. For Asian American studies, you can check out or order books like the classic Strangers from a Different Shore or the more recently published Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People. For discussion of race issues in the Buddhist community, you might want to flip through the Angry Asian Buddhist Reader (because I must admit my ramblings are neither representative nor coherent). If we are committed to diversity, then we should be committed to educating ourselves and noting the inequities that may very well exist beneath our noses. These disparities aren’t exclusive to Asians or people of color. Gender, class and sexuality are also polarized on scales of privilege—these issues need to be addressed too. I’m not trying to say that I have no responsibility in this discussion; we all must play a part. But shoving the responsibility of one’s education (or ignorance) onto the less privileged is itself a manifestation of this privilege. We can all be better than that.
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Last Obon of the Year!
Gardena Buddhist Church is holding their Obon festival this Saturday and Sunday. It’s the last Obon festival in Southern California for 2009, and your last chance to get out your kachi kachi for Bon Odori!
If you’re in the Bay Area, the Buddhist Church of Oakland is also holding its annual Obon festival! The major bazaar is tomorrow with the memorial and family services on Sunday.
How to Demean an Angry Asian Buddhist
All the way back to the first Angry Asian Buddhist post, I’ve repeatedly noticed certain types of comments meant to stymie discussions of racial marginalization. Fortunately, these people noticed too.
- Derailing for Dummies “A simple step-by-step guide to derailing awkward conversations by dismissing and trivializing your opposition’s perspective and experience.”
- Wite-Magik Attax “A predictable series of non-arguments that attempt to denigrate, negate, or invalidate ideas, feelings, or experience as related by a brown person. These attacks take many forms, and while each person making the attack thinks their (dys)logic to be unerring, they echo timeless and faulty cognitive patterns. These Wite-Magik Attax invariably escalate in intensity, however, the longer the brown person attempts to assert their reality.”
- We heard it before (from Resist racism) “Commonly expressed but boring responses to various posts.”
Not that I haven’t had my share of unjust silencers. (Sorry!) My favorite Buddhist dismissal is, “In the Enlightened mind, there is no race, no Asian, no Black, no White.” Right. Just don’t swim in our pool.
Race as Karma
Over on Drums of Dharma, GK Sandoval discusses topical issues from the perspective of karma.
From a Dharma perspective, it has nothing to do with race or anything else. It all has to do with seeds of karma ripening in this lifetime.
Reading these words, I remember a certain article by David Loy…
The other problem is that karma has long been used to rationalize racism, caste, economic oppression, birth handicaps, and so forth. Taken literally, karma justifies both the authority of political elites, who therefore must deserve their wealth and power, and the subordination of those who have neither. It provides the perfect theodicy: if there is an infallible cause-and-effect relationship between one’s actions and one’s fate, there is no need to work toward social justice, because it’s already built into the moral fabric of the universe. In fact, if there is no undeserved suffering, there is really no evil that we need to struggle against. You were born crippled, or to a poor family? Well, who but you is responsible for that?
But I doubt that Loy’s rhetoric conveys the precise sentiments that GK is trying to promote. A topic worth more discussion, but I’m trying to keep these posts short.
More on Race, Privilege and Prejudice
I really wanted to wait till the end of the week to post a new timeline, but the bloggers are on a roll!
- White privilege and homophobia « My Buddha is pink (Sunday, July 26, 2009) “Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have observed a similar reaction within the Buddhist community, based on cultural and ethnic differences, with reaction to homosexuality and a temple’s gay members.”
- Sanctuary « Resist Racism (Sunday, July 26, 2009) “Awareness of privilege is stepping back and taking a look first.”
- The Larger Context of the Professor Gates Racial Profiling Incident « Asian Nation (Monday, July 27, 2009) “What strikes me the most about not just this particular incident involving Professor Gates, but the reaction of Americans from different racial backgrounds around the country is this: I find it ironic that in general, many (as in a large number but certainly not all) Whites feel unaccustomed and therefore uncomfortable talking about racial issues (this recent article published by the American Psychological Associationsummarizes this tendency among Whites to avoid talking about race very well).”
- introduction to this week’s topic « the buddha is my dj (Monday, July 27, 2009) “Over the next couple of days, I’ll be posting a long, three-part piece on white privilege, the homogenization of Buddhism, why you might care about these issues, and what we can do about it.”
- part one: white privilege « the buddha is my dj (Monday, July 27, 2009) “So before we can even begin to unpack white privilege, we need to understand how race and whiteness work in our culture.”
- Being a Buddhist Convert in Rural America « Progressive Buddhism(Monday, July 27, 2009) “These can certainly be difficult times to be a Buddhist convert in rural America.”
- On race and Buddhism « Resist Racism (Tuesday, July 28, 2009) “Go here.”
- part two: the homogenization of buddhism « the buddha is my dj(Tuesday, July 28, 2009) “But perhaps the best way to understand this is to take a step back away from Buddhism, and even a step back from race, and examine a different homogenization of culture.”
- White Privilege and Buddhism « Sweet the dust, Push the dirt(Tuesday, July 28, 2009) “I can’t say that I agree with everything brought up in various postings but I can say that majority of commentaries provide readers (white or not) with information that is both valuable and relevant to this issue.”
- Some of my background and realizations « The Drums of Dharma(Tuesday, June 28, 2009) “In equanimity, there are no Native Americans, Asians or Caucasians–the enlightenment mind shines on all just like the sun.”
- part three: work to be done « the buddha is my dj (Tuesday, July 28, 2009) “If you’re going to claim an interest in social justice issues and then blindly look the other way when your own, fellow American Buddhists of different colors, genders, or sexual orientations are crying out, are suffering, then you need to question your own motives, your own beliefs, before yelling at me for doing nothing more than pointing out the obvious suffering of others.”
Speaking Buddhism from the Margins
Over at Killing the Buddha, Jeff Wilson provides another perspective on interfaith dialogue in North Carolina. He touches lightly on the timely notions of white privilege and marginalization.
As a non-Christian in a Christian world, learning the Bible is more about just getting by. Stand out too much as a religious “other” in some places, and there can be consequences. It’s a lesson that can come as a shock to a white guy, to follow your wandering soul out beyond the bounds of unacknowledged privilege, until an ugly encounter brings your newly marginal status home at last. You used to get a pass; now you have to learn how to pass, how to dance with partners who don’t know a thing about your religion, and don’t have to.
The article got me thinking about similarities between interfaith dialogue and discussions of race, although this is not the point of the piece. The two have some overlap, but there are very crucial differences. The most obvious contrast being that you can hide your religion, but you can’t hide your race.
Racebending Avatar
Intrigued on by posts on Dharma Folk and on Breathe, I went to learn more about the show Avatar rooted in Asian and Buddhist/Taoist/Confucian themes. I ended up finding a whole ’nother blog spat over the whitewashing of the movie version.
Avatar has been hugely popular among kids of all races. There was no backlash against an all-Asian show. Much as those who watch anime don’t freak out at the paucity of white characters. Yet, somehow the Hollywood producers think the live action version has to be white washed. Except for the villians, of course, it’s okay for them to be brown.
Gene Yang talks about the implications for Asian Americans in a way that’s also applicable to perceptions generated by mainstream American Buddhist media.
But intentionally or not, they are adding another chapter to Hollywood’s long, sordid history of Yellowface. By giving white actors roles that are so obviously Asian – and by stating from the get-go their preference for Caucasians – they tell Asian-Americans that who we are and how we look make us inherently inadequate for American audiences, even in a movie that celebrates our culture.
The truth is, we are not a post-race society, and it isn’t just the ethnicities of African descent that are affected by this fact. The values that have been a part of the past, influence the images that we see today, which in turn influences the values that will be in the future. The effects of racism have been compared to a moving walkway, if we do nothing, it keeps rolling along, and takes us with it.
For more on race and Avatar, you can check out Aang Ain’t White and racebending.com.
Our Continuing Racial Cut and Thrust
I previously posted a timeline of blog posts on C.N. Le’s controversial Asian Nation post, Reflections on a Multiracial Buddhist Retreat. The list goes on. As before, I’ve included the last sentence of each piece.
- A White Buddhist and Privilege « Dharma Folk (Tuesday, July 21, 2009) “Until then, there’s always the Angry Asian Buddhist.”
- Dharma, Race, and White Privilege « Dangerous Harvests(Wednesday, July 22, 2009) “I have more to say about all this, but instead, I want to invite you to reflect on the conversation above, as well as those in the other blogs, and those in your own lives.”
- The Surface of Buddhism: Introduction « Racialicious (Thursday, July 23, 2009) “Let me know when you’re ready to start listening.”
- Exegesis of a White-Privileged Notion « Dharma Folk (Friday, July 24, 2009) “If there’s any conclusion to this ramble, it’s imperative that we question our own assumptions and the conclusions they lead us to, especially on a topic as sticky as race.”
- Privileged, Persnickety Buddhists « Sweep the dust, Push the dirt(Saturday, July 25, 2009) “That is what we are – one big-assed, struggling, North American sangha.”
Let me know if you’ve read other posts on this topic.
What Do You Really Think of Asian Americans?
I just took the Asian Implicit Association Test. It turns out that a whopping 60 percent of the test takers associate European American with “American” and Asian American with “Foreigner.” And you might wonder where Asian American resentment comes from. This test is relevant because many of the bloggers in the recent back-and-forth on race seem to have very solid notions of their egalitarian attitudes. I highly doubt it. If the cultural hegemons want to have an honest dialogue on race in American Buddhism, they will have to acknowledge the possibility that they hold distasteful implicit biases. I would strongly suggest visiting Harvard’s Project Implicitand taking the Asian IAT. First write down what you think your biases are, take the test and then see how they match up. Find out what you really think of Asian Americans. I can tell you that I was surprised.
Racialicious Buddhism
On the race and pop culture blog, Racialicious, guest writer Atlasien kicks off a series on race and Buddhism by discussing Buddhism through the prism of her family history.
The next installment of the series — Is Buddhism the Anti-Islam? — will talk more about cultural Christianity and how Buddhism and Islam are often stereotyped as polar opposites from a culturally Christian perspective. Complicity and Conflict will discuss representations of global power struggles involving Buddhism, including examples in which Buddhism has been complicit in state repression. Yes, I will be touching Tibet, but gingerly, with a ten-foot pole. Converts and Immigrants will outline the sociology and history of Buddhism in the United States, and provide an alternate narrative than the one in which white converts represent the face of modern American Buddhism. I might change the order and add or subtract from the series based on comments and suggestions, so feel free to comment on other issues you want to hear about. I might not have the space to include it, but I’ll probably try.
There’s already nervous sweat on my palms, I can sense the coming storm. It feels as though every time Asian Americans speak out about the complicated issues of race and Buddhism, there’s an instant backlash from self-proclaimed white progressives. A handful of them defend us, but most stand by and watch in silence. I am profoundly grateful to have found Atlasien’s voice, and I look forward to her upcoming pieces.