If you step into a meditation class
in The United States, the chances are the room will be filled with mostly middle-upper
class white folk. Often however,
the spiritual practice that is being taught has originated in a location with
very few white people. This is obviously not because Caucasians and/or
Americans of European decent are the only ones interested in meditation or
Buddhism. In order to strengthen
our spiritual communities, it behooves us to contemplate the state of our sangha as well as the state of our mind.
First,
let us consider how Buddhism came to America. From the beginning, Buddhist communities were affected and
changed by racism. The first Buddhist temples in the U.S. were Chinese temples
built in San Francisco in the second half of the 19th Century. These
temples were seen as suspect by the dominant white community. These prejudices
were based on ignorance and racial stereotypes. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
as well as the 1924 Immigration Act greatly curtailed emigration from Asian
countries and therefore the growth of Buddhism in the United States.
Furthermore, in an effort to be more accepted as U.S. Citizens many Asian
Americans converted to Christianity. This is especially true of Japanese
Americans during World War II.
Buddhism
began to have a mainstream appeal in the U.S. during the 60s as beat poets and
hippies began to practice the Dharma.
While many young people of color were working hard towards civil rights
in the 60s, many young white people were on a more personal, spiritual
quest. For some it was a passing
phase or just another consciousness-bending experiment but others took it very
seriously. Some of these more
ardent practitioners decided to go to countries like Japan, Thailand, and Tibet
to learn about Buddhism in the countries from which it came. Of these sojourners, most were men and
most were white. These were the people that could afford the privilege of
traveling to another country for an extended amount of time. Some of these men
returned to the U.S. and began to spread the Dharma via a mass media system
that was dominated by white people. In doing so, they became iconic spiritual
leaders. It is important to note that this is not a critique of their intention
or sincerity. Nor does it take away from how hard these practitioners have
worked. However, understanding the
social conditions in which Buddhism and meditation have become popularized in
the United States will help us understand its lack of diversity.
Even though your accommodations at foreign monasteries may be
minimalist and free, it still takes money to get there and back. Racism and
poverty have been inextricably linked in the United States. A white person is
simply more likely to be able to afford such a journey. Furthermore, a white
person may feel safer traveling, even to a non-white country. In her article
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, Peggy McIntosh notes that
part of white privilege is being able to travel alone or with a person of one’s
own race without expecting embarrassment or hostility. In this day and age of terrorism and
racial profiling, travel can be more difficult for people of color. Each year,
many young US citizens travel around the world. Many of them feel it is their
right to do so. Many white spiritual seekers carry with them this same sense of
entitlement. While there is nothing innately wrong with their desires, it
highlights an example of a privilege that should be available to anyone, not
just those with privilege. It is likely that white practitioners have to work
diligently to carve out the time and money to make these opportunities happen.
This does not mitigate the fact that a person of color would likely have to
work harder for the same opportunities.
Another
privilege that whiteness brings is the freedom to choose whether or not to
participate in social justice or anti-racist work. For people of color, the
choice is one of self-preservation and survival. The consequence to this is
that white people have the privilege to be more focused (energetically,
financially, and socially) on themselves and issues of personal significance,
issues such as spiritual growth. White people are more likely to have more time
off and more money to devote to their practice.
Money
is another difficult issue for postmodern American Buddhists. In Buddhist
countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka the culture is oriented towards
supporting spiritual practitioners. People of all sectors of society contribute
greatly to the proliferation and maintenance of Buddhism, similar to the way
Christianity is supported in the U.S.
Without that social or cultural support, Buddhist meditation centers
that are not tied financially or socially to Buddhist countries struggle to
exist. However, the United States is a capitalist country and the market place
has helped Buddhism flourish. Self-help books are among the most widely read
and best selling in the country. Buddhism, especially so-called Vipassana
meditation has, as it has assimilated to the western-conditioned mind, embraced
and integrated both western psychology and economics. Any Barnes and Nobles will have a Buddhism or Self-Help
section with books by Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Susan Salzberg, Thich
Nhat Hahn, Suzuki Roshi and of course The Dalai Lama. The first of these three
authors are arguably the leaders of mainstream American Buddhism. Besides being
best selling authors, all three have founded the countries leading retreat
centers. Despite the fact that the traditions in which they practice come out
of India, Burma and Thailand, all
three are of European decent, all three are white. All three lead several
retreats per year that cost hundreds of dollars per participant. More often
than not, it is white folks who can afford such retreats. It is through their books and retreats
that many U.S. citizens discover Buddhism. It is through their work that the
infrastructure of what is arguably the most popular form of Buddhist meditation
in this country was created. This
poses a conundrum for these Buddhist leaders, a modern-day economic koan if you
will. How does Buddhism survive in a market-based society without excluding
those against whom the market discriminates [read: without excluding poor
people and people of color]?
To
their credit, most major U.S. Buddhist traditions, schools, and retreat centers
have some sort of diversity program. Some offer scholarships to people of
color. A few meditation centers now offer retreats and classes that are exclusively
for people of color. This segregated solution is no doubt important. Meditation
requires, above all, a place in which one feels safe and respected. These
groups offer people of color that safety as well as an opportunity to talk
about issues specific to non-white practitioners. After all, if meditation
brings to the surface our deepest wounds, who can argue against a space for
people of color to heal from the wounds of racism?
However,
this solution does not address why such groups may be necessary in the first
place, or why Buddhist teachers, monks, and authors in the United States are
disproportionately white. For this
we look again at the institutional and systematic underpinnings of racism. The
leaders of many Buddhist retreats are authors. It has always been more
difficult for people of color to publish books, especially if they are not
related to racism or social justice. White privilege comes in the form of white
networks. Most authors get published in the same way many people get jobs:
through personal networking. White people are simply more likely to network
with other white people. Spiritual networks are not so different from any
social network. People tend towards people like themselves. Christians practice
with other Christians and Muslims with Muslims, etc. There are black churches
in the south and white churches in the suburbs. So, Buddhism has a similar
though less acknowledged segregation. These white networks offer not just book
deals, but job positions at retreat centers as well. It is rare to go to a lay
Buddhist retreat and see a person of color on staff.
The
irony is that even though there are many, many Asian-American families still
quietly practicing Buddhism, and even though a white person may still be a
novelty in a Thai monastery, it is this white face that is now the face of
Buddhism in the United States.
Often when the term “American Buddhism” is spoken, it is not referring
to the generations of Asian Americans who have been practicing Buddhism in the
United States. While one cannot argue that spirituality is reserved for white
people, it seems clear that skin color affords one more opportunity for
spiritual development. Combined
with institutional and systematic discrimination within the media and market
systems, people of color seem to have less access to Buddhism classes or
retreats or may simply feel emotionally unsafe in such white-dominated
spaces. Just like in any spiritual
endeavor, there is no singular easy solution to fighting racism. However, in
upcoming articles I hope to explore these themes in greater detail as well as
discuss how white people on the path can be spiritual and social allies for
people of color on the path.
Christopher
Bowers is an MFT intern and writer. He hosts a social blog about white privilege at www.whitepriv.blogspot.com and another blog of his own creative
fiction and non-fiction writing at www.cryingjustbecause.blogspot.com. Feel free to contact him at cjbalive@hotmail.com
