ood places to start:
- Race: The Power of An Illusion (California NewsReel): Watching this three part documentary with teachers and/or members of your spiritual community can be a powerful way to begin to understand how racial dominance has been established and maintained in the United States.
- The recent publication “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People about Racism” has been eye-opening in deepening awareness and understanding of impact. In this article, Dr. Robin DiAngelo explains the concept of white fragility and offers wise insights and important guidance for White individuals and White group inquiry.
- You can also find resources, and Dharma-based support for developing a racial awareness program, on the website:whiteawake.org.
Within our Dharma communities valuable resources in inquiring into racism and white dominance include these relevant talks:
- “Beloved Community” Tara Brach (IMCW 6/17/15). In this intimate talk, Tara explores the often hidden expressions of racism that fuel separation and violence, and pathways toward healing and freeing our collective hearts.
- “Exploring Our Belonging and Kinship” Ruth King (IMCW 2/4/15). In this talk Ruth explores the “relative” reality of kinship, compassionately names patterns that harm, and then offers specific mindful exercises that we can use in personal or collective practice to heal and bridge separation.
- “Reclamation of the Sacred” Thanissara (Spirit Rock 5/5/15) This important talk recognizes causes of collective dislocation, naming colonial devastation and ways towards tenderness.
There are many teachers, of all different lineages, who have made offerings of this nature, and whose interviews, articles, books, and/or recorded talks are available online. These include: Larry Yang; Rev angel Kyodo williams; Lama Rod Owens; Gina Sharpe; Arinna Weisman; Jan Willis; Rev. Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, PhD; and others.
Another source of Dharma and ongoing social critique from a Buddhist lens is the Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s online platform:Turning Wheel Media.
A helpful resource from outside the Buddhist tradition is the essay “Not Somewhere Else, But Here” (by Unitarian Universalist minister Dr. Rev. Rebecca Parker).
2. Engage in facilitated group work.
While learning can take place informally, we encourage you to enter into some kind of facilitated group process.
White Affinity groups: We highly recommend that white teachers and practitioners find ways to organize themselves into ongoing learning communities. There is a need for all-white spaces that prioritize our process as we gain new awareness, confront the social training we have received as members of a dominant group, and support one another in our commitment to ongoing inquiry. We encourage you to consider developing and maintaining white affinity groups (self facilitated or facilitated by a trainer you trust), and commit ourselves to this practice as well. Whiteawake.org is a strong support to white affinity group process.
Within our Dharma communities there are talented, committed trainers who integrate various elements of Dharma practice directly into this work.
- Teacher Ruth King offers her “Mindful of Race Retreat: a Stimulus for Social Healing and Leadership” to groups and organizations upon request
- Teacher Arinna Weisman has long served the Dharma community with workshops and teachings that focus on healing the suffering of racial privilege
- Practitioner Eleanor Hancock (primary author of this “Call”) is working in collaboration with teachers and practitioners of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) to bring forward a body of work called White Awake: an integration of mindfulness and white affinity group work
- Teacher Mushim Patricia Ikeda is a diversity consultant and meditation center community coordinator whose clients include Spirit Rock and San Francisco Zen Center
- This list is not exhaustive!
There are many well-established traini
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