Jeffrey followed Mike B.’s presentation of Reverend angel Kyodo williams’ talk on the theme of Practice, Justice, and Social Change with a continued focus on racial justice and the experience of being white. We watched the video Color of Fear, in which a multi-racial group of men confront a white man’s blindness to his own racial identity and its impact on them.
Full Color of Fear Video link (1:20)
Jeffrey’s much shorter edited version. (44 min.)
Rev. Williams states,
“The necessary bias that the [white supremacist] system requires in order to be perpetuated has permeated our sanghas—our spiritual communities—and in this very moment, we are called to put aside business as usual.”
https://library.angelkyodowilliams.com/social-justice-buddhism-excerpt-from-radical-dharma-w-omega/
Williams believes that one cannot get Awakened without getting “Woke”, that is, understanding the social and historical roots and mechanisms of white supremacy.
How do we Get Woke around the ways that white supremacy conditions, infects, permeates our practices, structure, ways of understanding, ways of communicating here, in this place? This space, this sangha?
Discussion largely centered around the video.
More Resources
- NYT article on reparations (from Ginny)
- Reminder: Mike B. posted Essex teen Tilly Krishna’s 30-Day calendar of personal acts of anti-racism
- Dismantling Racism article (from Ginny) (Jeffrey: I just read this, it’s amazing! Highly relevant to the challenge implied in Rev. Williams’s quote above)
Burlington Buddhist Sangha 