“Whiteness is a Sankhara”

Racial Justice as Buddhist Practice

Abstract

While confronting whiteness is often seen as the work of progressive social justice, Buddhist practice and philosophy offers a rich framework for, and imperative to do, such work. Methodologically combining ethnographic and philosophical approaches, this paper aims to show both what contemporary Buddhists have done to alleviate the suffering caused by whiteness and what resources the tradition offers for extending such work. It begins by situating Buddhist approaches to “waking up from whiteness” within the larger movement for racial justice within American Buddhism. Next, it shows how the Yogācāra school of Buddhist philosophy provides helpful tools for practitioners in recognizing and being liberated from whiteness, which from the perspective of Yogācāra is a historically conditioned, socially embedded identity structure that has the power to shape our worlds of experience and that can and should be made an object of inquiry, understanding, and relinquishment. Finally, we reflect on the responsibility of Buddhist scholars in Buddhist racial justice work.