“Whiteness is a Sankhara”: Racial Justice as Buddhist Practice

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Buddhist practice and philosophy supplies both a framework and a moral demand for confronting whiteness.

“Buddhist practice and philosophy offers a rich framework for, and imperative to do, such work.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Whiteness can become something to investigate, comprehend, and let go.

“that can and should be made an object of inquiry, understanding, and relinquishment.”

It may state two separate claims as one.

Efforts to confront racism and white privilege among predominantly white convert lineages have continued for over thirty years and include People of Colour affinity groups, retreats, and diversity training.

“Attempts to address racism and white privilege in majority white convert lineages are over three decades long and include numerous initiatives ranging from the formation of People of Colour (PoC) affinity sitting groups and retreats to institutions implementing diversity, inclusivity, and equity training for teachers and staff.”

• cites [2]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Many American Buddhist convert practitioners and teachers increasingly treat racial justice as Buddhist practice, as symbolized by Buddhadharma's 2016 issue.

“Buddhadharma's 2016 issue symbolizes the increasing embrace of racial justice as a Buddhist practice by many American Buddhist convert practitioners and teachers.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

From a Yogācāra standpoint, whiteness is an identity structure shaped by history and embedded in society.

“which from the perspective of Yogācāra is a historically conditioned, socially embedded identity structure”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Racism is often invisible to white practitioners, who need to awaken to their racialized identities.

“Charles Johnson, noted that racism was often invisible to white practitioners and called on them to awaken to their white racialized identities.”

• cites [5]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.

Scholars have rightly sought to learn histories, languages, and intertextual contexts to understand early Yogācāra texts at their origin.

“Anglophone and other contemporary Buddhist Studies scholars located in the west have sought to learn the histories, languages, and intertextual conceptual contexts that allow us to understand these texts at their points of origin.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

The Black Lives Matter movement amplified and extended those racial justice initiatives.

“Such initiatives have been amplified and extended due to the wider cultural impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, which began in 2012.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

The field of Buddhist studies has always participated in constructing the object it studies.

“Buddhist studies as a field has always been involved in the construction of its object of study”

Probably not a substantial claim.

Scholars distinguish whiteness as a social practice from white-skinned people.

“Scholars distinguish between whiteness as a social practice and white-skinned people.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Contemporary Yogācāra studies have neglected attending to these texts' presence to our own subjectivities.

“The present interpretation of important early Yogācāra ideas emphasizes, in particular, the necessity of attending to these texts' presences to our own subjectivities, for we believe this has been neglected in contemporary studies of Yogācāra thought.”

It may state two separate claims as one.

Whiteness has been around for more than three centuries and has shaped law, politics, economics, and society in the United States and, through colonialism, worldwide.

“It has existed for over three hundred years, and has had a formative influence on the legal, political, economic, and social landscapes of the United States and, via colonization, the globe.”

• cites [52]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.

Han recovers erased communities by presenting many young Asian American Buddhist voices.

“Chenxing Han explodes Orientalist stereotypes and recovers erased communities by presenting a rich array of young Asian American Buddhist voices.”

• cites [22]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim.

Another is that white dominance is made to look natural and without history.

“(iii) white dominance is naturalized and presented as ahistorical”

• cites [19]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim.

Early Yogācāra concepts, especially subject-object non-duality and intersubjectivity, require discerning the meaning of an object in relation to our subjectivities.

“Early Yogācāra ideas, particularly the concepts of subject-object non-duality as presented in early Yogācāra thought, as well as Yogācāra's robust conception of intersubjectivity, not only allow for but even require that we discern the meaning of a given object of perception and cognition-like a text-in relationship to our subjectivities.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.

Another area of scholarship traces how Buddhists of Colour in white majority sanghas have tried to make their communities more inclusive.

“Another area has been to trace how Buddhists of Colour in white majority sanghas have attempted to make their communities more inclusive.”

It may state two separate claims as one.

Irish immigrants were initially not considered white and gained whiteness through anti-Black racism.

“Irish immigrants were initially not considered white but gained the status of whiteness through engaging in anti-Black racism.”

• cites [14]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim.

Critical Whiteness Studies aims normatively to undo whiteness as social, cultural, political, and existential dominance.

“The normative aim of Critical Whiteness Studies is to undo whiteness as a form of social, cultural, political, and existential dominance.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.

A commitment to the Buddha's noble truths requires examining whiteness, understanding where it comes from, letting go of its power, and creating a world beyond it.

“but also a commitment to the noble truths outlined by the historical Buddha, that compel us to assess this identity construct with a keenly felt interestguided by our knowledge of the suffering it has caused-in knowing its features and causal origin, relinquishing its powers, and bringing into being some world beyond it.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.

Critical race theory and Critical Whiteness Studies emerged in the 1980s and 1990s and now supply much work on whiteness.

“Much of the current work on whiteness comes from the interdisciplinary academic fields of critical race theory and Critical Whiteness Studies, which emerged successively in the 1980s and 1990s.”

It may state two separate claims as one.

To be white is to bear a psychosocial identity construct called whiteness that can be fruitfully analyzed with early Yogācāra thought.

“the major claim of this section is that to be white is to bear a particular psychosocial identity construct, called whiteness, that can be fruitfully analysed using the tools of early Yogācāra thought.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.

That wish for continuity might connect rather than divide critics and supporters of racial justice.

“such a desire could be seen as a point of contact rather than conflict between opponents and advocates”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.

Eradicating whiteness means ending white people's position of dominance and the treatment of their ways of being as normal, not eliminating white people.

“To eradicate whiteness is not to eradicate those who claim identities as whites but rather their position of dominance in the world and the prescription of their ways of being and knowing as normal, civilized, moral-in short, human.”

• cites [16]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim.

Ahistoricism means features of whiteness and the shared world co-constructed with it are treated as natural and unconstructed rather than historical or causal products.

“Ahistoricism is the idea that particular features of whiteness, as well as features of the shared world of experience co-constructed with whiteness, are not the products of historical or causal forces, but are instead natural in the sense of unconstructed.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Hsu traces the marginalization of Asian American Buddhists and calls on white Americans to confront racism as part of Buddhist practice.

“Funie Hsu traces how Asian American Buddhists have been marginalized in American Buddhism and calls on white Americans to confront racism as an integral part of their Buddhist practice”

• cites [21]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Early Yogācāra ideas make attention to shared and individual subjectivities necessary for understanding reality in its delusive and perfected forms.

“early Yogācāra ideas-for the reasons just outlined-make such attention to the contours of our shared and individual subjectivities a requisite for understanding reality in its delusive and perfected forms.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Philological work seeks a text's meaning at its origin, in its reception over time, and as it is present to the reader.

“philological work of necessity seeks to determine the meaning of a text not only at its point of genesis, but also in its reception over time and as it is present to the reader's subjectivity.”

• cites [50]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Buddhist scholars can play an important role bridging past and present Buddhist thought.

“Buddhist scholars who have both the tools and authority to bridge past and present iterations of Buddhist thought can play an important role.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Invisibility means whiteness is not perceived as an identity structure, so white people take themselves to be racially unmarked.

“whiteness itself is not perceived as an identity structure at all, such that white people take ourselves to be racially unmarked.”

Probably not a substantial claim.

On the Yogācāra account, subjectivity is co-constructed with its lifeworld.

“co-constructed along with its lifeworld”

Probably not a substantial claim.

On the Yogācāra account, subjectivity is always intersubjectively shared.

“and always intersubjectively shared.”

Probably not a substantial claim.

Early Yogācāra texts demand that readers attend to their subjectivities when interpreting them.

“our early Yogācāra texts demand that we attend to our subjectivities even as we read and interpret them”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Whiteness is characterized by three features: invisibility, individualism, and ahistoricism.

“three of the ideas it systematizes within a Buddhist soteriological framework cut against these three features of whiteness”

• cites Garner, Whiteness: An Introduction, 51-52Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Recent years have seen more primary literature and secondary scholarship documenting and contextualizing racial justice efforts of American Buddhists of Colour.

“Recent years have seen an increase of primary literature and secondary scholarship documenting and contextualizing the racial justice efforts of American Buddhists of Colour across heritage and convert communities.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Scholarship on race, religion, and whiteness can help dismantle white supremacy.

“increased scholarship on race, religion, and whiteness has the potential to support the work of dismantling white supremacy.”

• cites [10]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

A major strand has shown how Asian American heritage Buddhist communities were left out of standard accounts of American Buddhism.

“One major area has illuminated the exclusion of Asian American Buddhist heritage communities from mainstream narratives of Buddhism in America.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

White people should do their own racial justice work rather than depend on people of colour to educate them.

“That's why white folks need to start doing their own work and not rely on people of colour to educate them.”

• cites [6]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Critical Whiteness Studies traces how whiteness was historically produced and the cultural values and practices that keep it going.

“One of the field's main contributions has been the systematic tracing of the historic production of whiteness and the cultural values and practices that have sustained the construction of whiteness.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

Intersubjectivity shows individualist ideology to be false, since we are always already situated in a shared lifeworld with others, sharing many aspects of our subjectivities.

“Intersubjectivity exposes the falseness of any form of individualist ideology, for it shows that we are always already within a given lifeworld alongside others with whom we share many aspects of our subjectivities.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.

Vesely-Flad gives an ethnographic portrait of how Black American Buddhists use Buddhist doctrine and practice to heal racialized trauma, build community, and create new soteriological visions.

“Rima Vesely-Flad offers a rich ethnographic portrait of how Black American Buddhists draw from Buddhist doctrine and practice to heal racialized trauma, build community, and forge new soteriological visions of collective liberation.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.

Hase and colleagues identify how practitioners of colour experience and negotiate white sangha space and offer structural recommendations for meditation centres.

“They identify how practitioners of colour experience and negotiate the white sangha space and offer specific structural recommendations for meditation centres to counter whiteness.”

• cites [24]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Much opposition to racial justice work stems from selective modernist representations of Buddhism as apolitical and individualistic.

“Much of the opposition to racial justice work is due to selective modernist representations of Buddhism as apolitical and individualistic.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Efforts by white Buddhists to examine their own whiteness are central, not optional, to Buddhist practice.

“The conviction that white awareness work is an integral and essential part of Buddhist practice is of much significance”

• AssumptionThe authors state this as an assumption: It is an ethical imperative for the authors, as white Buddhist scholar-practitioners, to respond to calls from Buddhists of Colour to confront whiteness.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Pollock's philological program is not a foreign imposition on early Yogācāra texts.

“we observe that Pollock's philological program is not a foreign imposition onto our early Yogācāra texts.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.

That historical-contextual work is necessary but not the full work of philology because it erases traditionist and presentist truths.

“This is necessary work, and the field has been right to undertake it.But this is not the full work of philology, for it erases both the traditionist and presentist truths to be found in these texts”

Probably not a substantial claim.

Cheah argues that white supremacy was foundational to the construction of Buddhist modernism.

“Joseph Cheah argues that white supremacy has played a foundational role in the construction of Buddhist modernism”

• cites [20]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

It may state two separate claims as one.

White-skinned people are conditioned in and benefit from whiteness at the expense of people of colour, but they are not reducible to it.

“While white-skinned people are conditioned in whiteness and benefit from it at the expense of people of colour, they are not reducible to it.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.

MacIntosh's article enumerates twenty-six privileges she receives each day without earning them because of whiteness.

“provides a list of twenty-six unearned daily privileges that whiteness confers on her.”

• cites [17]Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

White ahistoricism follows largely from white invisibility: absent whiteness, there is no history of it.

“White ahistoricism largely follows from white invisibility: if there is no whiteness, then it has no history.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Accounting for our own subjectivities when making sense of texts and worlds is a Yogācāra-informed imperative.

“consistent with the Yogācāra-informed imperative that when making sense of texts and worlds, we account for our own subjectivities”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.

It would be equally mistaken to adopt fatalism or cynicism about whiteness, since these amount to accepting whiteness as an unchangeable natural condition.

“we would be equally wrong to embrace a fatalism or cynicism, afflictions whose effect is equivalent to accepting whiteness as a natural state of affairs, about which we can do nothing”

Probably not a substantial claim.

No-mind means freedom from the afflicted state of mind-only, not the absence of subjective awareness.

“The liberatory state offered as a fruit of the path beyond mind-only is called no-mind, here understood not as an absence of subjective awareness, but as freedom from the afflicted condition of mind-only.”

• cites Brennan, "A Buddhist Phenomenology of the White Mind"Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

We are caught within mutually constituted subjectivities and object-worlds, thoroughly shaped by past karma, and seeking escape.

“we are trapped within our mutually constituted subjectivities and object-worlds, thoroughgoingly shaped by past actions, and we are seeking a way out”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.

The three natures theory directs us to know a dharma's constructed nature, relinquish its dependent nature, and directly realize its perfected nature, which corresponds to no-mind.

“the three natures theory calls us to know the constructed nature of a dharma, relinquish its dependent nature, and directly realize its perfected nature, the latter corresponding to no-mind”

• cites Brennan, "The Three Natures and the Path to Liberation in Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda Thought," 624Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim.

Mind-only is offered as a diagnosis of a problematic condition rather than a description of a fixed state.

“this teaching, in turn, is proffered not as a description of a static state of affairs, but as the diagnosis of a problematic condition”

• cites Lusthaus, "What is and isn't Yogācāra"Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim.

Buddhist Studies' colonial and Orientalist past is well documented.

“The colonial and Orientalist history of Buddhist Studies has been well-documented.”

• cites Hallisey, "Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravāda Buddhism"Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Treating Buddhist anti-racist work as exceeding intellectual bounds and threatening scholarly objectivity is naive and irresponsible.

“Such a position, we believe, is both naive and irresponsible, ignoring the fact that Buddhist studies as a field has always been involved in the construction of its object of study.”

Probably not a substantial claim.

By treating Buddhist anti-racist work as legitimately Buddhist, scholars confer legitimacy on it.

“in taking Buddhist anti-racist work seriously as legitimately Buddhist, scholars simultaneously grant it legitimacy”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

If whiteness as a psychosocial identity does not exist, its features need no historical or causal explanation.

“If there is no psychosocial identity called whiteness (if it remains invisible), then none of its features require any historical/causal explanation.”

Probably not a substantial claim.

Intersubjectivity consists in being constituted by the same causal conditions that produced our fellows and our shared world.

“Intersubjectivity is none other than this shared subjectivity, or the fact of being constituted through the same causal conditions that brought about our fellows and our shared world.”

• cites TzoharNot matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Responsible and meaningful engagement with ancient texts requires philological work.

“Philological work is necessary if we are to engage responsibly and meaningfully with texts from the distant past.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.

We inhabit a world painfully and indelibly marked by differing kinds and degrees of suffering for white and non-white people, especially Black people cast as the white subject's perpetual, even ontological, other.

“we do in fact live in a world indelibly and painfully marked by differential levels and kinds of suffering for white and non-white people, particularly Black people, marked as the perpetual, even ontological, other to the white subject”

It may state two separate claims as one.

Language is recursive: it emerges from shared worlds and intersubjective experience and then reinforces them.

“language use has a recursive structure such that language arises from our shared worlds and intersubjective experiences and then reinforces the same”

• cites TzoharNot matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

• cites Waldron, The Buddhist Unconscious, 168Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Applying the imperative to account for our own subjectivities in philology is a powerful way for philosophers to challenge the treatment of Buddhist texts as fixed and inherently conservative.

“Bringing this imperative to our philological work is a particularly potent way for philosophers to disrupt the claiming of Buddhist texts as fixed in the past and inherently conservative.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

Knowing how to end this world requires knowing what produced it.

“To know how this world can be ended, we must know what has brought it about.”

Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.

Lü Cheng formulated a revolutionary social ontology, rooted in Yogācāra, that rejected materialism and individualism.

“Jessica Xiaomin Zu's exciting work on Chinese modernist Lü Cheng, who developed a revolutionary social ontology grounded in Yogācāra that refuted materialism and individualism, is one such example.”

• cites Zu, "A Spiritual Evolutionism"Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim.

White talk recursively feeds back into and strengthens whiteness as a psychosocial identity.

“Bailey identifies white talk as recursively feeding back into, and strengthening, whiteness as a psychosocial identity”

• cites Bailey, "'White Talk' as a Barrier to Understanding the Problem of Whiteness"Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

A genealogy of philology should loosen the grip of narrow readings of old texts, prompting new questions and new applications to present concerns.

“Doing a genealogy of philology should free us from a narrow reception of old texts and encourage us to ask different questions of them and to bring them to bear on current issues in generative ways.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.

Intersubjectively formed white subjects, bearers of the psychosocial identity whiteness, constitute one such class.

“One such class is constituted by the intersubjectively formed white subjects, those who bear the psychosocial identity called whiteness.”

Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.

We do not choose whether to have impact, only what kind of impact to have.

“Our choice is not whether or not to have impact, but rather what impact we will have.”