Anti-Oppression Resources
SIM is committed to being a welcoming, safe, and accessible sangha.
SIM offers a spiritual refuge for awakening and welcomes all who seek to end suffering. We are committed to creating a safe and respectful sangha grounded in non-discrimination, non-harming, and non-self where all members feel seen and heard. We recognize that different experiences, perspectives, identities, and cultures benefit us all. We are aware that profound suffering has been caused by discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, social and economic class, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and physical ability. We are committed to understanding the basis of these inequities and how we as individuals and as a group can dissolve the hindrances that cause separation.
The following resources are recommendations from community members or other meditation centers. These are separated by those that have a Buddhist perspective and those from outside of the dharma community.
Anti-Oppression Resources from the Dharma Community
Courses
White Awareness Insight Curriculum-Uprooting Privilege (WAIC-UP): A Dharma and Racism Study Program–Created and offered by Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader 5 participants. Eight study sessions were produced “primarily for white Dharma practitioners, teachers and leaders to explore our deep conditioning around race, its reflections in the systems around us, the experience and impact of racism and whiteness on all beings, and ways we can skillfully engage with this toward liberation.”
White Awake-White Awake combats white supremacy by focusing on educational resources and spiritual practices designed to support the engagement of people who’ve been socially categorized as “white” in the creation of a just and sustainable society
Websites
Common Ground Meditation Center–Offers numerous anti-oppression resources from Common Ground community members.
East Bay Meditation Center-An intentionally diverse sangha with resources for white people.
Anti-Racism Resources, complied by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein.
Insight Meditation Society offers Diversity and the Dharma and provides diversity resources
Transbuddhists.org – A small collective of Buddhist practitioners from different traditions who seek to address systemic exclusion of transgender and gender nonconforming people from Buddhist spaces.
Books
Awakening Together: The Spiritual Practice of Inclusivity and Community, by Larry Yang
Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace, by Reverend angel Kyodo williams
The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha), by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Dharma, Color, and Culture, by Hilda Gutierrez Baldoquin, ed.
Dreaming Me: Black, Baptist & Buddhist, by Jan Willis
Making the Invisible Visible: Healing Racism in Our Buddhist Communities,Sheridan Adams, Mushim Ikeda-Nash, Jeff Kitzes, Margarita Loinaz, Choyin Rangdrol, Jessica Tan, Larry Yang
Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out, by Ruth King
Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation, by Rev. angel Kyodo williams and Lama Rod Owens with Jasmine Syedullah
The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness, by Rhonda Magee
Articles
Confronting Racism with Mindfulness, by Bhikkhu Analayo
Facing My White Privilege, by Tara Brach
Healing the Broken Body of Sangha, by Ruth King
How Mindfulness Can Defeat Racial Bias, by Rhonda Magee
The Road To Diversity, by Lion’s Roar Staff
See Us Clearly: A Buddhist’s View of Transgender Visibility, by Ray Buckner
We’re Queer And We’ve Been Here, by Dr. Jay Michaelson
Videos
Akāliko Bhikkhu: Radical Rainbows: LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Pride and Inclusion
Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom
Mindfully Confronting Racism: A Dialogue with Rhonda V. Magee and Bhikkhu Analayo
Radical Dharma Intensive with Rev. angel Kyodo williams
Working for Freedom on All Fronts: The Radical Dharma Framework for Liberation (Part 1)
Working for Freedom on All Fronts: The Radical Dharma Framework for Liberation (Part 2)
Additional Resources
Articles
A Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr.
America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us, by Adam Serwer
Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Angela Davis
How to Cool It, interview with James Baldwin after MLK’s assassination
Books
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, by Juan Gonzalez
How Be Anti-Racist, by Ibram X. Kendi
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem
The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism, by Rosalind S. Chou and Joe Feagin
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
Videos
Effective Allyship: A Transgender Take on Intersectionality, Ashlee Marie Preston
Race: The Power of an Illusion
Websites
Harvard Implicit Bias Test–Seeks to educate the public about bias and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the internet.
The Microaggressions Project –Provides a visual representation of everyday of verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults toward “social others”.
Trying Together Anti-Racism Tools – Provides tools to white people to actively work to eliminate racism and address inequalities in systems. Resources for White People to Learn and Talk About Race and Racism from Fractured Atlas
Podcasts
1619, hosted by Nikole Hannah Jones
Code Switch, hosted by Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby
Uncivil, hosted by Jac Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika