Like a hundred years ago. WASP influence on american politics & culture has been dead since WW2.
I think those arguing about ‘white culture’, (if it exists or not), should re-read the reviews again. They aren’t talking about ethnicity, mixed races, where your grandparents are from and the like.
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Thank you!
Good lord people. The more folks argue about whiteness the more you prove the point.
I’d also appreciate it if people wouldn’t do the whole “my little part is ok” thing. Especially if you are not a person of color. An organization can be racially diverse and still have the problems addressed in the book.
I lived at the Bhavana Society for a number of years and can tell you that while the photos of Vesak celebrations would indicate a multi racial demographic, and even with an abbot who was a person of color, the issues raised in this book were absolutely there.
And I realize that reading the book is not going to be something that folks here are able to do. It ranges from $120 to $40, even just for the ebook. As well, as the reviews note, it makes use of esoteric academic concepts that people outside of the academy are not familiar with.
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Lol. Na. Trust me, I grew up in that society. The ran it then, they run it now. The built the institutions, the established the generational wealth, they run the politics, the industry, control the power. When I was a kid no Irish, Catholics, Jews, Italians, Hungarians, Asians, certainly no blacks were allowed in the country clubs and in the gentlemen clubs. Each was assigned their place they could live, and were red lined out of any better communities. Still exists today, just more subtle.
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As an American white person who has moved around, I would say that the European cultures are not evident anymore unless a person’s family recently immigrated. What we do have are distinct regional cultures that have emerged. New England, the Midwest, the South, Texas, the Southwest, the Mountain states, the West Coast, etc are all different and have dialects among the white people who live in them. Sometimes people think of themselves as Swedish, German, or Irish, etc. but they’ve intermarried so much after a few generations that’s it’s imaginary. Just my take on it.
Regarding the OP, in America we have sizable non-white Buddhist communities, particular a Chinese Buddhist population, but they strictly segregate themselves from white Buddhists (it goes both ways, I think, not just white Buddhists not being welcoming). America is very much like a multiethnic empire with communities living side by side speaking different languages and not interfacing socially very much.
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I’d also appreciate it if people didn’t do the whole, “my little part is bad, so everyone else’s must be equally bad in the same ways” thing. 
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Sorry. Australia is a deeply racist country. And any time a white person says “oh, we don’t have that racial problem here,” I’m going to question that.
Obviously different places will have different problems.
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This is a really good youtube channel for anyone looking for cultural analysis with a strong intersectionality lense.
The content doesn’t touch on Buddhism though. It is more a way to learn about whiteness and white supremacy through cultural analysis.
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I think you are misunderstanding me again. I’m not denying white cultures (plural). I even said in my post there are such things. What I am denying is White Culture (singular). In other words the idea that all people with a white skin tone all share the same culture. This is an idea trotted out by those from the far right, like Richard Spencer (there goes your theory that those on the Right deny it). Mosely too if you want to go back that far, who argued that there was a pan-European culture (incidentally he would have loved the EU). The same applies to people with black skin. There is, of course, such a thing as an African-American culture, but there is no such thing as a pan-black culture. A black person from New York has a completely different culture than a black person in Somalia. As I say, even on my own island there are differences. For example we have a St David’s day in Wales, we have welsh cakes, even a whole language and other cultural differences.
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I was commenting on the article, where the author does indeed frame it in terms of culture. I question what was said in your quote though, namely this
but the ways in which ideological notions of whiteness (and Aryanism) have been promoted and favored in portrayals of Buddhism in the West;[1] this focus on white supremacy has even led to the disparagement of traditional Asian forms of Buddhism in light of supposedly new forms of dharma untangled from their cultural and historical heritage.
Whilst some on the far right see it that way, and by some I mean a tiny fringe of even that tiny fringe, I don’t think it is the case that the issue that is being referred to is due to “ideological notions of whiteness” or Aryanism. As flawed as the secular and Californian liberal type Buddhists are, I see the issue as stemming from left wing/liberal Progressivism rather than Aryanism. I certainly don’t think it has to do with issues of “whiteness”, which personally I find to be a rather odious concept.
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You could be right. I’m not an American. I’ve never lived in America. I’ve only visited, and I’ve only known Americans. For families who have been living in America for generations, sure the differences might have receded. I don’t think they have fully gone though, based on my experience. Italian Americans for example still seem to retain something of their Italian culture. Either way, my central issue was with the notion of some kind of pan-white culture. That is demonstrably false. A person living in Scotland doesn’t have the same culture as someone living in Finland, or as a Slavic Russian.
Regarding the OP, in America we have sizable non-white Buddhist communities, particular a Chinese Buddhist population, but they strictly segregate themselves from white Buddhists (it goes both ways, I think, not just white Buddhists not being welcoming). America is very much like a multiethnic empire with communities living side by side speaking different languages and not interfacing socially very much.
We have been experimenting with multi-culturalism in the UK for sometime now. Sadly the effect has been quite a lot of people living in the same town, even in the same street, but living totally parallel lives.
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Well, maybe that is my provincialism. When i think of White Culture, I think of American White Culture. The typical american’s understanding of Welsh culture doesn’t extend much beyond “Do not go gentle into that good night” and legendary drunkenness of said poet. And there is definitely an American White Culture. I have no idea how things go in other parts of the world.
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Most Americans think the UK is just England. How I cringe when that happens, unaware that we are a union of four nations. So, you didn’t do too bad 
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A bit of a side note but I work with people from all of the world and those from Central and South America very much object to English speakers referring to the USA as ‘America’, as if they (the students) weren’t also part of America (being from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, etc.) Not a prescriptive suggestion, just something I’ve learnt myself.
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Reading what you have written, got to wonder why you have the book. 
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To hear what other people have to say perhaps? It’s good to read things you might not agree with, from time to time.
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Well, a bit wordy for my taste too, but it is conveying a very real issue.
I don’t know the context in which this quote was made, but I presume it was based on social issues faced by non- white people/ cultures.
Let me try to break it down a bit for you as I understand it…
“Against the stark relief of whiteness,
- white majority culture in the sense of “culturally ingrained habits of perception, cognition, and behavior shared by a social group through generations of a shared history marked by racism and assumptions of white superiority”( from Lion’s Roar review). This is not the sole fault of progressive liberals or right wing conservatives, it’s the shared social history of these societies as a whole. Neither are immune to racism and white superiority complexes- conscious or unconsciously exhibited.
our bodies become simultaneously hyper-visible -
- BIPOC/non-white looking/sounding cultures and individuals stand out, physically in this case
and hyper-invisible
- ignored in key decision making, advancements, cultural practices are either a curious novelty for holidays and potlucks or ignored from the mainstream.
Racialized bodies suffer from a kind of habituation to multiple forms of violence directed toward our bodies
- indirect and direct micro aggressions : infantilization , low expectations, housing, educational and employment discrimination, stereotyping, being accused of reverse racism when questioning such injustices etc (!).
-Actual aggression like false accusations, arrests, name calling, physical violence, incarceration rates. Well, the read the news… Sadly, at some point many racialized communities start accepting this violence as the status quo.
thus, our bodies hold the imprints of the habits of whiteness which affect us deep beneath the layers of our derma.”
- generational trauma from colonialism, racism, and associated policies in response to “culturally ingrained habits of perception, cognition, and behavior shared by a social group through generations of a shared history marked by racism and assumptions of white superiority”. Eg. Indigenous/First Nations people, African Americans
I think I’m done with this topic.
Clearly the authors of the book, and associated reviews, were on to something 
. It was a good read to me! Thank you!
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Thanks, Ficus, for taking the time to explain it so clearly. When it’s made as clear as this, what more needs to be said?
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Morgan Freeman narration: And yet much more was said.
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Mogan Freeman would seemingly prefer if less were said about it!
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