America’s Racial Karma
by Mark Maxey
[DISCLOSURE: The author of this review has sat under the teachings of Larry Ward and is a friend.]
The sky is burnt orange and dense smoke clouds the sky. America is on fire both figuratively and literally. The west coast has numerous wildfires burning out of control. The east coast is inundating with raging floodwaters with hurricane Sally. The midwest is ablaze with protests from black men and women being gunned down by police. One wonders how America can get out of the macabre of apocalyptic racism. It’s a stark contrast from gains made sixty years earlier when the Civil Rights Act was signed by President Johnson. The fear and serpent head of white nationalism is flamed by the racist tweets and speeches by President Donald J. Trump. On the heels of the shocking truth that Trump lied to the citizens regarding Covid-19. One wonders how the USA can move away from the racist trajectory inflamed by the Republican party under Trump.
Larry Ward, Ph.D. recent book (released 9/15/2020), published by Parallax Press, Thich Nhat Hanh’s publishing arm has a possible solution. America’s Racial Karma is a book born after ten years of research and soul searching. His book is an immediate, illuminating, and hopeful, treatise: this is the key set of talks given by leading Zen Buddhist teacher Larry Ward, PhD, on breaking America’s cycle of racial trauma.
Larry’s introduction to Buddhist practice began in Calcutta, India in 1977 but it was not until 1991 when Larry met Thich Nhat Hanh that this practice became the center of his life and service. He was ordained as a lay minister in Thay’s Plum Village Tradition in 1994 and a Dharma teacher in 2000. He has lived in a spiritual community and has assisted Thich Nhat Hanh throughout the world. He has accompanied Thich Nhat Hanh on peace-making missions in China, France, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as throughout the USA.
America’s Racial Karma is a three-part lecture explaining how to use Buddhist psychology along with insight from an African American man developing a method to end the racial karma. The opening pages, Larry states:
The nightly news of my teenage years expanded its coverage to voices echoing the pain of centuries, determined to be silent no more. Many of these voices and their stories became focal points in the story of race in the United States, including those of Rosa Parks; Angela Davis; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Malcolm X; and Dennis Banks.
As a Black man writing about race in America, I do not forget the first peoples of this land, their genocide, and their continued presence. Many of us tend to think of African American bodies when we think about America and race, yet the story of racial hierarchy in this country began long before the arrival of African people on these shores. Now, we find ourselves living in a racialized world that existed before we were born, and our minds have been conditioned to see race as real. This racialized awareness permeates us like a disease of the psyche, cementing our minds to a system of social worth and value by skin pigmentation. It animates our thinking, speech, and behavior individually and collectively.
America’s Racial Karma, pg. 3
Our ancestral genes carry the markers in our DNA of racism. Racism is cultural and it is learned. Growing up in the south in a racially diverse school (Indigenous students and African American) what was said within the inclusive classrooms sometimes did not echo the same in click groups. The Republican president, Donald J. Trump continues to call Covid-19 the “Chinese Virus”. Sadly this media sound byte embeds through the constant media world. It shapes not only our country, but many to propagate racial-ethnic slurs. This endangers the Asian Americans citizens. Ward states in his book, “Of course, race isn’t the only knife we use to separate ourselves from each other. All kinds of social inequities around gender, class, ability, and sexuality combine to form unique forms of discrimination and prejudice.”
No one wants to dive deep into their soul to explore the seeds of racism. Buddhist philosophy requires one to see the shit inside the core of their soul. That is painful, shameful, and extremely emotionally draining. But if America truly wants a new trajectory as spoken by Ward in his new book, as individuals, we must do so.
For me growing up was hard as I had many learning disabilities that the mid-1960’s educational system was not ready to handle. I was teased, made fun of, and oftentimes felt outside the circle. Around age 7 while in 2nd grade, I had jumped out of a swing on the playground. Right at the apex of its upward angle, I fell and broke my arm. One afternoon after school our babysitter, Mrs. Richards drove me along with my sister and brother to a doctor follow-up. Inside the waiting room across from us sat an elderly African American family. My brother leaned down to my ear and whispered that black people smelled bad. My impulse control was rather low back then so I told Mrs. Richards I was going to go get a book to read over where the black family was sitting. When over there I sniffed very loud and obnoxiously. I turned around promptly and yelled to my brother, “They don’t stink!” Mrs. Richards quickly got up, came right over to me and slapped the crap out of me. My face stung. That incident was exactly 50 years ago. But that one incident has haunted me my whole life. Racism starts with lies, and once you believe in those lies, it ends up hurting not only yourself but innocent victims.
During the early and mid-summer America was wrought with massive protests for Black Lives Matter. This was even during the Covid-19 lockdowns but the streets across America standing up to say no to the police shootings of unarmed black persons wrongfully. With the known racist in charge, Donald J. Trump even fanned the flames of racism equating BLM to terrorism. Yet, in truth it was the administration and law officials that were in fact for years being the terrorists. Just look at Trump’s use of white nationalists and paramilitary gun-toting white men. America’s Racial Karma speaks of, “…the psychological factors that continue to create our racialized consciousness and the waves of suffering in its wake. Our racialized consciousness is the greatest achievement of white supremacy. It’s an example of how human consciousness can be nurtured to perfection in unwholesome ways. It is a fundamental obstacle to the achievement of collective wellness and justice in US society.”
Ward weaves an honest but detailed analysis of America’s white agenda, nudging you with Buddhist caveats that leads the reader to embrace their inner darker truths. He confronts you with truth that is backed up with accurate references. He leads you to open yourself up to be the change needed to affect a positive racially free trajectory for America. He leaves you with sound meditations that have been part of not only his Buddhist practices but practices his teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn is known for.
Ward confronts the bare truth of the history of European (white) racial overtones throughout history. Convincing recent and past images of the racial karma America is facing in 2020. The reality, however, is that this country’s government has done a lot of this in the past-from Native children separated from their families and sent off to Christian boarding schools to African children stolen from their parents during slavery and more.
Early reformers used their religious beliefs to justify their Manifest Destiny perspective. It overflowed into Congress, which passed Manifest Destiny-themed bills. Indigenous people, blacks, meanwhile, were on the receiving end of this religious zealotry. Rape, abuse, kidnap, murder, and genocide were the results for them. The quoting of Biblical scripture by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to justify the stealing of immigrant children from their parents shows that this ideology is still very much alive among at least some sectors of the U.S. government.
Ward reminds us, as is the Buddhist practice, the work has to be individually done. Confronting our errors and embracing a loving, peaceful response. He eloquently shows the reader that we can’t change our world unless we change ourselves. It’s not about debating but rather how we embrace each moment and create the trajectory of racial healing with our actions. He reminds us that it is action not words that change society. Much like Gandhi did in India, or Martin Luther King.
At the end of the book, he lists some practical mediation/exercises the reader can do to invite this change. His books lead the reader to the realization that America is where it is in 2020 as karma. For all the past racial divisions America has allowed to be part of the fabric of America. Less the reader forgets America was created by foreigners from many countries and cultures invading the Indigenous nations. America has a lot of karma to pay for, over 300 year’s worth. America’s Racial Karma is a start to fixing this. Ward gives sound applicable practices for anyone to follow. This book truly is an invitation to heal.
Inside the book Ward says,
“Not everything has an answer. Some things are not fixable. So, I’m not talking about fixing our racial karma. I’m talking about bending the trajectory and transforming the energy that sustains it. What we’ve seen in the last few years is the great feeding of animosity and the joy of bigotry. Nothing can live without food. If it’s not fed, it will not live.”
“This book and the practices I share invite us to go deeper into our collective psyche and see how it creates a social psychology that nurtures it, which in turn keeps feeding the institutions that damage us so intimately.”
http://web.mit.edu/racescience/in_media/what_dna_says_about_human/index.html
revolution!
Originally published at http://okemahfreepress.wordpress.com on October 6, 2020.
