Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition

In Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation, Rima Vesely-Flad weaves together history, ethnography, literary analysis, and what Buddhist studies calls critical-constructive reflection to assert the significance of Black Buddhist thought and practice. Vesely-Flad, a scholar of critical race theory and Black studies, utilizes interviews and writings from more than seventy Black Buddhist teachers and long-term practitioners (of whom she herself might well be included) to highlight the rich diversity and robust tradition of Black Buddhism in the United States. Her analysis is enriched by thick quotes from these practitioners.

This itself is a vital contribution to the study of American Buddhism, whose discursive formation at the intersection of Asian Studies, Buddhist Studies, and Asian American Studies has resulted in an Orientalist framework that divides American Buddhist communities into “white converts” and “Asian American immigrants.” This binary—which has been much criticized, including by Vesely-Flad—neglects Black contributions to knowledge about Buddhism. As a result, Vesely-Flad offers a crucial step toward reconceptualizing the landscape of American Buddhism.

For scholars of African American religion, Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition joins recent works amplifying the diversity of the Black religious tradition beyond Protestant Christianity and illustrating the importance of non-Christian and Asian religions for Black religious and racial subjectivity. This book also contributes to studies of religion and the Black Lives Matter movement, which have devoted less attention to Asian religions. Vesely-Flad herself locates the origins of her work in the question of whether Buddhism “could provide a spiritual foundation for Black Lives Matter activists” (4). As a result, Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition can be situated within the longer trajectory of the Black theological tradition, and particularly within trends that challenge patriarchal heteronormativity, incorporate the experiences of LGBTQIA individuals (who make up half of Vesely-Flad’s forty interviewees), and acknowledge the diversity of Black religious traditions outside of Christianity.

As a scholar-practitioner, Vesely-Flad’s primary audience is practitioners and activists. The book’s central thesis is that Black Buddhist teachings and practice, by liberating Black people from psychological suffering, fulfill the aspirations of Black Radicalism. In making this argument, Vesely-Flad asserts that Black Buddhists have forged a unique tradition of praxis distinct from that of predominantly white communities; that these practices respond to white supremacy and cis-heteropatriarchy; and that they are rooted within the longer social and historical context of the Black Radical tradition. Although Black Buddhists engage in similar practices as white Buddhists, they incorporate a variety of other indigenous, African, and Asian practices into their repertoire, embrace ancestors and community, and reclaim the Black body from white supremacist narratives to anchor it within their spiritual practice “as a vehicle for liberation” (2). In this sense, Vesely-Flad’s book aligns with what Ann Gleig has identified as a trend of post-modern Buddhism.

Vesely-Flad traces the ways that Black Buddhists draw on Buddhism and Black Radicalism to inform their practice and contextualize themselves within a white supremacist cis-heteropatriarchal society. Chapters 1 and 2 offer an overview of Buddhist and African American history interspersed with Black Buddhist reflections on the significance of these traditions. The introductions to Buddhism primarily highlight those aspects of the tradition as understood by her interlocutors, while the discussion of the Black Radical Tradition traces various threads of thought as they inform Black Buddhist practice. It is in her strong introduction of the Black Radical Tradition that the book offers a significantly new context for the development of Buddhism in the United States.

Chapter 3 brings together these histories under the theme of ancestral practices. While ancestral rituals are found throughout the Buddhist world, Vesely-Flad roots these practices within the history of African-derived traditions. This shows the specific historical, political, and social context informing Black Buddhist ancestral practices, which incorporate rituals toward both spiritual and blood ancestors to offer healing from intergenerational trauma. Chapters 4 through 7 continue to look to both ancestral communities to illustrate how Black Buddhists combine Buddhist teachings on “interdependence, impermanence, suffering, compassion, and ethics” with Black Radicalism’s emphasis on “dismantling exploitive white-supremacist social systems” and “commitment to psychological liberation that deconstructs and heals internalized white supremacy” (230). At times this history is connected through the voices of her informants, while in other places Vesely-Flad’s voice comes to the fore to create a critical-constructive reading of Buddhism that centers key figures of the Black Radical Tradition as anticipating and/or resonating with Black Buddhist teachings.

Chapter 4 examines Black Radicalism’s teachings on the external conditions of oppression and psychological liberation, while chapter 5 asserts that Black Buddhists build on this tradition by utilizing dharma practices on the path to psychological, spiritual, and political liberation. Chapter 6 draws out the importance of embodiment in the quest for liberation, attending to how Black Buddhists draw on Buddhist teachings and Black Radicalism to make sense of feminine, gender non-conforming, and transgender embodiment and queer identity. Chapter 7 argues that Black Buddhists attain the Black Radical aspiration for psychological liberation by incorporating teachings to deconstruct racial constructs, respond to suffering, and cultivate “love for oneself and one’s community” (33). The epilogue addresses activists, proposing how they can use the book to name the conditions for external suffering, analyze their own conditioning, and commit to healing.

This work reveals several opportunities for future studies focusing on specific traditions, communities, and methods of practice, including communities not prominently represented in the book, like Soka Gakkai. The prominence of feminist and queer Buddhists in this work speaks to its importance for future research, including the relationship between Buddhism and womanist thought. For the field of psychology and Buddhism, Vesely-Flad highlights the necessity of attending to the specific relevance of this intersection for Black Buddhists. By documenting the Black Radical Tradition as precursor and influence for Black Buddhists, Vesely-Flad situates Black thinkers as producers of knowledge about the Dharma, thereby pointing the way to the vibrant possibilities of alternate histories of Buddhism in the United States.

Adeana McNicholl is an assistant professor of religious studies at Vanderbilt University.

Adeana McNicholl

Date Of Review:

December 30, 2023