[Buddha-l] Bourgeois Buddhism

[Sally McAra]

On 14 March 2012 10:06, Richard P. Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:
>
>  I do have one question, though, for
> Jack, who wrote this:
>
> > It has been my experience, limited though it might be, that the Western
> > Buddhists I know follow the 8-Fold Path while ethnic Buddhists I know do
> > not.

A comment for Jack, seeing as Richard has brought what he said to my attention:

There's an article called "Two Buddhisms, Three Buddhisms, and
Racism", by Wakoh Shannon Hickey, in issue 11 of the open access
Journal of Global Buddhism (see
http://www.globalbuddhism.org/toc.html).

I thoroughly recommend it for getting an insight into the problems
relating to divisive generalisations such as the labels "western
Buddhist" and "ethnic" Buddhist. "Westerners" also have ethnicity, but
they often don't see it, they just think they are "normal" and others
are "different".
Hickey also discusses how privilege is often missed by those who have
it, but rarely missed by those who don't have it! It so happens I'm
struggling to finish a survey article which has a section on the
literature about typologies for describing the diversity of Buddhism,
and Hickey's article is helpful to me in clarifying some of the
complexities (a few others I found are also good, but am mentioning
her as she addresses racism and diversity in a way that would be
helpful for Jack).

The abstract from her article, from the journal website:
Over the past several decades, observers of American Buddhism have
created numerous typologies to describe different categories of
Buddhists in the United States. These taxonomies use different
criteria to categorize groups: style of practice, degree of
institutional stability, mode of transmission to the U.S., ethnicity,
etc. Each reveals some features of American Buddhism and obscures
others. None accounts adequately for hybrids or for long-term changes
within categories. Most include a divide between convert Buddhists,
characterized as predominantly Caucasian, and “heritage” or “ethnic”
Buddhists, characterized as Asian immigrants and refugees, as well as
their descendants. This article examines several typologies, and
considers two dynamics: the effects of white racism on the development
of American Buddhist communities; and the effects of unconscious white
privilege in scholarly discourse about these communities. It critiques
“ethnic” categories and proposes other ways to conceptualize the
diverse forms of Buddhism outside Asia.
--
Sally McAra