Facing Our Racism

Our Commitment

Karuna Training’s Non-Discrimination Agreement

Karuna Training is missioned to be inclusive of everyone and does not discriminate based on race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, and marital status.
It is our mission to face systemic racism with open-hearted awareness and to utilize the Karuna methods to address unrecognized biases in ourselves and in others.

Because we are not tooled to teach on racism, we encourage our faculty to attend ongoing training. Below is a list of Karuna-sanctioned training, reading recommendations, and videos we feel will be enlightening on the topic and in line with Karuna’s methods of compassion and kindness.

Racism Trainings

"Education for Racial Equity” Their work is deeply somatic, compassionate, and direct. This organization is run by Carlin Quinn, who has done a lot of work with Resmaa Menakem, and they have programs for therapists and ongoing communal consultations: www.educationforracialequity.com

Deer Project currently has no website, but they can be pursued on Instagram. This organization applies DBT to anti-racism for white folks in particular: www.thedearproject_20

Untangling the Tangle: Exploring Diverse Views on Race and Anti-Racism
Online Program; Dates: February 17, 2022 - Mar 24, 2022
Instructors: Brian Lesage and Jessica Locke www.buddhistinquiry.org/course/untangling-the-tangle-exploring-diverse-views-on-race-and-anti-racism/

Roots Deeper than Whiteness: Building emotional strength & political clarity for collective liberation
Next program in the fall of 2022 https://mailchi.mp/whiteawake/roots-deeper-than-whiteness-2021?mc_cid=f5f12cb1f5&mc_eid=9a06f85cff

Before We Were White 2022 ancestral recovery for collective liberation Before We Were White is an invitation for people with European ancestry to peer through the veil of time and consider the choices and circumstances of our European ancestors and their influence on the fabric of society today.
https://whiteawake.org/before-we-were-white-2022-course-registration/

Audio and Video Recordings


Angela Rose Black disrupts the mindfulness narrative
www.wortfm.org/angela-rose-black-disrupts-the-mindfulness-narrative
Rev. angel Kyodo Williams at Deer Park Monastery
www.deerpark.libsyn.com/iamhome/2016/09/17
Interview with Charles Johnson on Taming the Ox:
www.steinershow.org/podcasts/taming-the-ox-buddhist-stories-and-reflections-on-politics-race-culture-and-spiritual-practice
The Insurgency of the Invisible, Bayo Akomolafe
www.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/emerge-making-sense-of-whats-next

Recommended Reading


Here are some texts that reorient our assumptions, re-examine our habitual ways of thinking, and enter into a practice of transforming consciousness:

Insight Journal volume 46 • 2020 Living Our Histories, Shaping Our Futures, Jess Locke
(we can link a PDF from www.buddhistinquiry.org – you need to search for the title because the link automatically downloads)

Racial Justice


Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality, Gloria Anzaldúa
www.dukeupress.edu/light-in-the-darksolluz-en-lo-oscuro
Notes of a Native Son (or really any of his works), James Baldwin
www.beacon.org/Notes-of-a-Native-Son
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
newjimcrow.com
Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine
www.claudiarankine.com/book/citizen-an-american-lyric
Elements Of White Middle Class Culture, Kenneth Jones & Tema OkunCan
www.stevebozzone.com.pdf
The making of Black Lives Matter Rhonda Magee
www.amazon.com/Making-Black-Lives-Matter
The Inner Work Of Racial Justice Rhonda Magee
www.amazon.com/Inner-Work-Racial-Justice-Transforming
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X
www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Malcolm-Penguin-Modern-Classics
My Grandmothers Hand, Resmaa Menakem 
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-grandmothers-hands
These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters To My Daughter On Humanity's Search For Home, Bayo Akomolafe
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555561/these-wilds-beyond-our-fences
Transformative Justice: A Brief Description, Mia Mingus
www.transformharm.org/transformative-justice-a-brief-description/
Why Transformative Justice?, Ruth Morris
www.restorativejustice.org/rj-library/why-transformative-justice

Woman & Race


A Black Woman's History Of The United States Diana Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross 
www.beacon.org/A-Black-Womens-History-of-the-United-States-P1524.aspx
Writing Beyond Race & I Ain't A Woman
www.bellhooksinstitute.com

Incarceration & Justice


Are Prisons Obsolete?, Angela Y. Davis 
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/are-prisons-obsolete-angela-y-davis
The Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis & Opposition In Globalizing California, Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Also look for her many print and podcast interviews & articles
www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520242012/golden-gulag
The Case For Abolition, Ruth Wilson Gilmore & James Kilgore
www.themarshallproject.org/2019/06/19/the-case-for-abolition
The End Of Policing, Alex Vitale
www.versobooks.com/books/3906-the-end-of-policing
The First Civil Right, Naomi Murakawa
www.amazon.com/First-Civil-Right-Political-Development

Buddhism & Race

Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, And Liberation, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens and Jasmine Syedullah Ph.D
www.radicaldharma.org
Waking Up To Racism, Bell Books 
www.tricycle.org/magazine/waking-racism
Being Black, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books-by-angel-kyodo-williams
Love & Rage, Rod Owens
www.amazon.com/Love-Rage-Liberation-through-Anger
Black & Buddhist, Yetunde & Giles
www.shambhala.com/black-and-buddhist.html
The Shamanic Bones Of Zen, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
https://zenju.org/books/
Suffering Systemic Oppression And The Four Noble Truths, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/ouch-suffering-systemic-oppression-and-the-four-noble-truths
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