To find further scholarly articles related to Black Buddhism, try the following Google Scholar searches:
A curated list of relevant articles from Lion's Roar and Tricycle magazines.
A selection of popular and scholarly articles relevant to Black Buddhism. Many of the links are to articles behind paywalls, but may be available through a college or university library.
Ali, Ayesha. “White People, It’s Time to Look in the Mirror.” Lion’s Roar, August 13, 2020. https://www.lionsroar.com/white-people-its-time-to-look-in-the-mirror/.
The Arrow [Special Issue]: Between Amitabha and Tubman: Black Buddhist Thought, 2022. https://arrow-journal.org/between-amitabha-and-tubman-black-buddhist-thought/.
Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly. “Special Issue: Free the Dharma: Race, Power, and White Privilege in American Buddhism.” 2016.
Chappell, David W., ed. “Engaged Buddhism in the West.” In Racial Diversity in the Soka Gakkai, 184–217. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2000.
Day, Keri. “Freedom on My Mind: Buddhist-Womanist Dialogue.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 36 (2016): 9–15. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24801541
Dr. g. “The Revolution Begins with the Self.” Lion’s Roar. Accessed June 18, 2024. https://www.lionsroar.com/the-revolution-begins-with-the-self/.
Gajaweera, Nalika. “Sitting in the Fire Together: People of Color Cultivating Radical Resilience in North American Insight Meditation.” Journal of Global Buddhism 22, no. 1 (2021): 121–39. https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1308
Gleig, Ann. “Buddhists and Racial Justice: A History.” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, July 24, 2020. https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/buddhists-racial-justice/.
———. “Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage and Buddhist Studies Scholarship.” The Shiloh Project (blog), May 2, 2021. https://www.shilohproject.blog/why-are-white-buddhists-so-angry-white-rage-and-buddhist-studies-scholarship/.
Gleig, Ann, and Brenna Grace Artinger. “#BuddhistCultureWars: BuddhaBros, Alt-Right Dharma, and Snowflake Sanghas.” Journal of Global Buddhism 22, no. 1 (2021): 19–48. https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1298
Harris, Melanie L. “In the Company of Friends: Womanist Readings of Buddhist Poems.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 36, no. 1 (2016): 3–8.
Hase, Craig Nicholas, James C. Meadows, and Stephanie L. Budge. “Inclusion and Exclusion in the White Space: An Investigation of the Experiences of People of Color in a Primarily White American Meditation Community.” Journal of Global Buddhism 20 (2019): 1–18. https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1266
Hickey, Wakoh Shannon. “Two Buddhisms, Three Buddhisms, and Racism.” Journal of Global Buddhism 11 (2010): 1–25. https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/1173
hooks, bell. “Toward a Worldwide Culture of Love.” Lion’s Roar, November 8, 2022. https://www.lionsroar.com/toward-a-worldwide-culture-of-love/.
———. “Waking Up to Racism: Dharma, Diversity, and Race.” Tricycle, Fall 1994. https://tricycle.org/magazine/waking-racism/.
Hucks, Tracey. “Wombu: An Intellectual Exercise in Womanist and Buddhist Reading.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 36 (2016): 43–47. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24801544
Jain, Minna, Myokei Caine-Barrett, Bo-Mi Choi, and Nancy Chu. “Asian American and Black Buddhist Teachers Reflect on Racial Solidarity.” Lion’s Roar. Accessed June 18, 2024. https://www.lionsroar.com/asian-american-and-black-buddhist-teachers-reflect-on-racial-solidarity/.
Kalmanson, Leah. “Buddhism and bell hooks: Liberatory Aesthetics and the Radical Subjectivity of No-Self.” Hypatia 27, no. 4 (2012): 810–27.
Leath, Jennifer. “Canada and Pure Land, a New Field and Buddha-Land: Womanists and Buddhists Reading Together.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 32 (2012): 57–65. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23274469
Lion’s Roar Staff. “Why Is American Buddhism So White?” Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly, November 10, 2011.
“Making the Invisible Visible: Healing Racism in Our Buddhist Communities,” 2000. https://www.dharma.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/making-the-invisible-visible.pdf.
Mason-John, Valerie. “The Time for Black Sanghas Has Arrived.” Lion’s Roar, October 6, 2021. https://www.lionsroar.com/the-time-for-black-sanghas-has-arrived/.
McNicholl, Adeana. “Being Buddha, Staying Woke: Racial Formation in Black Buddhist Writing.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 86, no. 4 (December 2018): 883–911. https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article-pdf/86/4/883/26867436/lfy019.pdf
———. “Buddhism and Race in the United States.” Religion Compass 15, no. 8 (2021). https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/rec3.12412.
Medine, Carolyn. “Practice in Buddhist-Womanist Thought.” Buddhist Christian Studies 36 (2016): 17–28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24801542
Mitchell, Matthew, ed. “Religious Studies Review (Special Issue): Symposium on Race and Buddhism” 50, no. 1 (2024): 113–31.
Pintak, Lawrence. “Something Has to Change: Blacks in American Buddhism.” Lion’s Roar, September 1, 2001. https://www.lionsroar.com/something-has-to-change-blacks-in-american-buddhism/.
Razak, Arisika. “Affinity Sanghas and the Practice of Refuge.” Lion’s Roar. Accessed March 12, 2024. https://www.lionsroar.com/affinity-sanghas-and-the-practice-of-refuge/.
Rowe, James K. “Baldwin and Buddhism: Death Denial, White Supremacy, and the Promise of Racial Justice.” The Arrow, December 16, 2020. https://arrow-journal.org/baldwin-and-buddhism-death-denial-white-supremacy-and-the-promise-of-racial-justice/.
Selzer, Linda Furgerson. “Black American Buddhism: History and Representation.” In Writing as Enlightenment: Buddhist American Literature into the Twenty-First Century, edited by John Whalen-Bridge and Gary Storhoff. SUNY Series in Buddhism and American Culture. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2011.
———. “The Trauma of an American Untouchable.” Lion’s Roar, March 5, 2021. https://www.lionsroar.com/the-trauma-of-an-american-untouchable/.
Smalls, Shanté Paradigm. “Making Black Buddhist Writing on an Apocalyptic Earth.” The Arrow, September 21, 2022. https://arrow-journal.org/making-black-buddhist-writing-on-an-apocalyptic-earth/.
Strand, Clark. “Born in the USA: Racial Diversity in Soka Gakkai International.” Tricycle 13, no. 2 (2003): 51–57. https://tricycle.org/magazine/born-usa-racial-diversity-soka-gakkai-international/
Thomas, Linda E. “Womanist Approaches to the" Therīgātha" and the" Therīgātha’s" Influence on Womanism.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 36 (2016): 29–42.
Vesely-Flad, Rima. “Black Buddhists and the Body: New Approaches to Socially Engaged Buddhism.” Religions 8, no. 11 (October 2017): 1–10. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/8/11/239
Walker, Alice. “This Was Not an Area of Large Plantations: Suffering Too Insignificant for the Majority to See.” In We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting for: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. New York: The New Press, 2021.
Yetunde, Pamela Ayo. “Black Lesbians to the Rescue! A Brief Correction with Implications for Womanist Christian Theology and Womanist Buddhology.” Religions 8, no. 17 (2017): 1–10. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/8/9/175
Yetunde, Pamela Ayo. “Songbird Birdsong.” The Dewdrop, August 7, 2023. https://thedewdrop.org/2023/08/07/songbird-birdsong/.
Yetunde, Pamela Ayo, and Rima Vesely-Flad. “Chapter Seven: The Emergence of the Black Buddhist Radical Tradition.” In Moved by the Spirit: Religion and the Movement for Black Lives, edited by Christophe Darro Ringer, Teresa L. Smallwood, and Emilie Maureen Townes. Religion and Borders. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2023.
