I first came across the work of Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams through Tara Brach’s podcast, when they explored some of the ideas in the book Radical Dharma (2016). It was a powerful conversation, and an even more powerful read. So I was actually quite excited about the article Social Justice / Buddhism / Queerness (Webster, 2017, pp.34-36).

This very short review is written by a black queer woman of mix heritage and working-class. The book was written by black American queer and/or transgender practitioners and teachers of the dharma (Buddhist teachings). Therefore, the chapters in the book that Webster seems to have enjoyed the most were the ones ‘where the authors provided their own testimonies of transforming their own racial/sexual/gender wounds’ (Webster, 2017, p.36). Indeed all their personal testimonies are insightful, but somehow the ‘sexual wounds’ were not the most powerful to me. As a white Brazilian, heterosexual, cis-gendered woman, the aspects that spoke the loudest to me were the ones in which they link spirituality and sangha (community) to racism and capitalism, and how activism applies to me just as much as it applies to marginalised peoples. It is also a path for white reconciliation and self-liberation.

How do I bring that to my teaching? I understand the classroom to be a form of sangha, also linked to systemic racism, oppression, and capitalism. By applying kindness, compassion and honesty (spirituality) to the classroom, in terms of how I engage with every student and their unique experiences, means that we can safely start to address these issues both in the subjects we study but also our personal lives. That is my activism.