Maybe we can all be outsiders together

There is probably no point to this post. Probably if I were sober I'd think of something better to write about. (Although I was sober all day up till now, and didn't write a word except on Twitter. So maybe not.) I guess you can read it and let me know.

Earlier this week, at the meeting of the UU Sangha I attend, our Dharma study was to read an essay by Ruth King about her experience of being Buddhist While Black. Then we discussed our reactions to the piece.

Just to be really clear, the racial composition of this Sangha is lily-white. (I guess since they are Buddhists I should say "lotus-white.") We used to have one member who counted as a "Person of Color" because she was a Pacific Islander and her skin was very dark; but I haven't seen her attend a meeting since before the pandemic.

On the other hand, everyone except me is also a member of the local UU congregation.* So for political reasons, no one would dream of saying that they couldn't relate to the article. 

So what they did was to re-interpret it. Rather than reading the article as a statement about trying to practice Buddhism around white people while you are Black, everyone talked about some time in their past when they had felt like an Outsider, and how that helped them really sympathize with King's experience.

I mean, … I guess that's great.

There were two exceptions. Debbie talked about how she noticed herself being very interested in people who appeared to have a very different background from hers, and how she feared that could be off-putting. ("So tell me, where are you from?" "Uh, … Scranton.") And I didn't say anything at all.

Why not? I didn't think I had anything to say. I certainly didn't have anything useful to add to the discussion of race that was so signally not happening. And as for talking about times I've felt like an Outsider? Sheesh, that's been pretty much every day of my life. I don't know what it would feel like to feel any different. Nothing to talk about here.

You see? I told you this was a pointless post. 

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* You may recall that I started attending way back when Debbie and I were still involved, and that she had actually founded this sangha some years before that. It looks like the first posts where I ever mention it are here, here, and here.