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In Race and Religion in American Buddhism, Joseph Cheah argued there was an ‘undertheorization of race in new immigrant Buddhist studies’. Since then, the statement has become less applicable. A growing corpus of scholarship addresses Buddhist intersections with U.S. indigeneity, ‘Pureland’ Buddhism’s acceptance in Black communities, Buddhism’s intersections with U.S. racial protest traditions, and explicit interrogation of the role of White normativity and supremacy within U.S. Buddhist sanghas. Concerning the latter, the critical study of Whiteness and Buddhism is in ascendance. Yet, less developed is a systematic study of media discourse on race, Whiteness, and Buddhism. Despite the wealth of material on ethno-racial categories, media, and religion, there remains little scholarly investigation of mainstream U.S. newspapers and Buddhist periodicals’ depictions of Buddhism and Whiteness. This article covers both emic and etic perspectives on this relationship through examination of over 250 American media articles published in both mainstream and Buddhist periodicals over the past half-century (1970–2021). Findings reveal both stunning narrative heterogeneity and rather muddied and contradictory media framing as well as the presence of nine general themes (six from mainstream- and three from Buddhist-periodicals) that coalesce in certain moments but also span just over 50 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

W. E. B. Du Bois often appropriated and deployed the metaphor of 'Prometheus,' drawing from Hesiod's Theogony, Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound, Goethe's poem 'Prometheus,' and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Throughout Du Bois's career, he employed this figure in order for the reader to better understand the racialized social order in general and White supremacy in specific. In what follows, I cover the eighteenth and nineteenth century use of the Prometheus metaphor in regard to critiques of racism and slavery. I then establish how Du Bois stepped into this tradition to advance a multifaceted critique of global White supremacy that continues to resonate today. Precisely, Du Bois rendered this character in six patterned forms: (1) as an embodiment of de jure and de facto segregation; (2) as newly conscious Black people that would soon revolt against White supremacy; (3) as the paradoxical capture and harm of White people by their own design; (4) as the prejudice, discrimination, and racism born of White supremacist politics; (5) as the struggle of Black folks against White supremacy; and (6) a Black-centered spiritual worldview of eventual liberation. Together, these six deployments signal the early manifestations of both critical race theory and Afrofuturism-two modes of inquiry that help us to reconsider not only the material repercussions of racial inequality but the pathways and roadblocks toward racial utopia., Author(s): Matthew W. Hughey [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.63054.34, 0000 0001 0860 4915, Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut, , Storrs, CT, USA Introduction W. E. B. Du Bois repeatedly [...]

On March 2, 1867, the Historically Black College or University (HBCU) Howard University (HU) was founded in Washington, D. C. Almost exactly one year later, the all white fraternity of Pi Kappa Alpha was founded at the University of Virginia. Over 100 years later, on February 18 2006, fifty-five HU students became charter members of Pi Kappa Alpha ("Pike"), making the Pikes the first traditionally White social Greek organization to begin a colony at HU. Using recent interviews with HU students as a touchstone for analysis, this author presents a six-part typology of student ideological responses to the Pike colony. These responses are described nominally and arranged in order of ascending racial consciousness. The first is the "Color-Blind Copasetic," who argues for a post-race political utopia. Next is the "Agreeable Assimilationist," who views HU's predominantly Black campus culture as disingenuous and possibly misinformative. Next is the "Campus Conventionist," who views non-Black changes to tradition as negative. There is also the "Munificent Multiculturalist," who believes that racial diversity, no matter the form, is positive. In addition, there is the "Radical Racialist," who expresses a dislike of the Pikes on campus because of their White traditionalism and racist past. Last is "Antonio's Ghost," who believes that the Pikes can be used by Black students to advance Black interests. While these labels are surely reductive, they nonetheless capture a certain version of the HU student realities of culturally specific ideologies that make meaning and sense out of the HU Pike presence. (Contains 1 figure and 7 notes.)