She is also a
Tibetan Buddhist, affiliated with
Shambhala. She has credited
Buddhism with her ability to keep a calm
mind in the face of
racism and people's general
lack of respect for others. I saw her speak in
DC. An audience
member asked "What can
white people do to combat the
system of white supremacy in daily life?", to which she detailed the following
story:
She was in an
airport and a
random white guy bumped into her without
apology, and she got the
feeling by his
body language that he didn't care or
respect her. This may or may not have been because she is
black. But from
many past experiences she was fairly
certain that he would have been more courteous had she been
white. Regardless, she was used to most people not coming to her
defense. But this time, a tall
blond white guy immediately said, "
Excuse me, but that was
rude of you, what you just did." This may seem
insignificant, but this simple
act was encouraging. Merely
standing up for
others and not remaining
silent in the face of
disrespect or
discrimination would be enough to show
black people that white people are
human and
individuals and would be exercising the Buddhist principle of
mindfulness in
action.