Free Online Courses 

Anti-Racism is a three-course specialization intended for anyone who is interested in learning about race and racism, particularly in the context of the United States, wants to be an anti-racist advocate, or seeks to incorporate anti-racist practices into their daily lives. The courses in the specialization include the following:

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• Anti-Racism I is an ideal starting place for learners unfamiliar with critical race theory and want a primer on race and racism in the United States.

• Anti-Racism II builds on the basics introduced in the first course and explores historical and linguistic constructions of race and racism in the United States and the theory of intersectionality. The second course also asks learners to apply its content to cultural contexts outside of the US, and it culminates in an interview project aimed at deepening conversational nuance when learners engage with the topics of race and racism with family, friends, colleagues, or peers.

• Anti-Racism III then puts the theory introduced in the first two courses into practice. Learners will create a plan for practicing anti-racism and develop a project for community outreach and engagement.

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Video and Audio

How to Fight Injustice without Hating, a four-part video series by Valerie Brown. Based on Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings of engaged Buddhism and the Plum Village tradition, this course offers practices to help ground ourselves amid the negativity and injustice that we face. From a peaceful center, you’ll discover how to skillfully respond to strong emotions that may arise while engaging in social causes. Valerie Brown is a dharma teacher of Afro-Cuban descent in the Plum Village tradition founded by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. 

Buddhism, Oppression, and Justice. Social justice activist Pamela Ayo Yetunde facilitates a conversation between Rhonda Magee, author of The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness and Rima Veseley-Flad, author of Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice, on the topics of dharma practice, oppression, and justice. 

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Learning about Black Buddhist Dharma Teachers and Healing Justice, podcast with Rima Vesely-Flad. 

Buddhism, Writing, and Race, a conversation with Charles Johnson. Hawaii Book and Music Festival and Better Tomorrow Speaker Series, 2021. Novelist, philosopher, essayist, literary scholar, short-story writer, cartoonist and illustrator, an author of children’s literature, and a screen-and-teleplay writer, Charles Johnson says, "Were it not for the Buddhadharma, I'm convinced that, as a black American and an artist, I would not have been able to successfully negotiate my last half century of life in this country. Or at least not with a high level of creative productivity."

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Undoing Whiteness in American Buddhist Modernism. Harvard Divinity School Buddhism and Race Speaker Series, 2021. 

Black and Buddhist and the Sanitized Stench of Genocide in the U. S. Zen Peacemakers, 2021.

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Black And Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation, and Freedom, Harvard Divinity School, 2020.