What Difference Does A Black Buddha Make?
Reading the story of the Buddha has always been synonymous to a Hollywood movie or reading a fairy tale. The Buddha story has been as unreal as watching a white Cleopatra or Columbus discovering an inhabited country occupied with millions of people. Discovering the story of the Black Buddha is like discovering a conspiracy. Once honest people discover a conspiracy honest people want the truth told. In 1989 I presented to my Soka Gakkai leaders
( Ex-Communicated Former Nichiren Shoshu Lay Organization)
information about the ethnicity of Shakyamuni Buddha and for the first time I saw Japanese SGI Buddhist leaders act just like White Race conspirators anxious to cover up the ethnicity of Shakyamuni as White people had done for centuries. When the compelling evidence that I presented to the SGI was ignored and the SGI (Soka Gakkai International) leaders attempted to cover up compelling evidence lead me to lose faith in the SGI Buddhist organization.
For The Sake Of Understanding The History Of Buddhism Shakyamuni Buddha's Ethnicity is Important.
If an African/American ask a priest about the ethnicity of Shakyamuni the question is an honest and respectful question that deserves to be answered. When a White person responds to the question of Shakyamuni's ethnicity by being defensive of White historians of their deleting the Black heritage of Shakyamuni out of history and answers the question with a question What difference does it make presents the white person in a prejudice or racist context. The question of Shakyamuni's ethnicity does make a difference to African and African/Americans. Further it is a common writing practice of historians when writing about a particular region to define the dominate ethnic make up the region. To understand clearly the history of Buddhism the ethnic make up is important. Japanese people protect and preserve their history and traditions, Jewish people protect their history, white people protect their history. Slavery and racism shattered Black history and today Black people are fighting to correct our place in history. Black people have a Buddhist history and we should be only proud to express that history without feeling ashamed or characterized as a racist because we take pride in our Buddhist history.
