Bearing Witness and Doing Good

I’ve been thinking about bearing witness and doing good. This last month I’ve been thinking of it in terms of my practice and the state of our country. Part of the current state of our country is clearly rooted in racism. Racism is not just a matter of people with obviously hateful attitudes. It is also the quieter decisions, the excuses, and the systems that treat some people as less worthy of safety, dignity, and belonging. There are multiple definitions of racism, but I find this one to be helpful and clear.

Racism is a system of advantage and oppression based on race, maintained through policies, practices, and cultural norms that reinforce racial hierarchies, whether or not individuals consciously intend to be racist.

When we talk about racism, we are not only talking about slurs and insults. We are also talking about how society is built, who is seen as fully human, and whose suffering is ignored or explained away. Today we see this when American citizens are racially profiled and it is called “immigration enforcement.” When someone is stopped because they are brown, or Black, or have a certain last name, that is not neutral law enforcement, that is racism being justified with legal language. We also see it in dehumanizing images, such as posting pictures of Barack and Michelle Obama’s heads on ape bodies. This is not just “bad taste” or “edgy humor.” It echoes a long and brutal history of comparing Black people to animals, in order to justify slavery, segregation, and violence. It is clearly racist, and it is morally outrageous.

If a person cannot see that, or refuses to admit it, the issue is not subtlety. It is a refusal to recognize the humanity of others. And when a platform says, “someone else posted it,” but will not apologize, moderate, or hold anyone accountable, that is not neutrality, it is participation. If we care about ethics and morality, if we care about spiritual practice, then we have to care about this.

A Brief and Honest History of Racism in the United States

This history is painful but naming it clearly is part of honoring those who have suffered, and it helps us not repeat the same patterns in new forms.

Slavery and Its Legacy

• African slavery in the United States was formally present from the early 1600s
• Enslaved Africans were recorded in Virginia as early as 1619
• Slavery became legally and economically central in the colonies, and later the United States
• The Thirteenth Amendment, adopted in 1865, formally abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime
• Racist systems then continued through convict leasing, sharecropping, and discriminatory laws

Slavery was not just about unpaid labor. It was a system that required the idea that Black people were less than human. That same logic still shows up today in dehumanizing images and in policies that treat Black communities as disposable.

Violence against Black People and Black Churches

After the Civil War, white supremacist terror was used to keep Black people “in their place.”

• The Ku Klux Klan and similar groups used lynching, threats, and public violence to create fear
• Black churches, which have long been centers of spiritual life, organizing, and community, were attacked and burned
• This violence continued into the twentieth and twenty first centuries

Examples include the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where four Black girls were killed. More recently, in 2015, a white supremacist murdered nine Black worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Many other Black churches have been burned or vandalized, before and since.

These are not random acts. They are attacks on the bodies, spirits, and gathering places of Black people.

Racism against Jewish People in the United States

Anti-Jewish hatred, or antisemitism, has also been part of United States history. Jewish people have faced:

• Employment and housing discrimination
• Restrictions at universities and clubs
• Stereotyping and scapegoating in media and politics

In recent years, the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was one of the deadliest attacks on Jewish people in United States history. The shooter was motivated by antisemitic conspiracy theories. There have been many other attacks and threats against synagogues, Jewish schools, and community centers.

Antisemitism is deeply connected to racism and other forms of hatred. All of these systems share a logic that says some groups are dangerous, less human, or a threat to “real” Americans.

Immigration, Racial Profiling, and Who Is Seen as “American”

Racism also shows up when immigration policy is used as a shield for discrimination.

• Chinese immigrants faced the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which explicitly targeted one ethnic group
• Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps during World War Two
• Latino, Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities have been heavily surveilled, profiled, and detained, especially after September 11, 2001

When American citizens are stopped, questioned, or detained because they “look foreign,” what is really happening is racial profiling. Calling that “immigration enforcement” does not erase the racism behind it.

When Platforms and Leaders Fail to Acknowledge Racism

When racist content appears on a website, a social media feed, or a public platform, there is a basic moral responsibility:

• Acknowledge that it is racist
• Apologize for the harm caused
• Remove it and, if appropriate, fire or discipline the person responsible
• Commit to better supervision and moderation going forward

If someone refuses to do even that much, they are not just “uninformed,” they are choosing not to see. And if we find ourselves making excuses for clearly racist acts, it may be time to honestly examine our own hearts.

Goodness and Bearing Witness

Buddhism is often associated with inner peace, meditation, and personal transformation. That is important, but so are core teachings about action.

• See reality clearly
• Avoid causing harm
• Develop compassion and wisdom

Seeing Clearly: Ignorance and Awakening

The root of suffering is ignorance or delusion.

“All tremble at violence, all fear death. Comparing others with oneself, one should neither kill nor cause to kill.”
— Dhammapada, verse 129

Racism depends on a failure to “compare others with oneself.” It relies on the idea that “they” do not feel as deeply as “we” do, that “they” are less worthy of protection. When we deny racism where it clearly exists, we are participating in ignorance, not wisdom.

Doing Good and Avoiding Harm

Buddhist ethics, or sila, are not just about our private minds. They are about what we say and do in the world.

“Avoid all evil, cultivate the good, and cleanse your own mind, this is the teaching of the Buddhas.”
— Dhammapada, verse 183

Avoiding evil does not only mean refusing to personally insult or harm others. It also means not supporting systems or images that dehumanize people. Cultivating good includes speaking up, creating safer spaces, and standing with those who are targeted. “Cleansing your own mind” includes looking honestly at any racism, bias, or indifference that lives in us, and working to transform it.

Bearing Witness

I took vows as a Buddhist Priest which express a commitment to work for the liberation of all beings, not just oneself. One common formulation is:

“Beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them.
Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them.
The Buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it.”

If beings are numberless, and we vow to serve them all, there is no room to quietly accept that some people are treated as less than human because of their race, ethnicity, or religion. If delusions are inexhaustible, then racism and the denial of racism are exactly the kinds of delusions we are called to confront.

Zen teacher Bernie Glassman, who worked deeply in social justice and interfaith peacemaking, spoke about bearing witness as a core spiritual practice. He described three tenets: not knowing, bearing witness, and loving action.

“To bear witness is to plunge into the unknown and then to let the universe itself reveal the healing action that needs to be taken.”
— Bernie Glassman, see the Zen Peacemakers’ explanation of the Three Tenets at Zen Peacemakers

Bearing witness to racism means we do not turn away. We allow ourselves to truly see the suffering caused by racism, without immediately trying to minimize it, explain it away, or rush past it. From that honest seeing, compassionate action can arise.

Truths

When we put history, ethics, and spiritual practice together, some core truths become clear:

• Racism causes suffering
  Individuals, families, and whole communities carry trauma from generations of slavery, discrimination, violence, and dehumanization
• Seeing racism is the beginning of healing
  Refusing to acknowledge it keeps the wound open
• Naming racism is a moral and spiritual act
  Silence and “neutrality” in the face of obvious harm are forms of participation
• Bearing witness is part of Buddhist and most Christian practice
  We are asked to see suffering clearly, to stand with those who are harmed, and to let compassion guide our actions
• Choosing to stop harm is doing good
  Apologizing, changing policies, holding people accountable, and examining our own hearts are all expressions of right action

My Perspective

From my perspective, if you cannot see the racism in racially profiling American citizens under the name of “immigration enforcement,” or in posting the Obamas’ heads on ape bodies, then the work is not out there, it is inside. It is time to pause, to reflect deeply, and to ask what you might be unwilling to see.

If something racist appears on a platform you run, and your response is to deny, deflect, or shrug, that is not spiritual maturity, and it is not ethical leadership. A sincere response would be to say, “This is wrong, it is racist, it causes harm, and I am sorry it happened here.” Then, to take real steps to prevent it from happening again. My practice does not ask me to be perfect. It asks me to be honest, to cultivate compassion, and to keep turning toward what is real, even when it is uncomfortable. Racism is real. The suffering it causes is real. Our responsibility to bear witness and to do good is also real. If we are willing to see, to listen, and to act, then our spiritual practice can become part of healing, rather than part of the problem.