What do non-Western modes of thinking have to tell us about the nature of race and racism, the mechanisms for racial injustice, and the potential for dismantling such injustice?

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Emily McRae, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Mexico and the co-editor of the book “Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections”, 2019, Lexington Books.

The book is made of 15 essays by 15 different authors, and as Dr. McRae says in the introduction, “it is the first volume of its kind to offer a collection of philosophical analyses of whiteness, race, and racism using Buddhist conceptual frameworks."

The book can be seen as an intersection of Critical Philosophy of Race and Buddhist Philosophy.

We talked about the whole volume coming together as well as her own essay called “White Delusion and Avidiya: A Buddhist Approach to Understanding and Deconstructing White Ignorance”.

This is our first podcast episode within the project “Nothingness: Other Ways of Imagining Visual Arts”.