FALL 2009
On October 14th Ann returned to The San Francisco Buddhist Center to give a presentation about Dr. Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism, as part of our International Ambedkar Month celebrations.
SPRING 2009
Ann gave an overview of The Jai Bhim movement to the ESL department at the downtown campus of City College, at the encouragement of her colleagues. She also returned to present to The Aryaloka Buddhist Center, in New Hampshire, and to the Saint Jerome's community in Connecticut.
SUMMER 2008
On July 23rd Ann made a Sangha Night Presentation at The San Francisco Buddhist Center, "The Buddhist Youth Movement in India", sharing her tales of travel from her 3-week trip to India in May 2008, where she served on a Team at a Buddhist Youth Retreat. She also reported back about the emerging, vibrant Buddhist youth movement that is spreading across India, which is part of a larger Buddhist social change movement, rooted in the Dalit or Ex-Untouchable community. This movement is inspired by the Buddhist Dharma, organizing around the principles of Liberty, Equality and Community, to create a truly democratic India, free of caste prejudice and discrimination.There was a lot of curiosity in the sangha about this movement, and people asked thoughtful, engaging questions.
The workshop explored these themes:
How is CASTE different from RACE, ETHNICITY or SOCIAL CLASS?
What are the origins of India’s CASTE SYSTEM?
Is CASTE IDENTITY still relevant in modern India?
It also introduced to San Francisco educators Dr. Ambedkar, who believed that true LIBERTY, EQUALITY and FRATERNITY would only be achieved in Independent India once casteism was abolished.
The workshop was attended by teaching faculty as well as staff from Human Resources at the college. We considered the Reservation System in India and Affirmative Action in The United States, discrimination and privilege according to skin color, and the ways racism and casteism overlap. It reminded me that Dr. Ambedkar was ultimately working to end discrimination. Not just caste discrimination, but all the ways people discriminate against one another. The participants in this workshop made these connections themselves, and it made for an extremely rich and hopeful conversation.