Using Loving Kindness to Address the Painful History of the Past

Quentin Gooch, October 13, 2021

I am an African-American male currently living in Mexico. Typically, I would not lead an article with that information, but you will come to see as the story progresses why this is a vital part of this article.

Recently, I travelled with my partner to the city of Guanajuato in central Mexico. Set in the central highlands, Guanajuato is literally built into and on the mountains there. Known for its small alleyways or “callejóns” and colorful, colonial buildings, it is truly a beautiful place to visit if you ever get the chance. In most tourist articles you read about the best things to do in Guanajuato, you will be suggested to take a Callejoneados tour. These tours occur in the evenings and are led by 5-6 musicians playing mandolins and accordions, that take you on a tour of some of the most famous alleys playing and giving the history of some of the principal buildings in Guanajuato. Sounds great, right? It was actually one of the things I was most excited to do while we were there.

Of course, as in most groups set up this way, there was a leader who did most of the talking. He was jovial and tried to of course make people laugh and enjoy themselves. Now the tour is completely in Spanish, so while I am getting much better after spending almost a year in Mexico, I still can’t catch or understand everything. But this was ok for me, actually preferred so I could get practice. Within the first 5 minutes of the tour, the leader was telling some joke about monkeys (I didn’t completely understand), but at the end of his story he decided to call and point me out as the monkey in the group. Now realize, I was the only black person in the group. My partner, who speaks fluent Spanish, seeing my reaction, explained to me that one of the other people on the tour who was from the San Diego area told the leader of the Callejoneados in Spanish that he had really messed up (though he used much stronger language). The leader proceeded to say sorry and try to play it off as a joke and then pointed to another man and said, “he can be the monkey”.

African-Americans being called monkeys has a long and troubled history in the United States. During segregation and unfortunately even sometimes in current times, African-Americans are called monkeys as an insult and derogatory term. My grandparents and even parents have had to deal with this growing up in the times of Jim Crow and segregation in the United States. So, this really hit me and I was definitely taken aback. In my mind, I tried to replay the situation: (1) we are in a different country and this person may be unaware of the subtext and deeper meaning/history of his words (2) Maybe he was just joking and trying to get the audience riled up and didn’t know the seriousness of what he was saying to a black person and how that might make me feel (3) I thought on the other hand, he definitely knew because the gentleman from San Diego didn’t have to explain why he messed up; he already knew why he messed up.

For the next hour of the tour, I could not get this situation out of my mind. If I wasn’t thinking directly about what happened, I was thinking about what I could say to him after the tour. I wanted him to know how he hurt me with his “joke”. I had even typed up things I would say to him in Google Translate since I don’t currently have enough Spanish skills to get these kinds of complex conversations across. I might as well have left the tour because I couldn’t pay attention or even enjoy what I was seeing or the music they were playing because I kept replaying the monkey situation in my head.

In the end, I chose not to address the man, a decision I mulled over for quite a bit afterwards. This would have been my chance to educate him, but I know that my thoughts and what I had been typing into Google Translate to tell him were less about educating him, and more about telling him how he made me feel and expressing my anger towards him and the situation. This may have made me feel better in the short term to express my anger at him, but would have done nothing in the long run to prevent this from happening again. I feel like since the beginning of human history, we as humans have separated ourselves into groups. This group is better and more powerful than that one, this one is more deserving of wealth and riches than that one, etc.

So what does Buddhism teach us about this?

In the book, In Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, Section IV, Part 6: The Community (3) “Purification is for All Four Castes”, Master Gotama begins having a discussion with a brahmin student who states:

Brahmins are the highest caste, those of other caste are inferior; brahmins are the fairest caste, those of any other caste are dark; only brahmins are purified, not non-brahmins; brahmins alone are the sons of Brahma, created by Brahma, heirs of brahma. What does Master Gotama say about that?

Master Gotama had a lot to say about this. But I will only describe his last question to the brahmin student here:

“Suppose there were two brahmin students who were brothers, born of the same mother, one studious and intelligent, but immoral and of bad character, and the other neither studious nor intelligent, but virtuous and of good character. Which of them would Brahmins feed first at a funeral feast, or at a ceremonial offering, or at a sacrificial feast, or feast for guests?”

The student responded,

“On such occasions, brahmins would feed first the one who was neither studious nor intelligent, but virtuous and of good character, Master Gotama; for how could what is given to one who is immoral and of bad character bring great fruit?”

I would encourage everyone who has a chance to read the entire section, but in summary, the Brahmins thought they were superior to the other castes and deserved purification over the other inferior castes. While in the US, we don’t operate under a caste system (at least not in an official sense), there are still those be it because of their race, wealth, profession, etc. who feel superior and first in line. Why has this always seemed to be part of the human experience? It is our actions, be them virtuous and of good character, that determine our status in this world and the lives to come.

So back to the Callejoneadas tour. I guess my actions were somewhere in the middle. I chose loving kindness not to address the man directly with anger; however, I also didn’t provide him any additional education that could help him not offend others like Master Gotama did with this young brahmin student. As someone who thinks they are probably walking the Mahayana Buddhist path, and hopes to someday in this or the next life become a Bodhisattva, this was an opportunity to educate someone and bring them along with me.

Have you experienced situations like this? I know this is one that I will be meditating on.