The African Heritage Course
I am so grateful that Victoria Robertson made time to talk to us on Episode #16 of the Insight Myanmar Podcast, “Intersections of Dhamma and Race, Part 1.” Victoria was the first Black person world-wide to be appointed as an AT/Senior AT in the tradition of Vipassana under S.N. Goenka.
On this episode, she spoke openly about a sensitive topic, and I hope that all of us in the meditator community can look honestly at the issues she raises. Here is an excerpt from her talk, in which she describes her efforts to lead a course for Black meditators first in India, and then (unsuccessfully) in the US.
“I mean, [meditation] centers are no different from our own systems. You know, systemic racism is part of our country.”
“Well, the first time I went [to Dhamma Giri], I went for six months. And then right after that, I came home to make some money, and I was there for about a year and then I will come back and forth for like, yatras or special occasions. And I was appointed in an AT to be an Assistant Teacher in 2002 or so. So in 2009, they dedicated a place called Dhamma Patthana, the Global Pagoda near Mumbai. And so they have world leaders, everyone come in and leaders in India, and that was in 2000. And they were planning it.
And 2008, that was the year that Obama won. So for the first time, the Indians now understood what an African American was. So… someone on the committee said, “do we have an African American ATs?” Of course, I was the only one at that time, and so they asked me to come to the inauguration of the pagoda. And it was kind of sad because, you know, you have over 3,000 people there, and maybe four or five Black people and Black Americans. Well, there were Black people from different parts of the world. What happened was, they invited me to come, I wasn't going to come because I had gone so many times, maybe 10 times before. And I was like, well, you know, to be the token AT I'm not sure if I want to do that, but I think they might have already anticipated that. So they said they were paying my way. So, when they said they would pay my way, I called my father [and asked] should do this, I mean, it's really short notice, usually most of the time I prepare to go to India three or four months ahead of time. So he said “I think you should let them pay your way. You know, they want you to come.”
So I went, and then after that, one of the ATs mentioned to me, she was going to be an AT, I think they were preparing her to be in an AT. And she is African, from Kenya, and had lived in England for many years. And she proposed, as we had been speaking about it for a little while in email, and she came up with a title, because "People of Color" just didn't sound like that was a “vipassana way” of doing things. So she came up with the title, "African Heritage". So that would mean people of African descent from all over the world.
So I arranged it on this end, because I had... my father had a camp in Virginia, founded through JC organization for people with mental and emotional challenges, physical challenges, but in the offseason, people rented the camp so for about 10 years or so, we put on ten day courses there twice a year. So the people who lived in the area who happened to do vipassana, we all set that course up in around 2002. So I knew how to set up courses. And I knew how to get a registration person. So I asked a few of the meditators if they will help me out, would they be open to being involved in a project like this? And yeah, I used to have a lot of sittings at my home. So I knew a lot of meditators. So we set this course up remotely.
And you know, firstly to get permission from Goenkaji. I wrote a long letter to him and all this and he said, "Yes." So we set it up, and that took place. So that took place and we thought that perhaps we could have those courses here in America, too, at certain centers, and that would attract more Black people. You know, that would be a way of conducting outreach by holding these courses or maybe one course a year. But we got a lot of pushback, especially from Americans, that this was unnecessary. “We didn't need that.” I was very surprised. And I didn't really know where that was coming from. I guess I didn't want to know where it was coming from. But the course was held [in India] and it was successful.
You know, we were not allowed to have the courses here in America. It was coming from all the ATs here in America. The excuses were, "we don't need that. That would cause a separation, that would bring racism out more.” These are typical excuses that we were used to before in any situation that involves race. I mean, centers are no different from our own systems. You know, systemic racism is part of our country. So I would imagine that that made [the American ATs] uncomfortable. They said that it was against Dhamma. I think that that's what happens in meditation groups.
Because when you run away from what's uncomfortable, a lot of times... I didn't start my path until I was 38. So I have been uncomfortable with race for my entire life. And this is something that I've said, if there's a truth, a real truth, well, I must come out of this, if it's possible. And you know, it's so interesting. The way I came out of it was through it. You know, me promoting African Heritage courses, I really already knew once you start promoting something, that as a Black person, that alone Black person, your chances of succeeding are probably not very high, and you get singled out and anything can happen after that. And it did. But it was also my own salvation because I didn't give up meditating. You know, it was too much a part of me.
I felt like, look, I was serving I was an AT for seven years. That meant I served a lot of people, right? I mean, I would do like, sometimes I'd even serve five courses a year... And I went to Israel, I went to I went to different countries serving. So that meant I hardly ever served African Americans, maybe one or two if they showed up in the courses. And every time you sit down with Goenkaji, he would always say "you must spread Dhamma to your community".