Widening the circle: Communities of color and Western Buddhist convert sanghas: Sharon Smith

Buddhism is now one of the fastest growing religions in the West, though so far, people of African, Caribbean, and Asian descent form only a small minority of those who have chosen to convert to Buddhism. This has significant implications for Western Buddhists, both as individual practitioners and for their faith communities. Many practitioners are now based in increasingly diverse communities that face both the promises of multiculturalism and challenges from racial discrimination and social exclusion. However, although there has been an increasing amount of work on Buddhist sanghas in the West, little has explored the extent to which these reflect the diversity of the population from which they are drawn.