ABSTRACT
Racecraft has played a predominant role in American history and culture since the founding of the nation. American economic strength was built on slave labour and the subsequent economic growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade; even after the end of slavery, the search for cheap labour resulted in America’s open immigration policy following the Civil War. This chapter analyses the rise of bioracism in America, with particular focus on yellow peril and anti-Buddhist fears. Racecraft ideology and bioracism were ubiquitous in American culture and considered to be one in the same with “science.” The chapter displays the ideological landscape which Buddhists were entering beginning especially in 1899 with the solidification of American bioracism and continuing well into the supposed “Zen Boom” of the 1950s. Racecraft has been one of the most historically significant factors in the development of the United States and American particularism.
