BJR History

The partial documentation of our history is inspired in part by the book Hidden Histories: Faith and Black Lesbian Leadership by Monique Moultrie to avoid completely hiding ourselves. Buddhist Justice Reporter (BJR) was launched by women and non-binary people across gender, sex, professional, and Buddhist lineage identity spectrums.

George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was brutally tortured and murdered by police officers in Minneapolis, MN on May 25, 2020, sending human rights shock waves throughout the world. On June 26, 2020, author Pamela Ayo Yetunde sent an open letter to BIPOC Buddhist groups in the Twin Cities inviting practitioners into a new idea for Buddhist justice-making community and practice. The provisional working title for the sangha was “Order of Freedom (OF).”

On November 4, 2020, It was announced that the trial against the police officers would be publicly televised. After sharing ideas and meeting for several months, an observation was made: many of those who regularly attended OF meetings were also experienced writers interested in publishing. Inspired by anti-lynching journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science Monitor, Yetunde suggested the name “Buddhist Justice Reporter” (BJR). Before anything had been written, the idea was shared with James Shaheen, editor-in-chief of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, who had interviewed Yetunde and her Black and Buddhist co-editor Cheryl A. Giles. Shaheen readily offered Tricycle’s platforms to BJR. Given the international attention paid to this particular injustice, and the opportunity to observe a live criminal trial online, OF-BJR wanted to encourage people to pay attention to the trial in order to learn how the justice systems operate as it relates to police officers on trial for killing unarmed Black and people of color. BJR’s launch was possible due to the efforts of the original core team Shannon Gibney, Felicia Washington Sy, Karin Aguilar-San Juan, Ph.D., Camille Bryant, J.D., Zenzele Isoke, Ph.D., Carol Atsuko Iwata, Pamela Ayo Yetunde, J.D., Th.D., Jen Racho, and Minna Jain.

After the trial concluded, BJR’s ongoing work was supported by Lion’s Roar, including representation in their 2023 Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit.