Their tools to create their own Buddhism are quite limited. And yet, the tale is one of success, as these children often find ways to affirm their own religious identities in contradistinction to their parents. Paradoxically, they do this by identifying their parents as the primary source for their encounter with Buddhism—theirs is a familial lineage.

Convert (typically White) American Buddhists largely hold to (racialized) narratives that denigrate “heritage” Buddhists-by-birth. But where does this leave their children?

In this highly theoretical book of post-colonial critique, Drew Baker (himself a second-generation Buddhist American) analyses how scholars have missed this group of American Buddhists and then tells us about their experience of growing up Buddhish in America.

This book is recommended for parents in the West who are comfortable with jargon and are into Buddhism, but who aren’t sold on “labels.”

The parents are more comfortable with the ambiguity because they chose it, while their children are overtly driven and haunted by the question “well, what am I?”