Joseph Cheah is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Theology at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, Connecticut.

"Race and Religion in American Buddhism is an excellent contribution to the fields of religious studies, Asian American Studies, ethnic studies, immigrant religions, and studies of American Buddhism that lays bare the white supremacist assumptions of privilege in the defition of what makes a real Buddhist... Such a book-length study as this stands to transform the discourse on American Buddhism and Asian American religions in significant and much needed ways." --Amerasia Journal

"In a compelling and wide-ranging account, Joseph Cheah convincingly demonstrates how white supremacy has fundamentally shaped Buddhist religious practices both in Burma and the United States. Shuttling between different time periods, countries, and scales, he contextualizes how religious practices 'travel' and highlights the role of colonialism and race in structuring the rearticulation of religious beliefs, traditions, and practices." --Michael Omi, co-author of Racial Formation in the United States

"Joseph Cheah's hard-hitting, insightful look into the racial politics of American Buddhism is a must-read for the religious studies scholar and Buddhist lay practitioner alike. Cheah skillfully employs contemporary theory, historical research, and his own deep understanding of Burmese American Buddhists to craft a compelling account. The narrative he traces illuminates the ways in which 'whiteness' pervades Americans' sense of Buddhism and the competing forces that ethnic practitioners must deal with in order to maintain their religious identity." --Jane Iwamura, author of Virtual Orientalism: Asian Religions and American Popular Culture

"[T]his book is a compelling account of how Buddhism in general has been received in the US and Europe. It is an excellent contribution to Buddhist studies in particular and the study of the dynamics of racism in religion in general."--CHOICE