Liz Bucar on Instagram: "“Everything happens for a reason” sounds compassionate—until it’s said to someone facing racism, poverty, or violence. Then it’s just spiritual bypassing dressed up as ancient wisdom. After my posts on wellness culture and appropriation kept resonating, people asked: How did we get here? How did karma become “you manifested this” and reincarnation become “you chose your trauma to learn”? So here’s your reading list. These 8 books trace how Eastern concepts like karma and reincarnation got stripped from their ethical frameworks, divorced from community accountability, and repackaged as American self-help. The result? A spirituality that tells oppressed people they chose their suffering while making the privileged feel spiritually evolved for doing nothing. From bell hooks on commodifying marginalized spiritual practices to Iris Marion Young’s framework for structural injustice, from the invention of “soul lessons” language to what engaged practice actually looks like—these books show what we lost when spirituality became about personal optimization instead of collective liberation. You don’t need to read all 8. Pick one that speaks to you and dig in. Full annotated list with descriptions on my Substack—link in bio. 💬 Which book are you starting with? Let me know in the comments. #WellnessCulture #SpiritualBypassing #ReligiousAppropriation #StructuralInjustice #Karma #BookRecommendations #SocialJustice #CriticalThinking #BellHooks #ReligionReimagined"

583 likes, 12 comments - lizbucar on October 17, 2025: "“Everything happens for a reason” sounds compassionate—until it’s said to someone facing racism, poverty, or violence. Then it’s just spiritual bypassing dressed up as ancient wisdom. After my posts on wellness culture and appropriation kept resonating, people asked: How did we get here? How did karma become “you manifested this” and reincarnation become “you chose your trauma to learn”? So here’s your reading list. These 8 books trace how Eastern concepts like karma and reincarnation got stripped from their ethical frameworks, divorced from community accountability, and repackaged as American self-help. The result? A spirituality that tells oppressed people they chose their suffering while making the privileged feel spiritually evolved for doing nothing. From bell hooks on commodifying marginalized spiritual practices to Iris Marion Young’s framework for structural injustice, from the invention of “soul lessons” language to what engaged practice actually looks like—these books show what we lost when spirituality became about personal optimization instead of collective liberation. You don’t need to read all 8. Pick one that speaks to you and dig in. Full annotated list with descriptions on my Substack—link in bio. 💬 Which book are you starting with? Let me know in the comments. #WellnessCulture #SpiritualBypassing #ReligiousAppropriation #StructuralInjustice #Karma #BookRecommendations #SocialJustice #CriticalThinking #BellHooks #ReligionReimagined".

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