It was two years ago this month when we learned about the whitest thing ever: a white woman teaching an “Undoing Whiteness” yoga class in Seattle. Laura Humpf said her class was to “arrive at yoga’s literal meaning: union. White supremacy thwarts achieving that union within the individual and with others.” It would do so by dissecting the “pathology of whiteness” through movement.
Now, thanks to Yahoo News, we’re excited to read “Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance,” by yoga instructor and body activist Jessamyn Stanley. Stephanie Emma Pfeffer reports:
The book explores the existence of white supremacy and cultural appropriation in American yoga. “I would venture to say that everything in our collective society is rooted in white supremacy. I am sure there are many people who would disagree with that, and honestly I don’t care because I believe that and I know it’s the case,” she says.
“I think that we see it show up in a lot of different ways. In the same way it’s everywhere else and it has polluted everything else, it’s polluted yoga. It’s very much a part of how yoga has spread in America. The popularity of yoga really came down to wealthy white people wanting to learn and explore in a very specific way, and that’s why yoga has been so white for so long in America.”
Detailing the cultural appropriation in yoga, Stanley says it’s “rampant because we are still living in the legacy of colonization.”
OK.
"I would venture to say that everything in our collective society is rooted in white supremacy. I am sure there are many people who would disagree with that, and honestly I don't care because I believe that and I know it's the case." https://t.co/9r1AmHXBf5
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) June 9, 2021
Recommended
Pretty sure this author is not Indian. Yet she's complaining that white people took over yoga. Well, you're born in North Carolina. Did North Carolinians also appropriate it?
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) June 9, 2021
Just remember this is a very empirical science and not just weaponized racial resentment
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) June 9, 2021
This article is a good example of why when I was in college, I used to collectively call Depts like AA Studies, Queer studies, etc. as "Grievance Studies". It seems like their only reason for existence is to take damaged people's resentments and weaponize them for political needs
— Samyak सम्यक সাম্যক (@samyak128) June 9, 2021
Sometimes you have to wonder if the media publishing articles like this or those who write them are trolling.
— fallfbc (@fallfbc) June 9, 2021
If I could lie to myself like this on a daily basis, I'd be much more successful in my own mind.
— Scott …….just Scott for now (@Scareywrestrock) June 9, 2021
I think we can all agree this person has problems with reality.
— BundlebranchblockMD👁️👁️ (@Bleedinheart2MD) June 9, 2021
"I think that when I bring up cultural appropriation in yoga, everyone's butthole clenches because everybody's like, 'Oh s—, I think she might be insane.''"
— ᴍᴀᴄᴋ (@talonetc) June 9, 2021
Ah yes, yoga was stolen… From… Obese black Americans…. They must take it back… pic.twitter.com/HQu8GGpMSl
— Ghost (@nwrmbing) June 9, 2021
I don’t think she does yoga.
— 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐒 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 (@hillbilladelco) June 9, 2021
Sometimes you have wonder if people say stuff not because they believe it, but because they know it may benefit them financially.
— A.Matthews 🏏 (@Aston365) June 9, 2021
You can’t reason with those who have paranoid irrational delusions. They should just be ignored. The problem is we have people in power and institutions feeding this nonsense and giving it credibility. To me this is just another conspiracy theory. Akin to flat earth & chem trails
— Mike #GetWatson (@Boston__Sucks) June 9, 2021
"But by the end of it I realized I don't have s— to say to anybody else that I don't first need to say to myself – and that is the most important work of all."
— Dirty Cyclist 👾 (@DirtyCyclist) June 9, 2021
— Kevin Magin (@KevoutMag) June 9, 2021
I'm tempted to ask a very obvious question, but I shall refrain
— Venom Rach (@SocialNomadRach) June 9, 2021
She’s a body activist. There’s your answer.
There is no convincing people like this. They live in their own version of reality.
— Fred Nunyabidness (@FNunyabidness) June 9, 2021
Related:
There’s nothing whiter than a white woman teaching an ‘Undoing Whiteness’ yoga class in Seattle https://t.co/ruXMFqf3YP
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 11, 2019
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