Western entitlement to Yoga
Originally posted Oct 30th 2019 on my Facebook page.
Screenshot Image description: Young white woman with blond hair and light eyes dressed in Indian clothes and Indian jewelry (big intricate gold earrings, a wide intricate gold necklace, a jeweled gold head band, jeweled ring with gold tassels, blue beaded and gold bracelets) as well as a red Hindu bindi on her forehead. The Indian blouse she’s wearing is dark red with intricate gold embroidery and the sari is matching dark red with gold edging and dark blue border, standing in front of a dark grey background. She is also wearing dark smoky eye make up and red lipstick and lots of blusher on her checkbones.
The biggest theme I see, that runs through EVERY cultural appropriator's arguments, is the idea that they're entitled to yoga.
"But it makes me feel healthier."
"But I don't have access to it anywhere else!"
"But why don't Indians make it easier to find a lineage?"
"But how would I find a guru?"
"But it grounds me."
"But it's helped my back so much."
"But now that I've been exposed to it at the yoga studio, I can learn more about it!"
"But what's wrong with making money while doing something healthy?"
"But yoga teachers need to make a living."
"But how would yoga teachers survive if they didn't charge?"
"But it's appreciation of culture, not appropriation."
"But so many people know about yoga now who didn't before."
And on and on and on.
You are not entitled to yoga. You never have been. You never will be.
Yoga is only ever for, and has only ever been for, those who sincerely seek. You have to prove your sincerity in order to be allowed to learn.
Mirabai was a true seeker. Ravidas was a true seeker. Kabir was a true seeker. Surdas was a true seeker.
Paying for a gym membership is not sincerity. Going to a white woman's "racial justice" class in her yoga studio is not sincerity. Blaming Indians for not making yoga available to you is not sincerity.
Assuming that you are entitled is not sincerity.
True seekers spend years, lifetimes, proving themselves.
You wouldn't know that if you're a cultural appropriator. Go do gymnastics and leave my people alone.
Resources
1,000 Years of Hindu Colonial Trauma
How white yoga harms Hindu people and culture
Yoga in America: “Eating” the Hindu
Hindu multiverse culturally appropriated for profit
“Anti-oppression” and cultural appropriation
Racist Hinduphobes in Seattle at it again
Hinduphobic disability justice
I don’t like International Day of Yoga
Jewish Ally explains why she left white yoga
Get out of the colonizing western yoga industry
PM Modi, Indian Hindu women saw what you did today
What the empire doesn’t want you to know
My Hindu ancestors forced to fight Britain’s WWI and WWII