My friend qualified to be a yoga teacher in less than a month.

A friend recently completed a 3 week course to become a qualified yoga teacher. The moment she announced she'd be doing this, I couldn't help but feel a mixture of reactions, other than the "wow that's great, I'm really happy for you that you're progessing." from the classic supportive friend stance, a flood of questions engulfed my brain. Cynical questions I felt I could not ask for fear of hurting her like "since when did you want to become a yoga teacher?", "so...anyone with little experience can do this?", "you can learn to teach yoga to people in three weeks...that's it?", "how does three weeks allow sufficient time to learn the origins, the history, the cultural significance associated with the practise?", "can you explain where the practise originates from?", "is it about more than simply a physical class, because, you know that yoga is all encompassing of other aspects, and to only focus on the physical is to adopt the Western idea of yoga as a trendy exercise, and in fact eradicate the brown and black people... essentially being racist?", "will you be with a bunch of other young, middle class, slim, white women?"...the list goes on and on and on... I mean, how do you even begin?

Notably she chose to to do this out of the COVID-19 panic... she'd never mentioned before the desire to be a yoga teacher, but having lost work, she said she wished to "add another string to add to her bow, a skill to her CV", i.e. another avenue to make money from... so if the idea was born from this, is your practise ever going to be authentic? "Are you supporting a business model based on theft to better your own life, disguised in the 'wokeness' of new age yoga?" Am I really having to point these things out...?! Practising and teaching yoga is one thing, there is nothing wrong with that, but when tied with exploring this pathway from a monetary point of view and first and foremost leading with that, when yoga is a spiritual practise that denies material objects and capitalist society, it's troublesome.

Then link this to using the practise to teach other young, middle class, slim, white women (which will happen, just look around you) who are practising yoga for health, for appearance, for trend, and treating it as an exercise class, to 1. advocate Western society's cultural appropriation of the practise, and 2. to personally gain money from it to better no one's lives but your own, and 3. use it not to give back to the people, or immerse yourself in the culture, but essentially take your piece if the pie... well... you see the issue right? Part of cultural appropriation is taking something to better things for your own land, your own race, your own class... basically, anyone similar to you. White privilige and ...to a degree elements of white supremacy are screaming (or chanting if you perfer) out. You are using something to benefit the dominant race, white people, without the sufficient understanding of what the practise means, where it came from and how it has changed.

And can you truly respect the practise if you think you can teach it in 3 weeks...? I'm not sure. It's not like learning a hard skill like how to use formulas on spreadsheets or learning to juggle 3 balls. It's YOGA.

So on the back of looking at an Instagram photo of her poised on a mat, holding a certificate of completion, tilaka on forehead, and reading the #yogalife hashtag, I was drawn to this great article, and felt compelled to write about it to blow of some steam. I'm British, I'm brown, my parents are (were) Hindu, my mum has practised yoga for years, I have white friends who do things like this, friends who on the surface appear 'woke', are reading all those books telling them how to not be racist, hashtagging BLM, and still do. things. like. this. and I'm wondering did she even think to question the cultural appropriation in this vein or her white privliledge in this instance? Does she have any idea?

I've copied and pasted number 6 from the article: 6. A White Person Who Ignores Oppression Is Leading the Practice

Avoiding cultural appropriation isn’t about getting white people to stop participating in yoga or leading yoga sessions. But when the only option for studying yoga is to learn from a white person who ignores the complexities of oppression, that’s a problem. And that’s happening in yoga spaces where white teachers don’t acknowledge or address how white supremacy can show up and marginalize people of color. For instance, there are lots of opportunities for people who fit the mainstream image of the industry – thin, white, middle class women – to get funding, space, and respect as leaders deemed experts. As a result, for a South Asian or black person trying to access yoga teachings from South Asia or Africa, it takes a lot of work to find an authentic connection with a teacher who is carrying on the traditions – not just leading a diluted form of them. 

So what is a brown person to do when faced with this dilemma when once again, a white person encroaches on tradionally brown people's spaces, choosing a teaching path that condenses years of history and culture into a three week course to then teach to others (probably more white people) in what will become a white centred industry, based on Western perspectives, Western familiarities, and Western customs?

Not only are you missing out on part of the practice – by buying into the mainstream industry’s version of yoga, you’re also only viewing yoga through a Western lens. This lens distorts what yoga is supposed to be, and adds racism, exotification, and exclusivity.

Most teachers are white Western, young middle class female teachers. Repackaged in these bodies, wearing tight crop tops, trendy leggings and funky yoga mats is a scene I do not wish to be involved in. As with most things in life, I like a quiet space, enjoy being low key, understated, and calm. I do not need a big class in a brightly lit studio, in the centre of the city, to be taught by a teacher that are not telling me about the roots of the practise, the meaning behind the chant, the reason for the style of breathing, and offering me a diluted version in a one hour class that focusses only on the physical... this must be why I hate vinyasa classes so much. 'Fast, fast, learn the pose, learn the next pose, move quickly, damage your body, only if you are young can you do this, stress yourself out, give yourself no time, flow to the next pose, don't enjoy the previous pose, think about the next one, move, faster, faster!' tailored again to the Western world, Western ideals of 'no time for yourself, time is money, and rushing through things that aren't work, rushing through the things that are good for us: self care, leisure, culture, history and philosophy, so our understanding of what we are doing is stunted and we lose our sense of self, and ability to recognise we are being duped, and we are duping others.

"If your teacher is a white person who fetishizes the practices without acknowledging where they’re from, there’s a good chance that they’re not committed to recognizing their privilege and minimizing their harm in the world.

Some teachers present themselves as experts on South Asianness or yoga – and it’s a problematic trend of white supremacy to center them as the experts, rather than trusting and elevating the knowledge of people who are actually part of these cultures.

As a consumer of this industry, you can show your support for respectful engagement with yoga practices by seeking out facilitators who are respectful in their practice."

On her Instagram post she writes "Now I feel better equipped for whatever this crazy world throws our way.", and from a phonecall, I know it was about adding another skills, having another incone revenue, but when it's about the money first and foremost, it saddens me to say, you can be sure you're getting a culturally appropriated version of yoga.

I've decided to keep my mouth shut. For now.

To practise kindness and not rain on her parade when she's only just qualified, and feeling happy, fulfilled and accomlpished, because this is a beautiful thing. But I cannot sit back and hold my tongue forever while white people continue to ignore priviledge and take advantage of it.

I've learned to expect better and I implore white people to please start to understand how your actions, yout thoughts and your words have consequence and meaning to others of other skin colour, heritage, nationality, and religion. Understand the spaces you are entering, the culture you are taking, the history you are learning, the examples you are setting, the responsibility you are taking.

So when people ask you to avoid appropriation, you might think they’re saying you have to give up thinking about your own self-care altogether.

That’s not what we’re saying. It’s awesome that you can show yourself love through yoga practices.

And you have the opportunity to shift the oppressive pattern that so many of us are taught to follow – the one that encourages you to take what benefits you on the surface without considering the impact on other people.

A system that only values you for your bank account doesn’t actually value who you really are.

But an authentic yoga practice can help you grow as your whole self – mind, body, and spirit. Embracing your wholeness includes recognizing that you are part of a big, beautiful collective of other beings.

Thinking of others gives you a chance to think twice before feeling entitled to take from them for your own personal gain. If you’re using something in your self-care practice that didn’t originate in your culture, do some research so you don’t adopt this practice in a way that harms people.

I will continue to practise privately and quietly, alone predominatly, taking the occasional class, and not benefiiting those that participate in a system that turn yoga into big business, and takes away from the marginalised.

When I do find the moment to pick thiese things up, I'll try to follow the advice that this brilliant article ends with:

So those deep yoga practices that helped many South Asian and African people and other folks of color survive colonization and continue to help them survive marginalization today? Those are getting harder and harder to access, which means vital information about healing medicine is being lost.

If someone points out that you could do your yoga practice differently to help avoid this harm, consider it a gift. As nisha puts it, “It’s a gift to learn how to love bigger.”

With authentic yoga practices, you can love bigger, grow your compassion for yourself and others, and have a positive impact that radiates brilliantly through the world.

Yes, even yoga and friendship have now become political.