The Latest Case of White Cultural Appropriation, Privilege etc. Yoga

Hat tip The College Fix

                                                                                    "Just practicing a little yoga."


Full disclosure: I ate dinner in an Indian restaurant last night. I am a cultural appropriator!

Between ex-Michigan State gymnastic trainer/child sex abuser Larry Nassar and the latest allegations of cover ups of gang rapes by Michigan State athletes, Michigan State hardly needs any more bad publicity.

But here it is.

Shreena Gandhi, a Michigan State professor of religious studies, is all upset because white people are practicing yoga. According to Gandhi, this is an expression of cultural appropriation and white supremacy to say nothing of the "yoga industrial complex".

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/41333/

 I am reminded of a trip I took to New Delhi when I was in DEA. One day at the embassy, I was watching embassy employees playing a game of softball. The player who caught my eye was a young Indian lad of about 20 who was playing shortstop. Of course, this was softball, not baseball, but this kid had all the moves of one who had been playing baseball in the States. He was outstanding, the best player on the field, almost all of the players being Americans. I was told he was the son of an embassy local employee and that he had been playing the game all this life. Here is my point: Was I, as an American, offended that this Indian kid was "appropriating" the grand old American game of softball? Hardly. I was flattered and impressed.

But here we have Ms. Gandhi, who is offended that yoga, which originated in India, is popular here in the US. (Ms Gandhi was born in the UK.) Since we are a "nation of immigrants", it is only natural that we adopt many customs, foods and traditions of those who come here. What's wrong with that? This is just another example of someone in academia grasping at straws to bash "privileged whites". It is not only silly, but it is also divisive.

But I will close by referring back to Mr Nassar, who will be spending the next 175 years in prison as a convicted serial sex abuser. Why not take up yoga, Larry? Maybe you can make the Guinness Book of World Records by standing on your head for 175 years.