I attended the panel discussing social justice in the midst of COVID, and I found that the time was very informative, covering so many topics in less than 2 hours. The topic that stuck out to me was about the yoga industry, and how they take advantage of POC while claiming to be allies of these communities. I attended an event earlier in the summer and learned about this behavior, called performative allyship. Unfortunately, this is a problem across most industries in the US, and we have all witnessed it. The first example that comes to mind is the statements we saw from the majority of companies condemning systematic racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. While a nice gesture, these statements don't do much to actually combat the inequality in our country. I thought the speaker did a great job of showing that while it may appear the yoga industry is standing with POC, they are really exploiting the same people they claim to support. I personally felt convicted because I am guilty of the same thing. Blackout Tuesday was a great example of this, where I and so many others expressed support for POC on social media. However, if our actions don't reflect this same sentiment, these posts of support don't mean anything, and are really to only enhance our own image. This forum made me reflect on what tangible actions would actually help combat racism. I can't think of anything huge, but small things like calling out the ignorant and hurtful comments I hear daily is a good start.
The yoga part took me by surprise as I am not a POC and did not pick up on this so it was really interesting. I think Blackout Tuesday was very powerful and maybe there should be more demonstrations like that
ReplyDeleteAs I also attended the performative allyship event a while back, I can definitely see why the yoga industry really isn't supporting the POC they say they are. Interestingly enough, much of the yoga industry really has chosen to ignore that yoga came from Southern Asia (specifically India), and that POC are the ones who have brought it to the United States.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly why I didn't participate in Blackout Tuesday. The entire purpose was to provide a platform for POC to speak on their experiences of discimination by silencing social media, when the exact opposite happened and "allies" dominated the floor whilst essentially saying nothing. I wanted to use that day to pass the mic to African Americans so that they can speak on the discrimination that they face on a daily basis, and I felt that Blackout Tuesday, while well intentioned, drowned out POC voices instead of uplifting them. As for performative allyship in the yoga industry, I had no idea until I listened to that forum! I was disappointed but not surprised, as while I had never considered that form of cultural appropriation, as soon as she said it I thought, "yeah sounds about right..."
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your final statements about Blackout Tuesday. While at first it was an incredibly powerful act of solidarity, it was pretty much co-opted by so called "allies" simply using it as a "I'm not a racist" card to improve their social appearance. Good points!
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