“Few white people make the connection between their attraction to yoga and the cultural loss their ancestors and relatives experienced when they bought into white dominant culture in order to access resources,” they write.I can't even sort the sentence out. One of the things I like best about white dominant culture is its persistent nagging to watch your pronoun precedents.
I certainly don't
Mea culpa. I never make this connection at all:
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That's true for me too. I've never made that connection; nor, for that matter, experienced much attraction to yoga.
White people had to *buy into* white (dominant) culture? So white supremacy is actually cultural appropriation from some other group of (white) people? They're not just mixing pronouns, they're inventing some sort of pre-woke white civilization.
So many people can't (or don't) think well.
@Christopher B:
Their own creed's version of the Fall, perchance?
I did love the authors' use of the phrase "yoga swag". Perfect!
I think it's more likely people are attracted to yoga as a substitute for religion - let's get fit and have a spiritual experience at the same time! There's a video called "if Gandhi Took A Yoga Class" that's wonderful (language warning). So if what the authors mean by a "cultural loss" is losing religion, sure - but it has nothing to do with skin color or with accessing resources.
And ... if yoga "rightfully belongs" to "recent immigrant ... Indian women", why do they need classes? Surely they've already learned yoga before they came here.
Certainly not, the white patriarchy robbed them of it. We need a government program to rewaken their consciousness.
But I'm still trying to parse the sentence. If, for the sake of argument, I ever became attracted to yoga, that means my ancestors suffered a cultural loss when they bought into the white dominant culture? Or is is someone other than white people that are feeling the attraction to yoga, and they're the ones whose ancestors were the sellout toadies?
Or white people are feeling an attraction to yoga but are not making the connection to the cultural loss suffered not by themselves but by the people who "rightfully" own yoga, which loss was suffered by the non-white people because if they didn't buy into the white dominant culture and lose their yoga (presumably making it available to the white people) then they (the non-white people) would not be able to access resources?
My favorite bad-example sentence from high school English has always been:
I bought the sweater from the sales lady that cost $4.98.
The problem with bullshit, is it can only be piled so high before it finds it's angle of repose. The author is apparently unaware of this.
IIRC the coarse white/non-white distinction is fairly recent, and earlier Americans thought of race with much more granularity: e.g. Frenchmen or Italians as different races. Could that be what the author is writing about? If so, it shows an awareness of the history of terms and usage that I find very rare among professional race pundits.
Even if that's what's meant, I still don't see any logical connection between giving up something to American-ize and not being allowed to borrow things from other cultures. It might be ironic, but it isn't bad--and the article's thesis is that it is bad.
It's cultural appropriation, and it's bad, unless it's diversity and it's good. Don't try to figure it out. You'll be told when you got it wrong; just denounce yourself and endure your two-minute hate.
Korora - after another cup of coffee I had a similar thought. Sort of like there were two white tribes, the Woke Noble Savages and the Ignoble Supremacists who gained dominance by stealing resources and culture from non-whites. I bet if you asked how the Ignobles were able to aquire things from superior cultures you might get an answer much like The Fall, with the bad whites as the Serpent.
I think the sentence is meant to mean something like this: 'White people are attracted to yoga because it fills a void in their lives, which exists because their ancestors gave up similarly meaningful cultural practices in order to assimilate to whiteness. These ancestors did so because it gave them access to jobs and opportunities. Yoga offers them the spiritual and meaningful things that white culture lacks, but they are in a sense stealing this from those whose authentic meaning and spirituality it is.'
There may even be some sense to the claim, if by 'whiteness' we mean the 'Stuff White People Like' kind of whiteness. It definitely demeans authentic religious experience, which leaves a hole that is often filled by gimmicky 'spirituality.'
Well, yeah, but in what sense did white people's ancestors give up stuff in order to assimilate to whiteness in order to get jobs etc.? Weren't they already in the privileged white club and lacking in the joy of diverse ethnic richness?
I mean, Irishmen took stage names to hide their Irishness — both John Wayne and John Ford did. They were white in a way before, but white in a different way after. I can see the point, to a point.
Ah, the Irish assimilated from white to scare-quotes white. I keep forgetting the fine ethnic divisions that control everything about our lives. I think my ancestors assimilated from German and Scots-Irish to my current ethnicity of bloodsucker of the people.
I can't remember if I've already mentioned that some of the voting public here in my county are convinced I'm a member of the establishment, while others believe me to be a bomb-throwing anarchist. Since I consider it my duty to run rather than to win, I'm watching it all with amusement. If they want someone like me, they can have me. If they wish I were different, they can take their chances with one of the three other candidates, but they seriously won't be happy. I won't either, of course, but then I don't really need anything from the county. The campaign has been fascinating, at any rate.
You'll probably be happier if they choose someone else, truth be told. But I'm glad you're finding it interesting. I haven't yet persuaded myself to follow in your footsteps, but I see the value in having people like yourself step up for these jobs.
It probably would be a tough contest between relief I didn't have to do it and chagrin that my neighbors dissed me. I suspect the chagrin would face faster!
Grim - There may even be some sense to the claim, if by 'whiteness' we mean the 'Stuff White People Like' kind of whiteness.
I was initially skeptical but I think you've pretty much nailed it. SWPL is definitely about appropriating (and I think the word is legit in this context) the practices of non-white cultures as more 'authentic', with the added benefit that this snubs people who maintain they have a historically white culture as being less enlightened and, currently, 'supremacists'.
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