No More Yoga For You, Non-Hindus! It's "Cultural Appropriation"
Aedan Helmer writes in the Ottawa Sun that a free campus yoga class was recently cancelled:
Student leaders have pulled the mat out from 60 University of Ottawa students, ending a free on-campus yoga class over fears the teachings could be seen as a form of "cultural appropriation."Jennifer Scharf, who has been offering free weekly yoga instruction to students since 2008, says she was shocked when told in September the program would be suspended, and saddened when she learned of the reasoning.
Staff at the Centre for Students with Disabilities believe that "while yoga is a really great idea and accessible and great for students ... there are cultural issues of implication involved in the practice," according to an email from the centre.
...The centre goes on to say, "Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is being practiced," and which cultures those practices "are being taken from."
The centre official argues since many of those cultures "have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy ... we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practising yoga."
The concept of cultural appropriation is normally applied when a dominant culture borrows symbols of a marginalized culture for dubious reasons -- such as the fad of hipsters donning indigenous headdresses as a fashion statement, without any regard to cultural significance or stereotype.
But Scharf, a yoga teacher with the downtown Rama Lotus Centre, said the concept does not apply in this case, arguing the complaint that killed the program came instead from a "social justice warrior" with "fainting heart ideologies" in search of a cause celebre.
"People are just looking for a reason to be offended by anything they can find," said Scharf.
This is the new way people become special -- by being offended.
And I guess for some, it makes a lot of sense.
Why put in all that sweat and hard work to accomplish something in the world when you can be somebody -- make people notice you, make them stop whatever they're doing -- simply by saying you're offended?
via @JonHaidt
Ut oh someone watched college humors Ghandi takes a yoga class. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBMc9s8oDWE
Joe J at November 21, 2015 11:03 PM
Ass-backward Canadians. What about all the Hindus trying to make a living teaching yoga? For that matter, what about all the Christian missionaries trying to convert the people living in darkness? (Sort of a comment on your proximity to the North Pole) Never underestimate the reach and power of stupidity.
Canvasback at November 21, 2015 11:54 PM
Gotta admit, I like this development.
First they targeted conservatives.
Then they targeted men.
Then they targeted white women... and every white woman who cheered inwardly for affirmative action — thereby endorsing and empowering the jackboot collectivism it sprang from — will get a dose of her own medicine.
Now the Marxists are targeting yoga - introducing the concept of thoughtcrime into simple lifestyle pursuits so they can beat up and control women politically.
Why is this good? Because the university gulag is the primary motor of the feminist/Marxist campaign to secure coercive, totalitarian power, and we're moving closer to its collapse.
The next time a WomenAgainstFeminism meme appears, I expect it will be much bigger than the last.
Lastango at November 22, 2015 1:46 AM
What about the yoga people who are offended that the SJWs are offended. Doesn't anyone care about them?
Wait while I make some popcorn and tune in the latest episode of circular firing squads.
MarkD at November 22, 2015 6:28 AM
I'm offended whenever I see a non-white person wearing a suit. That's cultural appropriation! Anyone who is not white should be banned from wearing suits.
Snoopy at November 22, 2015 6:38 AM
So does this mean other culters will stop appropriating things from our culture?
Like computers, the internet, electricity, vaccines, indoor plumbing?
lujlp at November 22, 2015 7:03 AM
Call it "Yoda" and say it has nothing to do with any earth culture.
Jay at November 22, 2015 8:41 AM
You would oppress the peoples of Dagobah, Jay? And ancient and marginalized people living in abject poverty? For shame, for shame!
(How poor can they be compared to us with their fusion power and faster than light space ships?)
Ben at November 22, 2015 9:03 AM
More and more, FTL looks like a way to spread stupidity to other stars. I don't think we'll get off this rock. Nope.
Meanwhile - all you bastards using English need to stop, and return to the hellhole you came from; return to a lifetime of shuddering with malaria and eating your neighbors because all you can think about is the next opportunity to breed.
The best thing any university could do is shut the doors for two years, to weed out the useless - in faculty AND student body.
Radwaste at November 22, 2015 11:11 AM
You filthy fictional specist Ben.
Yoda was the name of an individual not species, nor was Degoba his home planet.
I demand you quit your job and give me all you money for offending me
lujlp at November 22, 2015 3:38 PM
Do we have to stop doing math because we appropriated Arabic numerals?
Ken R at November 23, 2015 12:28 AM
Show the complainants this and watch their heads explode. Now *this* is cultural appropriation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OFF3q4Pxk
Ltw at November 23, 2015 3:53 AM
So is Zumba appropriating electronica culture? Someone oughta sue!
Cousin Dave at November 23, 2015 11:10 AM
"The concept of cultural appropriation is normally applied when a dominant culture borrows symbols of a marginalized culture for dubious reasons "
And therein lies the White Supremacy underlying this whole appropriation narrative - that Western culture is normative and Indian culture is not. It's interesting that you hear whines about cultural appropriation from Asian-Americans but never from actual Asians. The Chinese in particular are promoting their culture worldwide as hard as they can because they recognize that this is a source of soft power, of the kind we enjoy because of the spread of English and our popular music. They don't think this is appropriation,they thinks it's assimilation.
Jim at November 23, 2015 2:55 PM
I was born with a handicap: I am unable to suffer fools easily. That means all fools have to go and hide themselves so I won't be offended.
Right?
Kate O'Brien at November 24, 2015 7:00 PM
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