Lost interest in the article after the first few paragraphs.

However, I would love to see a picture of the Manhattan Rollers!

Maybe she could discuss it with an Afro-Feminist?

Sort of a twofer.

Her account was overwrought to be sure, but mostly a big dose of whatever babe. What I took away was how feminists and social justice warriors hate each other and eat each other up and rip each other apart.

Like the eye of sauron every day the feminist world has to find some poor shit for brains to make an example of.

The way her article went viral on twitter and tumblr and the criticism and insults tossed her way was typical of feminist and social justice warrior attacks.

And yet what we won't hear is terribly much about how these feminists sent her all sorts of abuse, so much so that she had to post-facto change the authorship to a psuedonym and I believe delete her twitter account.

Instead we will hear a huge outcry not just from feminists but echoed on major media about the enormous misogyny the next time a group of men send some idiot feminist the same sort of abuse.

Yoga is a upper middle class skinny white girl thing with fake tatas and $120 designer yoga pants. Middle class white girls on the other hand love running.

Hispanic and black girls do other stuff, usually that involves some kind of rhythmic music (Zumba) or stripper poles. I'm not kidding and of course I'm generalizing.

But that's what I see hanging out with those groups.

Amy, your skin is porcelain. You'd have to tan for months just to look like a ginger.

She admits she was projecting. And it’s obvious that that is the case… but, in a weird way, I can understand it. She’s probably one of those “granola” people that believes in “organic lifestyle” and going green and everybody gets a trophy and this made her uncomfortable because instead of practicing what she preached, she became exactly what her kind probably rails against… racist. But not in the way we as a society see “racism”.

All she saw was a black woman who was uncomfortable because she was black and a big girl. What was more likely was that the woman was uncomfortable because she was new and out of shape. Perhaps being the only black woman in the room did make her nervous but I’d wager a bet that race had much less to do with it, than just being uncomfortable in a new environment. I remember my first yoga class. I’m trained in dance and martial arts (basically, I’m no slouch) and even *I* was struggling with some of those moves. Someone who’s out of shape and had never done it before is most certainly going to have a hard time. If the black woman was giving her any looks, it’s likely because instead of coming off sympathetic, the writer came off as a snob by refusing to even acknowledge the black woman was in the room. I certainly wouldn’t feel welcome if my very existence was completely ignored in what’s supposed to be a ‘safe’ place.

Having said that though, I can sorta understand why the writer felt this way in the moment. We’ve become a society of overly sensitive, politically correct, people who have become SO hyper aware of anything that might be deemed “offensive” or “racist, that everything is considered “offensive and racist.” So, by not acknowledging her, she probably felt exactly as she said, that she wasn’t putting her on the spot and making her uncomfortable which, seemed like it had the opposite effect.

However, even if the black woman was indeed resentful and giving her dirty looks, the writer still made the assumption that it was about her. THAT, to me, is probably the biggest offense here… she made it about “her”.

It’s not about you, Jen. It’s a yoga class. You’re not changing the world with your downward dogs and crane positions. You certainly aren’t changing the world by writing asinine articles like this one that not only confirm your place as an overprivelaged, underworked ‘artist’, but also confirm your status as part of the problem. A much more productive and honest article would have been for you to write something that said, “I let race be a factor in how I perceived someone and that makes me part of the problem.” Instead, you made assumptions, projected, pointed fingers at everyone but yourself, and vomited out this half-hearted attempt to apologize for something that frankly, needs no apology.

I'm a fat white lady, would she be happy if I joined her class?

What makes me uncomfortable in yoga class is that downward facing dog is suppose to be a relaxing pose and I get all red-faced doing it as the blood rushes to my head. Not at all "relaxing" for me.

And ask me to do warrior pose and I just might lose my balance and tip over. Then I might notice race/gender when I land on top of the person next to me. Naaah, who am I kidding, I'd be too embarrassed to notice anything else but my own clumsiness.

An even MORE amazing satiric response can be found here:

http://www.kazzledazz.com/it-happened-to-me-there-are-no-white-people-in-my-twerk-out-class-and-im-suddenly-feeling-uncomfortable-with-it/

"It happened to me: There are no white people in my Twerk-Out class."

"A much more productive and honest article would have been for you to write something that said, 'I let race be a factor in how I perceived someone and that makes me part of the problem.' "

Yep. And you want to know why we can't seem to solve the race relation problem in this country? It's exactly because of attitudes like this. The very first thing and only thing the author of that piece noticed about the black lady was the fact that she was black. The whole premise of what Martin Luther King was trying to say is that we need to get to the point where race doesn't matter... but to the leftists and the people that they have indoctrinated, race is all that matters. Race is the first and only thing they notice. It goes into the nose-count quotas and they learn nothing about the person as an individual. Heck, they don't even notice other surface characteristics: was the person tall, short, skinny, fat? What were they wearning? What was their hair style? How did they walk and what hand mannerisms did they exhibit? Did they appear to be left handed or right handed? What was their speaking accent? The nose-counters can't tell you. They didn't see anything that might have made the person an individual. All they saw was an entry in the quota book.

If we're going to get past race mattering, then we have to stop giving so much damn attention to race. There's your answer right there. The instructor of the yoga class I attend sporadically is black. You know what I think about that? Big F'ing deal.

As a guy, all I can say is: what did we do before yoga pants?

Wut?

What I love about this story, and others like it, is how they always originate from the liberal, white, elite....the same ones who think nothing of suggesting that Texas is nothing but a racist, Republican backwater were everyone has a sheet hanging in their closet. I live in Texas, go to a women's gym, and I can tell you for a fact we are all racially integrated. We workout together, commiserate together (when the class is hard), and celebrate each other for making it through. I don't know anyone who would feel weirded out by a black woman walking into class, or a fat woman for that fact. This is just like the Cheerios commercial thing. The only people writing about race are the ones who have a problem with it.

My psychiatrist suggested I try yoga and I told him I don't believe in it. I think it's a total scam. Sure, go put on clothes that shouldn't be seen in public and contort yourself with a bunch of other people at some ungodly hour and profess that it makes you "healthy." Meanwhile I'll be sitting comfortably in my home eating bacon.

Meanwhile I'll be sitting comfortably in my home eating bacon.

But then you'll miss out on the chance to write self-loathing pieces for XOJane.

=========================

I thought about how even though yoga comes from thousands of years of south Asian tradition, it’s been shamelessly co-opted by Western culture as a sport for skinny, rich white women.

Thousands of years? Shamelessly co-opted?

Yoga wasn't co-opted by skinny, rich white women, it was invented for them.

This from Cracked.com - "7 'Acient' Forms of Mysticicism That Are Recent Inventions"
_________________________

Well, that "five thousand years old" claim rests entirely on some 5,000-year-old pictures found in the Indus Valley of a man sitting cross-legged. Though this is one of the main yoga positions, it so happens that it's also the position most people take when, you know, they sit on any flat surface.

It wasn't until the 19th century that an Indian prince named Krishnaraja Wodeyar III produced something resembling what we call yoga: a manual called the Sritattvanidhi, which listed 122 poses mostly taken from Indian gymnastics.

What really kicked-started modern yoga, though, was the influence of the Imperial British, who introduced Indians to the new exercise craze that was sweeping Europe at the time.

Later a guy named B.K.S. Iyengar came up with the idea of combining these exercise techniques with some of the teachings described in old Hindu texts like the Yoga Sutras and let the result loose on America in the 1960s. Since then, yoga fans have grown by the millions, with few realizing that they are practicing a chanted-up version of early 20th-century gym class.
_________________________

http://www.cracked.com/article_19283_7-ancient-forms-mysticism-that-are-recent-inventions.html

See also.

I agree with Sheepmommy about the reputation of Texas.

My workplace in Texas is so diverse, from Blacks to Asians to Indians, compared to Missouri. I mean, we barely blink an eye to someone's race. It has to do with if they can do their job correctly and efficiently.

I agree 100% with Sheep mommy. I'm so glad I can do yoga in flyover country, rather than on either coast, where apparently the color of the other class members (and how proficient they are) seems to be more important than using the time to escape from everyday life and concentrate on ME.

I've been at it each week for over 3 years, and am still a novice and probably always will be. Do I care about that or how I (an old overweight man) look? Not one whit. It's the one hour a week I do not and never have judged myself or anyone else. It's wonderful.

And I'll second Amy's comment about getting to sleep. About 3 deep breaths, surrendering into the bed completely on each exhale, and that's all it takes. That and the perception of increased gracefulness and fluidity (whether it's real or not) are the best things I've taken away, and well worth the trouble.

I heard the Cheerios comments. I had to actually go back and re-watch the first ad to realize that it was an inter-racial couple. It has been on TV for months (years) and I had never noted it.

I have been instrumental in hiring blacks and women into IT positions. I quite frankly don't care as long as you show up for the interview somewhere in the ball park of appropriately dressed even while I'm wearing a collared shirt and jeans.

Show up looking like a gang-banger for a guy, or a woman looking like a whore I'm going to question you a lot harder.

So this woman focused on the fact that she is black? That is more racist than focusing on the fact that a new person is in the class that may just be a newbie. Before/after the class step up and say welcome to the class if you would do that with anyone else. If you don't then just keep your mouth shut and do the same thing you always do.

Maybe she was looking for an excuse to get out of ypga?