WTF! Free yoga classes suspended over accusation of cultural appropriation

[snagglepuss]

and that "certain groups of people that feel left out in yoga-like spaces".

A free yoga class that has been given at the University of Ottawa for six years was suspended this year by the Center for Students with Disabilities even though the classes were designed to include those with disabilities.

According to THe Ottawa Sun the Center stated that "yoga has been under 'a lot of controversy lately' as a result of how it is being practiced and which cultures those practices are 'being taken from."

Staff from the center also expressed that many of those cultures 'experienced oppression, cultural genocide and Diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy'. The center official went on to say that 'we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practicing yoga'.

The yoga teacher says she only focuses on the physical aspect and never on the spiritual aspect so cultural appropriation doesn't apply. She also says that "she is willing to change the name of the program from yoga to 'mindful stretching' as a compromise" but the Student Union which runs the program rejected that option.


Personally I find the notion of appropriation to be absurd given that through-out history people having been doing just that and its by "appropriating" other cultures that all cultures develop. Romans appropriated Greek culture and its gods. Christians and Muslims appropriated Judaism, Greek philosophy, pagan beliefs and pagan symbols. The list is ad infinitum.




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3328996/Free-yoga-class-suspended-University-Ottawa-students-cultural-appropriation.html

[annabanana]

1. Are we going to have to forego Italian food because

when they came here they were treated badly and discriminated against?

Isn't a mass "appropriation" more like an homage?

[kiva]

21. I will then

search assiduously for a blood relative who is Italian...I will never give up my pasta!

[tblue37]

30. Call me cuz, if you like. My paternal grandparents came over from Sicily. nt

[kiva]

38. Hey cuz...

swap you some shortbread for some pasta

[4139]

51. No tomato sauces!

[kiva]

91. That's OK, I'm cool with alfredo or

carbonara

[merrily]

102. Each a heart attack on a plate, but soooo yummy.

[gladium et scutum]

115. No tomatos

Tomatoes originated in South America. They did not exist in Europe until the early 1500s. The Italians wrongfully appropriated this food item into their cultural cuisine.

[Sam_Fields]

25. If they outlaw Italian food...

only outlaws will eat pizza.

[merrily]

101. Wait: you've been eating pizza and/or pasta?

[romanic]

2. To get rid of "cultural appropriation"

you'd have to get rid of diversity itself; because without an exchange of cultural norms, ideas, imagery, and practices shared amongst those from that culture and outside of it....you'd basically have no diversity to speak off. I hope the culture activists think of that before they demand more (superficial) diversity.

[Dr. Strange]

3. Nothing like yoga to get people bent out of shape.

[nolabear]

12. ...

[GummyBearz]

40. I award you first prize in the daily zinger category

Well done

[OriginalGeek]

41. I'm gonna stay on the internet today

but I don't have to because if I stopped right now, that post right there satisfied me completely.

Anything else I get out of the internet today would just be an embarrassment of riches.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. The freaking idjits are running wild on campuses these days.

I remember being a self-righteous student activist. Then I grew up.

[silverweb]

5. Absurd.

This reminds me of the GOP and fundies, playing semantic games to get their way. Look into the background for someone opposed to yoga on religious or "cultural purity" grounds.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

6. Yay

The insanity running wild on American campuses has now spread to Canada.

[Oneironaut]

7. I ate Italian food today. I'm a racist.

I culturally misappropriated Italian culture by eating spaghetti, because only Italians should have spaghetti. Anyone who eats spaghetti and is not Italian is a racist who culturally misappropriates Italian culture.

[Crunchy Frog]

17. Actually, the Italians culturally appropriated it from the Chinese.

And if the sauce has tomatoes in it, that's culturally appropriated from the Native Americans.

You've got alot to answer for, buddy.

[tblue37]

31. Well, Marco Polo actually culturally appropriated those noodles from China,

doncha know?

[Initech]

60. Then what does Burger King's Italian chicken sandwich qualify as?

Is that misappropriating Italian culture?

[Oneironaut]

66. That doesn't qualify as food

[Initech]

80. True.

But is it a misappropriation of the Italian American community?

[Heeeeers Johnny]

8. What? No more bendy, twisty co-eds in tight fitting clothing anymore!

This time they've gone too far!

[magical thyme]

9. ok, no more appalachian or other folk music, because that was appropriated

from Scotland or the Celts or whatever.

No more classical music, which was appropriated from western Europe.

No more world beat, which was appropriated from everyone.

Oh, we'll have to create a new language; we can't use a language appropriated from England.

This solves Canada's English versus French conflict -- they have to create their own language too.

No more math -- appropriated from the ancient Greeks.

Close down all the Mexican, Indian, Thai, Italian, Chinese, and other ethnic restaurants. Cultural appropriation and all.

FFS, we didn't appropriate yoga from India. Gurus sold it to us. Uh-oh -- they appropriated our capitalism. How dare they.

And who runs that effing university anyway? The grownups or the fainting flowers? jeebus joseph on a christmas cracker.

[Nye Bevan]

11. And in the Broadway musical "Hamilton", Thomas Jefferson is played as a black rapper.

Shut. It. Down. Now.

[magical thyme]

14. uh-oh...The Wiz. Annie.

Shut. Them. Down. Now.

[randys1]

77. Dont like the Black rapper?

[Lancero]

22. Wait till they hear the first university to ever be founded was Islamic...

Wonder if they'll start trying to shut down the university?

[smirkymonkey]

24. +1000

This is getting ridiculous.

[Yo_Mama]

76. And we have to give up algebra because we appropriated that from the Arabs.

I can see the sudden stand on principle right before midterms in many a high school classroom.

[cemaphonic]

92. We'll pretty much have to scrap all American music and start over

No Blues or ragtime without African-Americans adapting their musical traditions to European instruments and forms, and most American music grows out of those two styles.

And yeah, Appalachian music has an extremely complex ethnic pedigree.

Mexican musicians are gonna have to give their accordions back to the Germans too.

[el_bryanto]

10. The way this story is presented makes me believe there's probably other aspects to it

That I don't know. When a story is presented in this manner that makes it seem really absurd I find it likely that knowing the other side would be useful.

Bryant

[JanMichael]

18. i tend to agree that there must be something else.

if not then ban judo and karate practised insensitively...

[kentauros]

34. And if the students don't learn what you're teaching,

then you can yell at them:

[TipTok]

68. It's adorable that you think that there aren't folks out there who think this...

I remember an article a few years ago from a super fit blonde woman who had all sorts of certifications who gave it up because she was guilted into it.

[kcr]

71. Someone in a comment section of a more reliable source says there is

That this is just right wing sources twisting a story to make it look like Stoopid Liberalz. Even here at DU, they eat it up :/ The classes haven't been canceled.

[Nye Bevan]

83. So the Washington Post will be running a correction?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/23/university-yoga-class-canceled-because-of-oppression-cultural-genocide/

[iemitsu]

13. We used to call that process assimilation.

[merrily]

105. Melting pot, too. However, for now, it's still tougher to "assimilate" when you are not white.

And the pressure of successful assimilation has traditionally been on the person seeking assimilation, not on the majority. It's been: "Become so much like us, we won't even notice that you exist."

[iemitsu]

107. Yes, of course, you're right.

It has not been whites who have had to change.
Too bad too, cause that culture has some aspects that ought to have been left in the dust many years ago.

[merrily]

109. Not only whites, but WASP whites. Joe Kennedy, Sr. is a perfect example.

Before I moved to Massachusetts, I met someone who told me a family story. One of his relatives--from a by then broke branch of a "distinguished" Massachusetts family said he'd voted for JFK. A family dowager retorted:

"James, the Kennedys are shanty Irish with a whiskey fortune. You did not vote for JFK and that is that."

Her "breeding" outweighed the shanty Irish guy's wealth and Presidency put together.

IMO, assimilation and melting pot were both myths then. No matter what JFK accomplished, he wasn't going to melt into her pot, that's for sure.

[iemitsu]

110. Sounds right.

The melting pot was always part of our national propaganda. We were really trying to attract cheap labor.

[merrily]

111. Endless class warfare was not a great p.r. tool.

[NobodyHere]

15. .

[LittleBlue]

16. Time for the government to get involved and defund these institutions

Canada can do what they want. US states need to step up. No more public money until freedom of expression is guaranteed on campus.

[U4ikLefty]

19. Is Iggy Azalea doing yoga again?

[Recursion]

20. Yoga as practiced in America might as well be its own thing

she only focuses on the physical aspect and never on the spiritual aspect so cultural appropriation doesn't apply

OTOH, if you were to ask me to sum up appropriation in one sentence, that would be a good one..

[DonCoquixote]

103. why?

There are physical aspects to the exercise, which exist independently of any belief in religion, or even spirituality. If an Indian atheist, an Irish atheist or a Chinese Atheist do yoga, they will be flexible, regardless of any belief in any god. While I can agree that many charlatans have done their own versions of yoga, there is still an aspect of it that frankly, is beyond any "spirituality." Be careful that we do not allow "spirituality" to become a rampart, because from the KKK claiming they are Christian, to Isis claiming they are an "Islamic state" allowing Culture to become a means to intimidate and isolate will result in that culture being a malicious force.

[Recursion]

104. Well, it definitely pisses off militant Hindus here

It's seen as mocking, like frat boys wearing feather headdresses.

[DonCoquixote]

106. there is a difference between a physical practice

which again, could be done by an Irish, Australian or Pakistani atheist and still produce consistent, tangible results, and a headress which has no significance outside it's culture.

For that matter, should India stop drinking tea because they got that idea from the Chinese, how about eating Rice? Do they owe reparations to the Arabs for Garbanzo beans?

Yes, there are charlatans, and if this woman was calming to be the incarnation of Kali, then yes, deride, but she was not, and the main defense you offered against this as "it's seen as mocking." Friend, if you are going to stop living because some "militant" people will mock you, then you might as well turn this world over to the Puritans and Daesh of the world.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

23. I 100% believe occupy wall street was the product of Republican provocateurs

and I believe the "social justice warrior" phenomenon sweeping campuses across the West is too.

All in the service of unleashing the "silent majority".

[951-Riverside]

26. +1000

[LanternWaste]

37. your faith-based belief is little more than a guess, implying your own biases rather than any valid

No doubt, you have objective, peer-reviewed evidence on which to support your premise, yes?

Otherwise, your faith-based belief is little more than a guess, heavily implying your own biases rather than any valid criticism to speak of.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

85. I find resurgences of left-wing crackpots around elections suspicious

Particularly ones that are highly invested in attacking Democrats while as inarticulately as possible living up to every right-wing stereotype as popularized by Rush Limbaugh et al.

[merrily]

112. And that doesn't seem even the least bit far-fetched to you?

I guess "conspiracy theory" is a shibboleth only when the theory originates with the left.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

113. It seems more plausible than progressive millennials independently reviving...

the right's favorite "dirty hippy" and "ungrateful student" stereotypes from the 1970's.

[merrily]

114. If I had any idea what you mean by that, I'm all but sure that I'd almost agree with you.

It sure seems truthy on the surface, anyway.

[PatrickforO]

27. WTF???? It's YOGA for God's sake!

These kids get themselves all worked up over the wrong stuff.

The whole controversy doesn't even make sense.

[840high]

28. I am so tired of this PC crap.

[Initech]

82. I want to go Homer Simpson on these people when I see this kind of crap being pulled.

It started with Budweiser and their "Up For Whatever" campaign. Now Nordstrom can't sell a sweater because it says "Jewish Princess", Target can't sell a sweater because it says "Obsessive Christmas Disorder" (which I would totally buy and wear), Rutgers can't use images of Woodrow Wilson because he was a racist... where does it end???

[JI7]

29. i would need to see more news sources and other info, this sounds like one of those exaggerated

and not totally honest writings in order to complain about political correctness

[philosslayer]

62. How about the Washington Post?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/23/university-yoga-class-canceled-because-of-oppression-cultural-genocide/

[840high]

86. It's all over the net.

[mike_c]

32. the notion that "cultural appropriation" is a bad thing has been gaining tremendous traction...

...on university campuses nationwide. For good or bad, this is an issue for educated millennials.

[annabanana]

35. Whatever happened to "imitation is the

sincerest form of flattery"?

[snooper2]

57. "educated" being the key word here

[Throd]

67. "indoctrinated" would have been a better term. n/t

[Blasphemer]

74. This is true but as professor of mine pointed out....

While we must remain aware of cultural appropriation, the real problem is appropriation without attribution. This is why it is dangerous. Not only do practices get "lost in translation," but people don't even know where the practices originated as those who developed them become erased from history. That's the real problem.

[LWolf]

93. Please explain.

Why is the diffusion of culture in a multicultural society a bad thing?

I truly don't understand.

[mike_c]

94. I didn't say it's bad....

I just noted that criticism of cultural appropriation is practiced on university campuses. On my own campus, for example, students regularly call out white people wearing dreadlocks as cultural appropriation, and campus was plastered with signs leading up to Halloween urging students not to wear costumes that incorporated identities or symbols of other cultural groups (or just other groups). So wearing an indian headdress if you're not native american is clear cultural appropriation, but even dressing as a soldier is inappropriate unless you're in the military. I think that rather misses the point of masquarade fantasy, but some folks get carried away with "cultural correctness." I see that on campus all the time.

I'm safe because I actually am an aging hippie.

[Oneironaut]

95. That's totally stupid.

If someone who is white likes dreadlocks, who cares? Who died and made these people the culture police? They have a very authoritarian mindset.

The whole concept of cultural appropriation is the dumbest thing ever. Just more "do as I say" types trying to get everybody to conform to their view of the world.

[LWolf]

96. I'm an old

daughter of a hippie. I generally get away with anything, lol.

It would be awfully hard to do anything at all if we dumped all of the things we, as a larger culture, have adopted from others over thousands of years. It's a natural outcome of migration.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. Oh for fuckitty-fuck's sake.

[Blue_Tires]

36. I'm wondering if there is a deeper reason behind this

because that flimsy-ass explanation doesn't hold water....

[Matariki]

39. People need to sort out real appropriation from knee jerk, culture killing social policing

Shutting down any interest in cultures outside the one a person is born in engenders tribalism and xenophobia. It's stupid.

One the other hand using sacred images from someone else's culture to sell shit or to parody people, that's reprehensible and actual appropriation.

[romanic]

44. Agreed.

It's like the issue of warbonnets. Obviously warbonnets are sacred items earned and wearing one is disrespectful; but the slippery slope of native appropriation has basically gone down to dreamcatchers, turquoise jewelry, and hair feathers being offensive because...reasons or something.

[snagglepuss]

47. I don't agree that anything should be a sacred cow. On one hand it's easy

to defend native customs from being parodied but what about reprehensible customs like FGM or entrenched patriarchy? Should the Hindu caste system not be parodied?

[Matariki]

48. We're talking about appropriating symbols and practices

so in that context a person would have to perform FGM in order to parody it. Doesn't make sense. I was referring to offensive stereotypes such as the Washington Redskins.

It's important to try to understand other cultures but I don't believe that precludes criticizing the abuse of human rights.

[PersonNumber503602]

61. It comes from people not understanding the real reason behind valid causes

So then they go out to look for anything to be a "cause", but there is usually little logic or real reason behind it. It's just very shallow and not based on any real convictions or feeling of oppression/discrimination (or whatever it may be)

I've seen that a lot these days. I've also noticed that often times people are unwilling to stand up against people with stupid ideas, because they feel like they are attacking their own. Which I think is foolish, because ultimately this more ridiculous stuff only serves to hurt more legitimate causes. Then again, who decides what is legitimate and what is a shallow non-issue? I'm sure there some things I think are really important that others thing are not important. I think we all have a gut feeling that complaining about yoga is silly, but what exactly are the attributes that make it silly?

[JCMach1]

42. this is just a messed-up as the RW fundies coming out against yoga...

[yeoman6987]

78. If that were to happen then yes

However, if this continues, the real problems will be ignored because populations end up with PC overload. It's getting close.

[JCMach1]

100. It did happen several years back...

http://www.christianministriesintl.org/articles/Warning-Christianity-Yoga-Do-Not-Mix.php

[Xithras]

43. These idiots are a KKK'ers wet dream

The racists have been whining for decades about "cultural mixing" and "white people acting like other races", and the left has responded by treating those racists like the backward barbarians they really are.

Sadly, we now have misguided "activists" on the left championing the very same type of cultural divisions that the KKK and Aryan Nation have long supported, albeit with differing motivations, and the left seems to be far less inclined to call them out on their stupidity.

"Cultural purity" movements are offensive and dangerous, no matter WHAT the motivations are behind them.

[snagglepuss]

45. Exactly. And further to your points these activists are not critical thinkers

but dangerous dogmatists.

[KamaAina]

46. That has GOT to be from The Onion!

[Matariki]

49. Sadly, it's a thing

calling yoga 'cultural appropriation'. or henna tattoos, chopsticks, dreadlocks, sushi, kimonos, dream catchers. I've seen people (usually 'white' people, ironically or not) criticizing those things as 'appropriation'

[romanic]

50. When I see whites complain about appropriation

I always assume it's because they either they're too lazy to learn about another culture, or because they secretly think they're better than said culture and refuse to participate in it. That's just my theory.

[snagglepuss]

52. The UofO syudent union is diverse, in fact the person quoted in the

article is, given his name, South Asian. Could be your theory needs reworking. Just saying.

[snagglepuss]

53. This is the absurdity of appropriation because you are saying

'white' people, appropriating appropriation.

[Matariki]

89. Meanwhile, the CBC tracked down some local Hindus who were not offended.

“If you look at what the Western world has adapted it is just phenomenal,” Dilip Waghray, who’s been practicing yoga for 50 years, said at the Hindu Temple of Ottawa-Carleton. “Imagine how much good they’re doing for themselves. They’ll live a long and very happy life.”

[romanic]

90. "Waghray doesn't speak for all Hindus though!"

Is what a white person complaining about appropriation would say (I've seen this so many times in appropriation debates it's straight up racist in and of itself).

[hifiguy]

54. This is the kind of truly cement-headed idiocy

one normally sees only from people as stupid as tRump and Mental Ben Carson.

Why is this kind of boneheaded jackassery not immediately dismissed for the jackassery it so obviously is?

[MisterP]

55. appropriated from the Dravidians, no? and jyotish was imposed by the Macedonian conquerors

[TipTok]

56. Hiking club... Skydiving club... etc..etc..

All out the window...

Maybe we can have a sit/lay and stare blankly ahead club...

What a bunch of tools...

[Orrex]

58. 7 'Ancient' Forms of Mysticism That Are Recent Inventions

#7. Yoga

Ask anyone wearing a leotard and staring off into the middle distance how long yoga has been practiced, and chances are they'll tell you that it's around five thousand years old. In other words, people were stretching and posing serenely several hundred years before aliens secretly built the Egyptian pyramids.

The Reality:

Yoga as we know it today -- a set of postures (asanas) combined with breathing techniques -- dates back to around the grand old year of 1960.

"But how can that be?" you scream, rending your organic exercise mat in two. 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.

Yoga is first mentioned by name in some 2,500-year-old Hindu religious texts called the Upanishads, but this is actually a term relating to a method of strapping horses together -- literally the origin for our word "yoke." The Upanishads use it as a metaphor for a mental prayer technique, but as far as all those weird stretches are concerned, the texts mention exactly one physical posture, and that posture is pretty much "sit in a way that makes meditation comfortable." So the word "yoga" might describe an old Hindu teaching, but then so does the word "avatar," and nobody's claiming that the James Cameron movie reflects an unbroken line of ancient sacred tradition.

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.[hr][hr]
[hr][hr]
Snarky, but well-documented with hyperlinks.

[Initech]

59. Can we tell these idiots to shut up? Please?

Oh wait did I just offend the idiot community?

[Dr. Strange]

64. No, you didn't offend the idiot community.

However, you just appropriated a holy practice of the ancient "Shut Uppists".
You need a privilege check, stat.

[Initech]

79. "Shut Uppists" - I like that term!

Coincidentally I saw that band The Shut Uppists at the Troub last night!

[Lizzie Poppet]

63. I'd love to ask these clown shoes...

...of just what actual benefit they think there is in diversity if one is not actually able to experience the things that diversity brings to a culture.

[Matariki]

70. That's just the thing

it's an attack on the one thing that makes the US a good and interesting place, imo. At our best, it's our strength - a culture that's built from many diverse cultures.

[0rganism]

65. what are "yoga-like spaces"?

and who are the "certain groups of people that feel left out" in them?

is this for real?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

69. They are three-foot by six-foot rubber rectangles,

generally of a color called "periwinkle", upon which people inflict pain on themselves and mutter the word "namaste".

[MisterP]

87. it's Riemann space, but also accounting for jnanish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_space

[climber3986]

72. 'cultural genocide' Literately word for word argument from white supremacist stormfront / kkk

Seriously, i think the last time I heard an argument like that was from racists / white supremacists in the youtube comment section complaining about non-white people coming to Europe. What the hell is going on?

[kcr]

73. Well, my day isn't complete untill I join the Daily Mail in laughing at stupid liberals

So, glad you linked to this! They're so accurate and trusted. Thumbs up!

[PersonNumber503602]

75. Here's a CBC article on it...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/university-ottawa-yoga-cultural-sensitivity-1.3330441

Apparently there hasn't even been any complaints about it, but just a general discussion about the possibility of someone finding it offensive. Just because a liberal person or group says something, it doesn't mean they have to be supported no matter what. I think it's good to call people out if you feel they are wrong, even if you are generally on the same side.

[Nye Bevan]

81. How about the UK Independent?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/university-yoga-class-suspended-over-cultural-appropriation-dispute-a6744426.html

[Nye Bevan]

84. And the Washington Post?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/23/university-yoga-class-canceled-because-of-oppression-cultural-genocide/

[Heeeeers Johnny]

99. Right from the horses mouth

http://thefulcrum.ca/news/sfuo-comes-under-fire-for-yoga-programs-suspension-garners-international-attention/

[backscatter712]

97. Oh my god, I drank espresso this morning. I CULTURALLY APPROPRIATED FROM THE ITALIANS!

I know, this makes me a very bad person!

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

98. Oh, nos! No tai chi?

I know somebody who is not going to be happy about this.

[backscatter712]

108. Everyone who smokes tobacco has appropriated from the Native Americans!

SHITLORDS!