Yoga in the West Across Black Culture

Tamara Williams-Conaway

Yoga East Teacher Training 2024 

Introduction

I would like to start my research paper by sharing my own experience as an African American who stumbled upon yoga by purchasing a Groupon one day for a local yoga studio. I had no bias about yoga and was as green as they come. My only foreknowledge was that many women I admired practiced yoga and appeared to have great bodies. I saw it like a dance where your partner was the mat, and it seemed cool. Also, I met a friend in college that had hippies for parents. She told me her mom did yoga every day, and it was her best form of exercise. That was all I needed to become curious about what a yoga class would be like, so naturally I had to buy the Groupon and give it a go.

     Years and many Groupons later, I tried all the different types of yoga, and was ready to commit to a practice of my own. No more Groupons for me, I was going to join a studio and become a yogi. I just needed to find a practice that fit me. I had no idea where to begin. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of yoga styles. I didn't know which path to choose until one day, while teaching at Spalding, I chatted with a student from India about how yoga was practiced back home. She told me that yoga was practiced first thing in the morning. That was the defining moment when I knew that I most likely had a lot to learn about yoga.

 History

We know that yoga was practiced in India dating back to before Christ. According to Light on Yoga, yoga's practice in India dates back thousands of years. The early writings are mysterious and unique. They are steeped in Indian culture and religious influence, so many Americans are just now learning about the ancient connections of yoga to Asia. Although yoga dates back thousands of years, it was banned in the late 1700s by colonial British rulers who did not like the rebellious practitioners of yoga. It was not until it was officially adopted by the British as a form of exercise that yoga made its way to the western world.

Westernization

The term cultural appropriation has negative connotations attached to it. It is actually defined as adopting practices from another culture without regard to that culture or the appropriateness of the adopted practices. Unfortunately, many yoga practitioners only know the asanas as a form of exercise and toss the other seven limbs of yoga. Many traditional aspects of yoga have been replaced with trendy variations such as booty yoga, goat yoga, wine yoga, naked yoga, etc. It has become very trendy in the west. I have not met anyone who has not heard of yoga; however, the different opinions about yoga differ across western subcultures.

Stigmas of Yoga

            Most U.S. yoga classes are predominantly white women; I rarely see women of color. Why is this the case? I started to dig for answers and the responses were surprising to me. According to Black Women’s Yoga History written by Stephanie Y. Evans, many women of color do not see themselves represented in those spaces, so they do not feel like it’s a safe place. Representation matters. I have asked women of color to come to a class with me, but most do not feel comfortable being the only person of color in a yoga class. They feel vulnerable and scared. Meanwhile, women of color would benefit from the mental health relief from a devoted practice. Evans claims that women of color have not participated in self care and are disproportionately underserved in emotional, physical and mental health.

Many women of color are not fully aware of the benefits of a devoted yoga practice. They have not been informed about how pranayama  may help decrease anxiety and stress by aiding the parasympathetic nervous system when practiced properly. Several modern day therapists are starting to integrate pranayama into their therapy, or refer students to take a yoga class.

The overall need of women of color is practice more self-care. It can be hard to explain all the benefits of practicing yoga. They need to experience it to believe it. Since women of color have some of the highest stress rates of any other cultural group in the U.S., they would benefit from yoga if the practice was made available to them in its purest form.

Self-Care as an act of Protest

Rosa Parks was known as the mother of the Civil Rights movement. She practiced yoga as early as the 70s. According to an article on Yogajournal.com, Rosa Parks had many health challenges and stress from being a target for her activism work. Parks taught that self-care is a part of resistance—she lived to the age of 92 because she began to center her own health needs, even as she continued with lifelong activism in Detroit and beyond.

Conclusion

            Yoga in the west has been mainstreamed by so many practitioners to be trendy. The original practitioners never intended for yoga to be mainstreamed into a trend. The awareness that yoga is a science and can help lower anxiety and stress would greatly benefit women of color especially people who need it therapeutically. I have seen a recent uptick in yoga as therapy. Several therapists have begun to use yoga in their practices because the science backs it as a non-invasive treatment for anxiety and stress management.

            The stigmas surrounding yoga in Black culture need to be addressed through a clear understanding of its benefits for dedicated practitioners. Yoga is not a cultish religious practice, Yoga is not just a stretching exercise. Yoga is not a European women only club.

            According to B.K.S. Iyengar, yoga It is the true union of our will with the will of God, and according to Mahadev Desai in Gita according to Gandhi, ‘the yoking of all the powers of body, mind and soul to God; it means the disciplining of intellect, the mind, the emotions, the will, which that Yoga presupposes; it means a poise of the soul which enables one to look at life in all its aspects evenly.’