Posted on 12/02/2015 12:00:01 PM PST by Kaslin
FOR SEVEN YEARS, the Center for Students with Disabilities at the University of Ottawa has sponsored free on-campus yoga classes, a popular program taught by a professional yoga teacher from the city's Rama Lotus Yoga Centre. To the reasonable among us, free yoga for special-needs students may sound innocuous and gentle. But not to the vigilantes of political correctness, who successfully pressured the university's student government to suspend the classes as an intolerable instance of "cultural appropriation."
According to the Ottawa Sun, the disabilities center confessed its thoughtcrime in a public statement. While yoga may be "accessible and great for students," it said, that doesn't excuse the "cultural issues of implication" involved. The societies where yoga originated "have experienced oppression, cultural genocide, and diasporas due to colonialism and Western supremacy [and] we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practicing yoga."
For votaries in the left's High Church of Perpetual Dudgeon, nothing is safe from the outrage machine. Yoga is just the latest addition to the list, and if you don't understand why it's insensitive, racist, and neocolonialist for disabled students in Canada to take a weekly class in mindful stretching — well, get thee to a reeducation camp.
Everywhere these days you can find the harpies of cultural correctness ginning up a controversy over someone else's wrongful "appropriation." They denounce Australian hip-hop sensation Iggy Azalea for rapping with a "blaccent." They demand that Selena Gomez apologize for donning a bindi. They fume when Americans embrace foods from Asian or Middle Eastern societies while "ignoring . . . oppression faced by those communities." They howl when white models wear their hair in cornrows. They slam gay white men for adopting black women's gestures or expressions.
"Appropriation occurs," lectures "Hunger Games" actress Amandla Stenberg, "when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed high fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for themselves." Stenberg is only 16, so her self-righteous tone may be a function of adolescence. It's typical, though, of cultural-sensitivity zealots who are quick to complain when people reared in one culture take on elements of a different culture.
But the complaints are humbug. Cultural appropriators shouldn't be chastised. They should be cheered.
All culture is "appropriated." All human societies, tribes, religions, and nationalities have been influenced by others. Ideas and tastes aren't the exclusive property of any group, and they can no more be confined behind rigid cultural or geographical boundaries than they can avoid shifting over time. Obviously it is never right to gratuitously give offense merely to be offensive. But there is nothing gratuitous about borrowing from other people's cuisine or dress or music, especially when it is done with appreciation and enjoyment.
Writing in The Washington Post recently, Ruth Tam described "the shame associated with immigrant foods" like the Cantonese dishes she grew up eating in her parents' Chicago home. She recalled her mortification at being told by a classmate that her house smelled of "Chinese grossness." Today, many of those dishes have become trendy; foodies flock to upscale eateries to try them. Yet instead of celebrating the swelling popularity of foods she has always loved, Tam is angry. Those fashionable diners are indulging a kind of "discount tourism," she snaps. "American chefs . . . use other cultures' cuisines to reap profit."
What a blinkered mindset! Human cultures aren't sealed beakers from which no particle must be allowed to escape. We all have the right to draw from each other's wellsprings of tradition and art, knowledge and lifestyles. Not just because imitation can indeed be the sincerest form of flattery, but because "cultural appropriation" is how we progress. We learn, if we are fortunate, from the experience of others — we are enriched by their contributions, deepened by their insights, broadened by their disciplines.
Yoga, like all culture, belongs to everyone, and it is no thoughtcrime to say so.
From the minds of the separate but inclusive perpetually outraged.
“The societies where yoga originated “have experienced oppression, cultural genocide, and diasporas due to colonialism and Western supremacy [and] we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practicing yoga.””
Oh, really?
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/before.html
India before the British
British control of India was largely brought about by the fall of the not in print version Mogul Empire and the subsequent division of India. Babar (1482-1530), a Turkish-Mongol prince from Afghanistan and the founder of the Mogul Empire, invaded India in 1526. His grandson Jelaleddin Mahmomet Akbar (1542-1605) was the greatest of the Mogul emperors and under his 49 years reign, conquered all of Northern India and Afghanistan, extending his rule as far south as the Godvari River. The Moguls were Muslims who ruled over a Hindu majority. Akbar maintained his rule by his religious tolerance and Mogul military might, much like the British later. But after his death, the empire began to decline. This decline continued with the rule of not in print version Aurangzeb (1658-1707), who became emperor in 1658. Mogul control in south India came under more pressures with the increase of strong attacks by the Hindu Maratha princes. To worsen matters, Aurangzeb, who lacked Akbar’s religious tolerance, imposed special taxes on Hindus, destroying their temples and forced them to convert to Islam. Soon after Aurangzeb’s death, the empire began breaking up, enabling the British to step into the void.
The new emperor, Bahadur Shah I (1707-12), thought more tolerant, was unable to prevent Mogul decline. He never abolished jizya, but his effort to collect the tax became ineffectual. Bahadur Shah I tried to impose greater control over the Rajput states of Amber and Jodhpur, but was unsuccessful. His policies toward the Hindu Marathas were also half-hearted conciliatory as they were never defeated by the Moguls and resistance to Mogul rule persisted in the south.
Political and Economic Decentralization During the Mogul Decline
With the decline of Mogul central authority, the period between 1707 and 1761 witnessed the rise of the provinces against Delhi. This resurgence of regional identity accentuated both political and economic decentralization as Mogul military powers ebbed. The provinces became increasing independent from the central authority both economically and politically. Aided by intra-regional as well as inter-regional trade in local raw produce and artifacts, these provinces became virtual kingdoms. Bengal, Bihar, and Avadh in Northern India were among the new independent regions where these developments were most apparent. Their rulers became almost independent warlords recognizing the Mogul Emperor in name only. These provinces laid the foundations for the princely states under the Raj.
The Rise of Princely States
In due course, the growth of the regions at the expanse of Mogul central authority, gave local land- and power-holders enough influence to take up arms against Mogul authority and declare their independence. This gave rise to the princely states of British India. More often than not, narrow and selfish goals prevented these rebels from consolidating their interests into an effective challenge to the empire. These princes relied on the support from their relatives, lesser nobility, and peasants. Their rule was very personalized with followers swearing allegiance to the ruler alone and not to the state. As such, with the death of a prince, allegiance was reshuffled and loyalty divided. Next, the selfish motives of each princely state, made cooperation impossible. Each local group stroved to maximize its share of the spoils at the expense of the others. The princes were thus never strong enough to dominate any sizeable territories and the Mogul Empire, shrank thought it was lasted till 1858.
The Mogul rulers were not replaced by the princes. Their presence was necessary to act as a balance and arbitrator between the powerful princes, each having his own agenda. The princes in the regions, were always alert for opportunities to establish their dominance over the others in the neighborhood, yet at the same time feared and resisted similar attempts by the others. As such, they all needed for their vices a kind of legitimacy, which was conveniently available in the long-accepted authority of the Mogul Emperor. With Mogul authority so weak, the princes had no fear in collectively accepting the Mogul Emperor as the titular head-of-state.
Shall we talk about the "Caste System"?
When are these SJWs going to start hanging out in front of McDonalds to yell at immigrants “appropriating” American culture?
This is from The Onion right?! Stop the bus and let me depart this insanity.
Would we have to give stuff back that we’d culturally appropriated?
Because it seems to me that the civilized world would suffer mightily if it had to return to the Jews all that they’ve given the rest of us over the centuries.
That same stock picture appears on many articles that refer to this event.
Let them all sink back into the darkness.
Like much of childhood life, bullies rule until someone pushes back. The students are currently riding a surfer’s wave of media attention into a power vacuum. The administrators of much of these institutions are graduates of prior student revolts who have no interest in stemming a tide which they approve. Until the schools are made responsible for the tax subsidies that sustain them, there is no profit in restraining these precious snowflakes.
I posted an article the other day that had the same picture.
Well and truly, the inmates are now in charge of the asylum. The resurgence of sanity can’t come too soon.
How many students really complained? 1? 2? Or was it a couple SJWs who had nothing better to do and see if they could take something out?
Yes, I remember. I guess when you google “Yoga Class Picture” and then look for one that isn’t copyrighted, this is what you get.
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