This spoken-word poem/open letter to her yoga teacher is both hilarious and thought provoking.

Poet, Roopa Singh, pokes light-hearted fun at some of the cultural appropriation and exotification of Indian culture that takes place in modern American yoga. It’s some excellent satire. Basically… I can’t say anything to make it better or clearer.

Just give it a watch:

Next time we’re in yoga class, and wrapping our tongues around some Sanskrit words, let’s remember how the two cultures are combining here in a beautiful way. We’re not escaping into another world, we’re part of something new and wonderful, born from the meeting of two worlds.

Just as it is wrong to think our culture is inherently superior to any other, its also wrong to take other cultures and put them on some kind of pedestal. None of us are perfect, idealization like that can be more divisive than it is unifying. We’re more alike than we realize, just like she points out in her poem.

Relephant:

If Gandhi took a Yoga class Today. {Hilarious Video}

Author: Kathryn Muyskens

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Wikimedia Commons