Yoga class cancelled for "cultural issues" (insufficient awareness by class attendees of yoga origins)

Zenaan Harkness zen@freedbms.net
Mon Nov 23 16:40:52 PST 2015


The practices of this yoga regime must be corrected.

Zenaan's trigger warnings: contains the following words and phrases:
spiritual, oppression, cultural genocide, yoga, cultural issues,
Disabilities (I was so sure we weren't allowed to use that word any
more), feeling left out, mindful stretching (evidently a taboo phrase
as well).


http://nypost.com/2015/11/23/pc-police-suspend-yoga-class-at-university-over-cultural-issues/

A yoga instructor who teaches at the University of Ottawa says she is
fighting to keep her program alive after the school’s student body
suspended it over concerns that “cultural issues” relating to the
class could offend students.

Jennifer Scharf, who has been offering free weekly sessions at the
university’s Center for Students with Disabilities since 2008, told
the Ottawa Sun that she was informed in September that the program
would not come back for the fall semester.

    ICYMI: Still our hottest story – Free yoga class cancelled over
'cultural issues' https://t.co/GZbUHJ8VRa #ottnews
pic.twitter.com/J4F7AZo6Zj

    — Ottawa Sun (@ottawasuncom) November 23, 2015

In an email exchange between Scharf and a representative of the
university’s Student Federation — which was viewed by the newspaper —
a student wrote that “while yoga is a really great idea and accessible
and great for students… there are cultural issues of implication
involved in the practice.

“Yoga has been under a lot of controversy lately due to how it is
being practiced,” the email continues, and which cultures those
practices “are being taken from.”

The Student Federation, which operates the center, went on to say that
many of those cultures “have experienced oppression, cultural genocide
and diasporas due to colonialism and Western supremacy… we need to be
mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practicing yoga.”

Student Federation Acting President Romeo Ahimakin told the Ottawa Sun
that the class has been put on hold until a way can be figured out “to
make it better, more accessible and more inclusive to certain groups
of people that feel left out in yoga-like spaces.

“We are trying to have those sessions done in a way in which students
are aware of where the spiritual and cultural aspects come from, so
that these sessions are done in a respectful manner,” he added.

But Scharf, who instructed about 60 students each week in the program,
said, “people are just looking for a reason to be offended by anything
they can find.”

Scharf says she offered the student body leaders a compromise by
suggesting she change the name of the course to “mindful stretching,”
but after some debate, they couldn’t reach an agreement.

“I guess it was this cultural appropriation issue because yoga
originally comes from India,” she told CBC News. “We’re not going
through the finer points of Scripture. We’re talking about basic
physical awareness and how to stretch so that you feel good.”

Scharf added that she is “fighting so hard” to keep the class.



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