You might remember from one of our posts earlier this year that yoga is predominately attended by skinny white women.
“That upscale white woman is the image of yoga,” Robin Rollan of the popular Black Yogis blog says. “I think a lot of us see yoga as something that’s not for us, because of the lack of imagery [of people of color in yoga]. It is changing, but the image of a white, affluent, thin person is still very entrenched.”
There are yoga studios like Green Tree in Los Angeles and Chicago non-profit I Grow Chicago that are trying to bring yoga to those who are *not* upscale, skinny white women, but the stereotype remains true. About one in every 15 Americans practices yoga, according to a 2012 Yoga Journal study, and more than four-fifths of them are white.
Comedienne, writer, and actress Obehi Janice has a snarky view on the issue of diversity in yoga in her latest video. Obehi is a graduate of Georgetown University, and has trained with Shakespeare & Company and ImprovBoston. She was recently named “Boston’s Best Actress” by The Improper Bostonian.
Check out her video, and let me know what you think. I hope Obehi’s video will help bring awareness to yoga’s lack of diversity, but something tells me we have a long way to go.