A is for Angst

This poor girl…she just wanted to do yoga without being confronted by the very real problems of the privileged, and then BOOM!  she had to look at a black person in her yoga class.  Obviously, the woman attended her yoga class only to direct her rage at poor Jen.  How could Jen tell?  The vibes man, the vibes…

“Because I was directly in front of her, I had no choice but to look straight at her every time my head was upside down (roughly once a minute). I’ve seen people freeze or give up in yoga classes many times, and it’s a sad thing, but as a student there’s nothing you can do about it. At that moment, though, I found it impossible to stop thinking about this woman. Even when I wasn’t positioned to stare directly at her, I knew she was still staring directly at me. Over the course of the next hour, I watched as her despair turned into resentment and then contempt. I felt it all directed toward me and my body.

If only someone had told her that the woman behind her probably couldn’t give a care about her.  Stereotyping the woman in your yoga class as a rage-filled depressive isn’t enlightenment.  You were all alone in that,  Jen.

Author: Susan X Jane

Susan X Jane, Principal of Navigators Consulting, has over 30 years of experience exploring race and representation in both the public and private sectors.  Susan is a transracial adoptee—a Black woman raised in a White family and community—an experience that created an early focus on the way race shapes our concept of ourselves and each other. Susan has worked to address race and racism as a community organizer, nonprofit program developer, professor of communications, and consultant to corporations and impact-focused institutions.  As Principal of Navigators Consulting, she draws on decades of experience to work with organizations in the public and private sectors. To any who seeks to build a better world, she offers her skills as a teacher, coach, and strategic partner to help create diverse and inclusive environments where the humanity of all is respected and protected. View all posts by Susan X Jane