Abstract

In this Critical Yoga Studies (CYS) examination, I introduce terms, “racial tourism,” and “racial mobility,” and a method, “justice storytelling.” These terms and this method are poised to be used strategically in the quest to grapple with race and racial fraud in the academy. Racial fraud in the academy is exemplified by, but not limited to, infamous scholars such as Rachel Dolezal, Jessica Krug, Andrea Smith, Elizabeth Warren, and BethAnn McLaughlin. The terms “racial mobility” and “racial tourism,” intentionally create space in which to notice and assess racial fraud. In establishing CYS, I aim to provide epistemic space in which pause the cycle of harm (ie. instigated by exposure to racial fraud in the academy) and reaction (outrage, condemnation) and make space to notice, witness, and be (“this is happening”). The terms, method, and guiding questions offered in this study create epistemic space to notice race, to continue to be despite racism, and assess the ongoing project of racial categorizations in order to quell disorientation that results from harm. I add these terms to the basket of more highly circulating terms (such as “cultural appropriation,” and “identity fraud”) used to describe and respond to: (1) the specific phenomenon of white scholars engaging in racial fraud, and (2) the broader experience of living with and within inseparable systems of race, racial categorizations, and racism in the ivory tower. CYS is grounded in legal scholarship and critical race theory. I build on “legal storytelling” in an experimental, poetic form I call, “justice storytelling,” which enables healing. I find the terms I introduce, “racial tourism” and “racial mobility,” reveal a state of movement at the essence of the racial takings and accumulation of racial value enacted by white scholars committed to racial appropriation and fraudulently coding as Black, brown, and Indigenous in the academy.

Highlights

  • Critical Yoga Studies (CYS), I aim to provide epistemic space in which pause the cycle of harm and reaction and make space to notice, witness, and be (“this is happening”)

  • The terms, method, and guiding questions offered in this study create epistemic space to notice race, to continue to be despite racism, and assess the ongoing project of racial categorizations in order to quell disorientation that results from harm

  • Used to describe and respond to: (1) the specific phenomenon of white scholars engaging in racial fraud, and (2) the broader experience of living with and within inseparable systems of race, racial categorizations, and racism in the ivory tower

Read more

Summary

Introduction

How do we come to believe in race, and when we do, what stories do we engage with? How can we deploy language to help us navigate this confusing and violent terrain called race? In this article, I gather buried terms, “racial tourism,” and “racial mobility,”. “racial mobility” and “racial tourism” provide an essential framework through which to pause the cycle of harm (exposures of racial fraud) and reaction (outrage, condemnation) and make space to notice, witness, and be (“this is happening”) These terms address the jarring, chaotic experience of being a scholar living with racial categories, racism, and race while in the academy. I use “justice storytelling” to express the individual impact of a white scholar impersonating, accumulating value from, and eliminating a young, Native scholar—as BethAnn McLaughlin did via the social media platform Twitter In introducing these terms and method, I continue to establish Critical Yoga Studies (CYS), a field that uses “yoga” as a jump-off site to consider issues of race, gender, colonialism, technology and new media, culture, and global capitalism (Singh 2019). CYS anchors in indigenous studies and correspondingly values “positionality” as an essential component of the “step” of observation in the five-pronged scientific process

A Map of Guiding Questions for Critical Yoga Studies
Literature Review
Justice Storytelling Requires Positionality
Author Positionality
Introducing Justice Storytelling in Action
Story Synopsis
Story Analysis
Conclusions
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call