Mainstream narratives about yoga in the U.S. often describe how the practice promotes physical and spiritual wellbeing. But, yoga practitioners and scholars rarely question who has had access to the practice since its arrival in North America, and thereby its purportedly healing and liberatory properties. Relatedly, they fail to critically interrogate the representation of the prototypical yogi in contemporary America: upper and middle-class white persons, particularly white women.
Race and Yoga is the first scholarly journal to examine issues surrounding the history, racialization, sex(ualization), and inclusivity (or lack thereof) of the yoga community.
Cover Caption:Haley Laughter (Diné) in Dancer's Pose on her Homelands (Photo Credit: Ron G. Slim, Aesthetic NVC).
Featuring interviews, personal narratives, and peer-reviewed articles, this third issue of Race and Yoga journal, co-edited by Tria Blu Wakpa and Sabrina Strings, includes a special cluster that coheres around the theme of Decolonizing Yoga? and Unsettling Social Justice.