“Body Activist” Says “White Supremacy” Has Destroyed Yoga

In her new book Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance, the yoga instructor and body activist shares reflective personal essays that touch upon everything from racism to the cultural appropriation of American yoga, from consumerism to cannabis.

And while the timing couldn’t be better considering the current cultural climate, the idea for the book came to her years ago while she was writing her first book, Every Body Yoga, a guide to developing a yoga practice.

“I realized yoga is a lot more than postures,” she tells PEOPLE. “The postures get to be more complicated, not because you’re practicing harder gymnastics or physical postures, but because you’re practicing emotional and mental and really spiritual postures.”…

…The book explores the existence of white supremacy and cultural appropriation in American yoga.“I would venture to say that everything in our collective society is rooted in white supremacy. I am sure there are many people who would disagree with that, and honestly I don’t care because I believe that and I know it’s the case,” she says.\