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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
David Batty

‘Skinny, bendy and blonde’: women of colour challenge racism in UK yoga

Kallie Schut in yoga pose
Kallie Schut, a co-founder of Radical Darshan, a decolonised teacher training course for yoga instructors. Photograph: Anselm Ebulue/The Guardian

When Sue Forde returned to practising yoga in a studio earlier this year, for the first time since the pandemic, it was with a sense of trepidation. Because it meant she was, once again, usually the only black woman in the room.

“I’ve had my body pointed to as ‘an African body’,” said Forde, from Hackney, east London. “Recently, in a class, this discussion sprang up about whether black women have a bigger tendency to a pelvic tilt. You think: ‘Oh, please don’t bring this into the yoga room.’”

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