Wow, it's been more than a year since I wrote here… today I wanted to share a realization I’ve been moving through and I think has really started to land, around why so many spiritual practices (within "spiritual" or "conscious" spaces) so often, now, make me uncomfortable.
The main realization is that these spaces are predominantly white or white-passing – not a “new” observation, but I hadn’t fully understood until now that this has been the problem all along.
These spaces have BEEN giving me the ick for some time and I tried to force myself to endure for a bit, and on occasion I will still dabble in these spaces considering I'm in the "mecca" of all things “hippy,” “spiritual,” and “conscious” 🫠
However, the truth is that our ability to gather in these so-called “spiritual” ways is rooted in unearned privilege – passports and circumstances allowing us to freely leave our home countries to sing kumbaya around the fire, beating beautiful, perfect drums... as if our troubles have vanished.
Meanwhile, in plain sight and across all forms of media, people of colour are continually pushed to the margins, enduring the ongoing process of colonization: the theft of Indigenous land, practices, traditions, languages, and the erasure of cultures. Over the past 5,000 years, patriarchal, monotheistic religions, values, and systems have destroyed, appropriated, or outright replaced these ways.
It’s just... SUPER ICK...
What really drove this understanding home for me this morning was a beautiful woman sitting on the dock of Lake Atitlán, playing her big, beautiful white drum as the sun rose behind the volcanoes.
It was truly a magical and peaceful moment… but then this feeling of "ick" swept over me, the same feeling I get when I try to endure a “drum circle” or (most) ecstatic dance events these days.
In this case, I looked past the woman and saw an older man in his wooden boat, fishing by hand with a line. I thought to myself, “I wonder what he thinks of this white woman drumming like this.”
Knowing many local people here, I feel there’s a strong possibility he doesn’t really care, or he might even enjoy it!
BUT... what if this hurts him? I could understand how that might be.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday on “sustainable fashion” where guest speaker Nikki Sanchez from Decolonize Together spoke about an example of appropriation she had witnessed – which outraged her.
It was a fashion event themed entirely around Rastafari culture, with all the models dressed in Rasta colours and wearing dreadlocks. They discussed how offensive and hurtful this is, as people in Jamaica who are actually Rastafarian aren’t even always allowed to embrace their culture in this way.
She shared the example of the 2020 Jamaican Supreme Court ruling that a young girl with dreadlocks had to cut her hair to attend school, a decision that sparked major backlash. While the Court of Appeal overturned this ruling in 2024, stating it violated her constitutional rights, the initial judgment highlighted the discriminatory challenges Rastafarian people face in expressing their culture in Jamaica.
Another recent example was when I reached out to the author of one of my favorite books, thanking them for a life-changing read on the history of patriarchy. After sharing how the book inspired me to reframe my purpose, we began discussing our differing views on “new age hippie” people/communities.
They told me:
I’d rather see local children see people swimming topless happily, in the hippie way, rather than respecting locals’ Christian values around suppressing the body. I think it’s a healthier thing for children to see.
And,
I still think that the best way to shine light through the Christian darkness of sexual ignorance is through contact with other cultures. That kind of thing thrives in the dark, and seeing women comfortable in their skin can help dispel it. Surely, the right answer is to do what the locals want, but it’s at the expense of local girls, their sexual health, and education.
When I said that the new age hippie thing was truly just repackaged christianity/white supremacy…
They replied,
I haven’t seen any white supremacy in the new-agey people I know.
😳
What this person fails to realize is that much of what they’re saying is actually – white supremacy!
For example:
“I still think that the best way to shine light… is through contact with other cultures.”
Which cultures exactly? 🤔
Whiteness.
Nooooooo…
This is the supremacy piece I think many many white people are missing.
What WE think should not dominate the world.
OUR ways are not inherently BETTER.
It’s not all love and LIGHT (particularly when you’re not WHITE)
CONTACT with “other” cultures is LITERALLY what created this whole global mess of violence and horror
(interestingly it was this authors book that connected many of those dots for me!!)
I tried to explain further but was met with “Nor is it the job of a random tourist to be a white savior.”
This brings me to the concept of the "white savior" which actually refers to a white person attempting to "help" communities outside their own in a self-serving way, often pushing their own solutions and ideas (ie. #freethenipple)
On the contrary, what I’m trying to say and believe is that it’s time white people stop interfering with cultures outside of their own, and instead focus on dismantling themselves and then their communities so we can truly dismantle the harmful systems that have actually been hurting us all, all-along.
Now, Let’s say there was a “better” way to something, let’s use rape as an example. I think most people will agree it would be better if men didn’t rape people.
Alright, we agree on that. HOWEVERRRRR
That doesn’t mean it’s for WHITE women in their WHITE ways to TEACH that to the “poor brown children” THAT is literally the energy of being a white saviour.
Instead, as white people, that TRULY want to see less rape (for example), here are a few ways you can do that – hint – it is not walking around naked exposing yourself, so to enlighten all those beneath you so they too can rise up to your liberated level, by bearing witness to your sexually liberated titties on the streets of San Marcos La Laguna (for example)
imagine for one second what might happen – and if you cannot imagine do some quick research to learn about the statistics on femicide here in guatemala – if the girls just bypassed all the necessary healing and repair from the violence of colonization and jumped into embracing a nudist life 😳
some places to start:
1. don’t be racist (and prepare to be anti-racist)
2. respect local cultures, remember you’re a GUEST
3. SUPPORT the local women (and men) who ARE doing the very difficult (AND DANGEROUS) work of liberating their own people
Side note on this point, because I had a related realization recently of how INCREDIBLY dangerous being an activist, basically anywhere outside of Canada or the USA, truly is!!!!
Wow, I’m actually embarrassed and need to acknowledge how ignorant I was around this topic.
Honestly I had often thought and wondered to myself why there really aren’t a lot of local people openly advocating for change (particularly where I am in guatemala)…
Then I started engaging with activists (from central/south america) online…
Specifically I attended on online webinar called “Democracy Justice & Territory” hosted by the Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA.
Just about every major activist they discussed had been exiled or had to flee for their life.
Turns out you can’t just openly speak out, let alone protest, in places like this without, the risk of DEATH.
Ok, so I digress, but we as white people seriously have a lot of work to do.
Like, for the rest of our lives.
Whether it’s cacao “ceremonies,” drum circles, nearly any “spiritual” practice (particularly in group settings that cost money), or just walking down the street… white people, we need to do better.
Over the last year, I’ve realized, living adjacent to a “hippie/spiritual/conscious community”, that there is much work to be done around recognizing the harm in not only our actions but, in many cases, our presence alone.
This has helped me focus on what Lokah is truly about.
Same pillars, roots, directions… but now, more focused.
We, as white people/settlers, need to work together to dismantle these harmful colonial identities, communities, and systems we’ve inherited and continue to uphold.
I trust that those who are ready to listen will hear. There is no doubt that true healing and liberation can only occur when we are all free.
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
May 𝐚𝐥𝐥 beings everywhere be 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 and 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 and to that 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦 for 𝐚𝐥𝐥 ✨
xo
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