ABSTRACT

Peacock opens the questions: If spirit--god(ess), the creator, Allah, love--is in all of us, then why do systems of oppression exist? Where is the god in White supremacy, sexism, homophobia, classism and ableism? Throughout this personal and political narrative essay, Peacock uses their own journey into activism and spirituality to argue that “White people’s spirituality must include antiracism if we are to actualize self and collective liberation.” Further, they challenge Westernized yoga, suggesting that it mostly serves as a place for White people to spiritually bypass. Instead, Peacock argues, that interconnection isn’t an ideal that White people can realize without first doing the deep internal work of changing, reprogramming, and understanding whiteness and how it contributes to the violence of our world. They conclude that White people’s spiritual work is to confront oppression and unroot it at its core, and that this happens at the place where yoga and antiracism meet.