Being Conditioned

i went for a yoga class the other day. I had just finished a littleworkout so still had my iPod on, and was sitting stretching, waiting for the teacher to vcome in. other students were settling down as well, and there was a tall black woman wandrig around the room. I assumed she was a student as well, looking for a place where she could optimally view her body in the many mirrors in the aerobics studio. Well, turns out she was the teacher. In hindsight, I could have seen it. She was in those loose, gather pyjama pants that were the rage in the early 80s, a tshirt with a big Om symbol on it, and a headscarf, typical African fashion.

And what surprised me later was that I was surprised. After numerous yoga/pilates classes in college and at gym here, I automatically assumed that the teachers would be those airy fairy white chicks with long lithe skinny bodies and wrinkles on their neck who were seeking themselves and inner peace and freedom from the many angsts of their daily lives (you know, shopping, lunches with the ladies, careers and all that) and loveless marriages and constant demands and all that. And then my train of thought went on to muse that I can see how black women could relate to women, they have an ingrained capacity for hard work, thankless lives, and therefore immense inner strangth the way indian women do.

And then it occured to me how full of stereotypes my thoughts were, how I had constantly fought against them and how here they are! I'm just like any ignorant girl who has never moved beyond her circle when i Have! I strove to learn so much and then I feel back into this rut, just like anyone else! I'd like to console myself that this was just idle thinking, but I shall have to observe my thoughts more carefully in order to actually determine so.

ANyway, then I went on to think, that it's not as though life in the west in the middle ages, Victorian/Regency/war eras was that easy either. Yeah, we are exposed to teh silly girls of teh Austen novels et al, who had maids, dressed up, went for walks, and indulged in balls and flirtations. But lower and middle class women must have worked incredibly hard to survive, and we rarely hear about their struggles. As products of colonies, we only now of the English memsahibs, the women who came to the colonies, set up house, had native servants and complained about the weather. And we know aboyut their prejudices and disgust when they were exposed to the 'other' and therefore we think of them as silly fools, when, had we been in the same relative position of privilege, might have done the same.

And livinga nywhere, just surviiving, isnt easy in any situation, unless you're constantly comparing yourself to others less priviliged than you and thanking your lucky stars and therefore becoming a better, more empathic, and happier person.

It's funny what history does to us.