I agree with you on principle. But living in the US and in a major city, I see, hear and experience racism daily. Of the systemic variety (a white establishment vs blacks and immigrants). Not just out and about in daily life, but on TV, in politics and social media. I’m personally not black, but I am a person of colour and do associate with people of all colours. I think by the way the article is written, it makes it easy to criticize the women in the Vice (owned by FOX btw) piece. But when your news is constantly bombarding you with yet another black person killed by police day after day, while a white kid can shoot up a school and live undoubtedly places pressure on one’s psyche.

These women are retreating for their own peace of mind in the best way they know how. Group segregation in spiritual and religious practices aren’t old either.. I suspect that some even go to the extent of complete segregation of one’s self entirely to gender segregation as a common practice even today.

In my opinion, Vice, is taking the opportunity to further the discord between whites and blacks, in line with most major US media outlets today. The amount of impressions (the individual unit of personal media digestion) made on the issue of race is constant and over-whelming from the perspective of a person of colour. I think taking a personal time out, in any way one knows how, is commendable and productive. And when your culture has been stripped of you, all you can do is appropriate another culture unfortunately.

Ultimately, we should all strive for thicker skins. Learn to move beyond obstacles. And continue to be positive members of our communities. How that’s achieved, is not for me to judge. People should be free to explore their options, no? From watching the video, i can see that Andrea X, carries a lot of pain. Hopefully the yogic path assists in healing her! Stay Blessed Always!