Why Waterloo Region’s only Black-owned yoga studio closed for good
Owner Selam Debs also shares how antiracism and yoga are intertwined
Selam Debs didn’t have any plans to shut down her Waterloo yoga studio. Pandemic-related financial pressure didn’t stop her. The anti-vax, anti-mask crowd that challenged her studio’s public health policies didn’t hinder her, either.
But a third blow — ongoing racist harassment — led Debs to shut down her dream business for good on Dec. 31.
As the only Black-owned yoga studio in Waterloo Region, Debs no longer felt safe in her own space.
“I was constantly locking doors. I couldn’t go into my sacred space,” she said. That is how relentless the racist harassment was.
The pandemic did impact Deb financially, as it did many other local businesses. Debs is also an antiracism educator and that work helped her keep the yoga studio afloat.
“It was something I was willing to overcome,” Debs said of the pandemic impacts. The barrage of hate and death threats she faced was not.
The harassment started when Debs adopted public health guidelines and vaccine passports to keep vulnerable clients safe during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It brought a lot of backlash,” Debs recalled. “People were saying they weren’t going to come back. It was mostly the anti-vax, anti-mask perspective in the beginning.”
When the so-called “freedom convoy” occupied Ottawa last January, Debs criticized the participants for their extremist, white nationalist views. Her critique drew attention for its sharp and truthful analysis but also an onslaught of hate that compounded over time.
Debs received hundreds of violent, racist and hateful messages online. She received death threats. Last winter Debs closed her studio temporarily to protect herself and her family.
“The targeting of the yoga studio never stopped,” Debs said.
One tactic was to create fake accounts on Juici Yoga’s website, sign up for one free yoga class and then “Zoom bomb” virtual classes. The free yoga class pass was an important marketing tool to attract new clients to the studio. During one virtual class, a white man exposed himself on screen.
“It was traumatizing for everyone. We had to get rid of the one free class pass. It was detrimental to our business,” said Debs.
The harassment didn’t stop there. Fake negative reviews of the studio popped up online, claiming it was “bug infested.”
More recently, Debs received hundreds of hateful and racist messages for hosting a Restorative Yoga event for Black students and staff at University of Guelph. Then the studio’s social media accounts were hacked and deleted.
Debs was devastated and fed up.
“You overcome one hurdle and then there is another hurdle and another hurdle, and after a while it just beats down your spirit,” she said.
Closing Juici Yoga became a matter of self-protection from the harm caused by white supremacist trolls.
Despite the relief Debs may feel now, she is still mourning the studio.
“It honestly has been really devastating,” said Debs. “I have spent the last two months in grief.”
Losing Juici Yoga was like losing a part of herself, a part she found in the safe space that Juici Yoga became when she took over the studio in 2016.
Debs was leaving an abusive partner and barely had money to buy groceries when she heard the studio then known as Community of Hearts Yoga was closing. She had just finished her yoga teacher training and decided to take a chance: She took over the studio and would make it her own.
Debs renamed it Juici Yoga, and it quickly became a sacred haven for Debs. As a single parent, she often took her son to the studio when she taught classes.
For her, yoga is a transformative spiritual practice deeply rooted in social justice. Yoga was her solace, and she wanted to take back this practice that has been stolen and whitewashed.
Debs has been a spiritual person her whole life. She was first drawn to the practice of yoga after a cousin introduced her to meditation when her aunt had cancer.
“Yoga has been such a transformational practice for me, for my life and my son’s life,” said Debs.
“It helps me with mental health and intergenerational trauma, and showing up in the world in a real authentic way; in a way that I can unapologetically ensure that antiracism, decolonization, and the spiritual aspect of yoga is always at the front and centre of everything I do.”
Debs hopes to take this energy and focus on the union between antiracism and yoga — two practices that are intertwined in a meaningful way.
One of the ways in which yoga has been co-opted by white practitioners is the myth that yoga is about escapism; to leave the challenges of life at the door.
Debs said she has heard from white yoga practitioners who, when Debs starts a conversation about antiracism or decolonization, say they don’t come to yoga to talk about “negative things.”
Yoga is not about escapism, Debs said.
“Yoga is actually a practice of social justice, it is to help us liberate from suffering, but in order to liberate from suffering, you have to have an understanding of how suffering is showing up,” she explained.
“It actually allows us to have a deepened understanding of the world within ourselves with more compassion, more empathy, more connection, more community, which doesn’t happen in the white yoga industry right now.”
Even if the racist harassment led Debs to close her studio, it didn’t waver her desire to continue to teach yoga and antiracism.
Debs hopes to focus on classes for Black, Indigenous and racialized communities to support these underrepresented groups in their healing.
“It means they don’t have to leave parts of themselves at the door when they come to a yoga session.”
Debs doesn’t know what these offerings will look like yet, but hopes to be able to create a space where Black, Indigenous and racialized people can practice yoga, share their feelings and be able to examine racial trauma in a real, meaningful way.
The Kween Company will host a fundraiser for costs associated with closing the Juici Yoga. The event, which will also serve as a celebration of Debs’ studio, will take place at Found Coffee in Guelph on Sunday, Feb. 5.
You can find more details in the above link.
Thank you for telling about more examples of the rampant anti-black racism in Waterloo Region, Anam. I wish the best for Debs. I also wish those who harass and threaten would be stopped.
Sending good vibes Deb"s way.