Disrupting White Mindfulness: Race and Racism in the Wellbeing Industry

Disrupting white mindfulness presents a thought-provoking critique of the prevailing narratives that shape the mindfulness industry, namely whiteness, postracialism and neoliberalism.

The industry presents itself as ’apolitical’, but this only serves to create institutions that fit comfortably into our increasingly divided societies. The White, middle-class profile of decision-makers, educators and staff is mirrored in its audiences, and the industry’s whiteness is endlessly recycled through corporate pedagogies, edicts of authority, disengagement with difference and inappropriate uses of mindfulness that distance People of the Global Majority.

At the same time, an emergent movement focused on a justice-infused mindfulness and liberatory well-being is decolonising mindfulness and decentring whiteness. Rooted in indigenous, global South, queer knowledges, this movement leverages difference to produce new possibilities for liberation. As this book shows, there is room for White Mindfulness to change.

Cathy-Mae Karelse (she/her) is a scholar-practitioner, changemaker and public speaker on issues of race, difference and belonging. She received a PhD from SOAS in 2019. Her work addresses all landscapes: the inner, outer and in-between. She is currently the DEI Lead at The Mindfulness Initiative and holds the position of Systems Change Lead at Resilience Capital Ventures. She works on policy and change programmes globally.