Upper Reality
I used to go some time ago. I’ve considered returning. But I saw some other reviews talking about the behavior of the parking attendants and the front desk staff and I felt it would be helpful to share my experience because I think it is still relevant. I tried to go to a class here, I got there reasonably early, and approached the parking attendant in my car asking for information on how to park. He spoke to me in a remarkably nasty tone. It was more than rude, it felt like a means of establishing dominance through hostility. Bear in mind I was around 23 at the time, African American woman—and this was a Latino gentleman who looked to be around his late 40s. I was new to LA so I was shocked and blindsided by essentially being treated like a sewer rat. I mustered the courage and calmly confronted him. I told him “you spoke to me in a rude way that was unnecessary and I did not deserve that.” He responded angrily and began berating me. The exact phrase I recall was him accusing me of “giving him attitude.” Of course I felt this to be even deeper, as “attitude” is the sort of rhetoric of the “z formation”-snapping stereotypical black woman often derided in mainstream culture. So I felt very small because of this. I understand it’s very taboo to call something “racist,” even worse than racism itself sometimes, but a spade is a spade, and a racist encounter is a racist encounter. I think I just skipped the class and went to another one later that evening using my bike instead. When I went back again at that time, i spoke to a front desk person about it and gave a description to where she could recognize the person. She said that most people “love him”, but she would look into it. But when I returned, he was still working there and there was really no meaningful mediation at all toward it. He just gave me this dirty grimace and nodded as if it pained him to greet me. So this was really my introduction to this particular yoga community and in general it very much unsettled me and put me on edge for the rest of the time I tried to build a yoga practice with this studio and I don’t feel like I was able be my best self or to have the experience I could have with the community. It also simply stuck with me, and had a profound chilling effect on my self advocacy which set me back in my pursuits to build a life here. Being punished for sticking up for yourself can lead you to fold and just let people walk all over you. It’s especially easy for this to happen in a space where you think you’re supposed to let your guard down. Looking at the other complaints regarding the demeanor and the behavior of some of this first-encounter staff, it doesn’t look like the owner’s responses meaningfully address this issue (maybe everybody didn’t get the racist aspect , but the incivility problem in general is what I mean)—an issue that does look like it was referenced multiple times—it’s just lip service and reiterating what the rules are, kinda totally ignoring the parts where the unbridled hostility from the staff is mentioned. I know for me, quite frankly this was one of the first horrible experiences I had when I moved to this town and I still think about how dehumanizing it felt to be so sharply berated and mistreated the way that I was, not for being mean myself, but i guess for having an air and a confidence that merited me being put in my place, perhaps? I hope that one day this studio does do a meaningful assessment of their workplace culture to ensure that their staff can exercise basic decency with their customers a little bit better. Thank you.
