Interrupting Supremacy Culture with Ritu Bhasin

Joining Tayo Rockson on the As Told By Nomads podcast is Ritu Bhasin, author of The Authenticity Principle, public speaker, and former lawyer. Growing up as a Punjabi minority with immigrant parents in Canada, Bhasin rarely felt comfortable in the classroom. Her white classmates berated her for her skin tone and culture as a child, and it stuck with her. It wasn’t until she quit her job as a lawyer and embarked on a yoga retreat that she discovered how much the discrimination impacted her.

She’s had over 20 years of therapy at this point, and she’s found that such injustices as discrimination and cultural appropriation have led her down a path to internalize whiteness, feel ashamed of her culture, and experience extreme unhappiness. Now, as a public speaker and author, Bhasin is committing to authenticity. She wishes she could tell her younger self to stop trying to fit in and that fitting in is not a substitution for belonging, but since she can’t, Ritu has started to share that knowledge with others. Bhasin isn’t alone in this experience, and neither is anyone else, although sometimes it may feel that way. So listen in to today’s conversation, and you too might unlock the magic and freedom that is embracing your authentic self.

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