Diversity & Inclusion at Open Sky

Diversity, Inclusivity, & Safe Practice at Open Sky

Last modified November 2024

Open Sky Martial Arts grounds its practice and community values in the philosophies of Aikido and Chen style Tai Chi.

At Open Sky, inclusivity is fundamental to these practices. Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, wrote “Everyone has a spirit that can be refined, a body that can be trained in some manner, a suitable path to follow.” To refine ourselves in this way, Aikido and tai chi include both solo and partner practices. Our individual dedication to practice can be felt by and inspire others, whose practice may then deepen and inspire us. When practicing together in the correct way, we physically and metaphorically strengthen each other. We offer each other the unique opportunity to deepen our understanding of techniques by listening and learning from both our differences and commonalities. The goals of practice are both to seek the deep, common fundamentals of techniques and also to learn ways to uniquely manifest these techniques in our own bodies and lives. We accomplish those goals by mutual assistance guided by celebrating each other’s strengths, accommodating fundamental differences, and self-improvement driven by self-reflection. 

Particularly in a time of social and physical distancing, we recognize more than ever how rare and special this opportunity to practice with and learn from each other is. It is a gift we give each other.

For these reasons, a diversity of partners benefits everyone’s individual practice and our community of practitioners. These diversities include but are not limited to our racial and ethnic identities, gender, sexual orientation, age, size, body type, and skill levels.

Because of this, providing an inclusive environment of mutual respect and support is essential.

Inclusivity does not imply that “anything goes” or “everyone is welcome to act however they like on the mat.” The paradox of tolerance implies that must disallow disrespectful actions, inappropriate comments, and physical violence between students to maintain a respectful, appropriate, safe practice environment. While we have strived to make these moments rare, concrete examples of these impermissible actions and alternatives have included the below: 

  • Inappropriate, sometimes gendered comments about others bodies, identities, or practice.
    • Examples: telling another student their opinions on a gender or identity as a whole; “complimenting” other students as a great practitioner of their identity; refusing to use another students preferred name or pronouns; “chatting up” / hitting on students of some genders but not engaging with students of other genders similarly
    • Instead: support others by allowing them to self-identify and self-determine what their identities mean for them
    • Instead: treat and respect all students of all identities with the same levels of respect
    • Instead: be sensitive to how much social engagement
  • Practicing aggressively and roughly out of anger or frustration in a competitive way that endangers safety and is disruptive on the mat
    • Examples: Two students practicing disagree on the nature of a technique. Practice gets increasingly tense, with both non-verbal and verbal tension increasing. Physical pain or danger or muscular strength are increasingly used as a lesson in who’s “right” about the technique.
    • Instead: forceful, resistive practice by uke is advanced; it should be consensual and carefully, safely engaged in without anger, but mutual appreciation.
    • Instead: students should listen to their partner, hear their partner’s limitations and interest in resistive practice, and practice protecting both themselves and their partners
    • Instead: any student can and should disengage with their partner if they do not listen or respect their boundaries

While quite rare, we have asked members to choose to either stop actions that have made other students uncomfortable or choose to end their membership and leave the school.

Our inclusion and diversity principles are more than a commitment to neutrality or tolerance (e.g. responding to racism with colorblindness). Aikido’s historical roots have included, since its founding, the interrelatedness of spirituality, politics, and equity alongside diversity. The fundamental philosophies of Aikido include the inherent dignity of all people and the right to train oneself with the help of others. These philosophies are necessarily political when human rights are limited or politicized, which they always, historically, have been. These systems of oppression operate at the personal (e.g. as internalized superiority or inferiority), interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels. No one practice, Aikido included, is a panacea for these structural systems. However, Aikido can also act to improve our world at the person, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels.

For these same reasons, and in keeping with the non-violent ethics of Aikido, Open Sky Martial Arts specifically supports the Black Lives Matter movement and its policy platform that supports non-violent policy actions and the de-escalation and demilitarization of law enforcement. More generally, Open Sky is committed to practicing and discovering anti-oppressive approaches to teaching, training, and being. We invite those for whom this support of BLM or anti-oppression goals are unpalatable to find another martial arts school at which to train.

We currently support diversity and inclusivity in our membership in the following ways:

  • Sliding scale dues: Given generational racism and subsequent wealth disparities by race-ethnicity, and given outstanding gender inequalities in pay and access to resources, Open Sky offers sliding scale membership dues. We aim to never let wealth be an obstacle to training. This has always been the informal policy at Open Sky; we are now formalizing and publicizing this policy.
  • Children’s scholarship program: Open Sky instituted a children’s scholarship program years ago to support families working to make ends meet, thanks to the fiscal sponsorship of the NC Psychoanalytic Foundation. As above, we are committed to continuing to offer the ability for all sincere students to train regardless of means. When / if we are able to rebuild our children’s program (on pause since the pandemic), we will revisit this program.
  • Harassment policy: While we aspire to a world where all people can train, demoralizing or inappropriate comments (e.g. about someone’s gender, race-ethnicity, cultural background, appearance, etc.) sabotage that valuable environment. In order to celebrate and benefit from diversity, Open Sky aims to maintain a zero tolerance policy for interpersonal harassment and microaggressions, whether intentional or unintentional. 
  • Diversity & inclusion statement: This draft statement, written by the dojo cho, has gone to members and the chief instructor for feedback. We aspire to continue to develop this statement going forward.
  • Bathrooms: In keeping with best practices for gender inclusiveness, both bathrooms are open to all genders to use or change in (labeled clearly as “all gender”). Both bathrooms are ADA compliant and accessible. Both bathrooms are stocked with women hygiene products (tampons, pads, liners).
  • Changing rooms: We do still maintain two gender segregated changing rooms (labeled “men & non-binary” and “women & non-binary” respectively) but invite individuals to change where they most identify. Both changing rooms are of equal size and outfitting. Members who wish to change individually may use one of two private bathrooms, each of which have hooks and benches for that purpose.

In keeping with the growth-minded spirit of Aikido, it is the perspective of the dojo cho and chief instructor that no individual, institution, or community culture is without room to grow. Moreover, as we consider the personal, community, and institutional work to end structural discrimination and oppression to be never ending, we likewise believe the above list is incomplete. We are committed to promoting continuing conversation with membership and action, including but not limited to the following list:

  • Act to increase diversity in our membership, teaching staff, and instructors for seminars. Open Sky has historically benefitted from accomplished women and people of color teaching staff, and seminar instructors, and students in our membership, but we acknowledge we have historically been predominantly white and male.
  • Advertise our classes in diverse Triangle communities and support new members of all backgrounds when they join. We acknowledge many limitations here: for example, we currently only offer instruction in English. 
  • Selectively share anti-racism training and action opportunities in the Triangle area to our membership.
  • Use and act on dojo-specific sexual abuse resources, trainings, and model policies using the metooaikido.com website.
  • Promote critical perspectives on martial arts and oppression specifically, including historical context; perspectives on colonialism and orientalism; evidence on violence and self-defense; and ways white supremacy culture can dangerously permeate martial arts culture.
  • Actively solicit and be open to feedback on the development of these current activities and future goals. 
  • Continually review and refine this position statement each Winter.
  • Add an explicit “I have read and will endeavor to adhere to the diversity and inclusion statement…” note to the Waiver for new students starting in Winter 2024

We invite those who share or aspire to these values to join us to train!