From the department of, “I can’t make this stuff up,” comes the accusation that as a result of her clearly bizarre performance at the MTV VMA awards, Miley Cyrus is a racist.

Yup. You heard it here first, or um, second. This accusation has been leveled at her from people who apparently know a racist when they see one, especially in her underwear.

I am not going to defend her performance. You can watch it in any number of the posts where it’s gone viral. The only thing more viral than her performance is the discussion about it in the media.

Wooo hooo, those of us who have never made a mistake sure can tell the rest of us what’s up.

Before I get into whether or not Miley Cyrus is a racist and if her performance was racist and if her underwear is racist, I want to say that in my opinion this 20-year-old girl did make a mistake. However, and let me be clear, there are many of us who have had too much to drink and paraded around in our underwear. Thankfully, it wasn’t on television (or maybe I am projecting?).

I feel sorry for Miley. She is not old enough to drink legally and obviously not old enough to manage her career. Her performance was humiliating and someone should have given her the hook, meaning taken her off stage. But I think this could be an opportunity for her to grow, and for the rest of us to pay more attention to what is being pedaled as entertainment.

There are more people responsible for what happened than just one 20 year old girl.

Now, is she a racist? I know one thing for sure: You can’t tell if she’s a racist from her underwear. Her performance may have been racist, but we do not know anything about Miley Cyrus and her politics because she danced around in her underwear. And by claiming this makes her a racist, diminishes the power of the accusation.  There were a lot of important people involved with the choreography, planning and production of that escapade than just one girl.

Racism and bigotry are important topics. This week is the 50^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I have a dream.” If we are going to live together in peace and harmony, we must look at these critical issues to continue to raise our collective consciousness.

I have a dream too, that one day, we are judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. I learned that from Dr. King. Miley Cyrus has been called a racist because of the color of her skin.  If she was black, would her performance have been called racist?

I didn’t think so.

Originally Published August 2013

Michelle Berman Marchildon is the Yogi Muse. She is an award-winning journalist and the author of Finding More on the Mat: How I Grew Better, Wiser and Stronger through Yoga, and Theme Weaver: Connect the Power of Inspiration to Teaching Yoga. She is a Columnist for Elephant Journal and a Contributing Editor for Mantra and Origin Magazines. She is an E-RYT 500 with Yoga Alliance and teaches Hatha Yoga in Denver, Co. You can take her classes on www.yogadownload.com or www.yogasteya.com