Why did Brown students protest a white person doing Hindu chants?

Inside Higher Ed reports.

A white performer of Hindu chants creates controversy at Brown

Students recently interrupted a performance at Brown University of Hindu chanting with questions that critics say suggested the performer, Carrie Grossman, who is white, was appropriating Hindu culture.

One student asked, according to the student newspaper (and confirmed by Inside Higher Ed), “How does your whiteness impact how you engage with these cultures?” Another said Grossman’s website used “appropriative language.”

Administrators attending the event — “An Evening of Devotional Music,” organized by students, with Grossman chanting Hindu hymns — asked the protesters to hold their questions for a designated question-and-answer session after the event. Instead they elected to leave and set up camp outside (where the performer met with them afterward). But backlash is building against the protesters from a couple different directions.