Below is an email that I sent out to our members already about where SCCF stands. I have met Coach Glassman a few times and he is a great guy. He is not a racist in any way, shape, or form. One stupid tweet on the internet doesn’t change that. Being a minority and an affiliate for the last 12 years I have been shown nothing but love and support from him and his Company. I am grateful to him for creating the fitness movement that I am still so passionate about. It has allowed me to change lives and bring people together in my community.
Also, please check out the link below for a great article about Greg Glassman and who he is.

https://www.theabjectlesson.com/2020/06/09/in-defense-of-greg-glassman/

Hey everyone! I’m sure you have all heard the controversy surrounding CrossFit right now. Many affiliates and athletes deaffiliated and distanced themselves from CrossFit all within 24 hours. I wanted to let our members know what my thoughts are. And I want to add that I’ve spoken to many of those affected within our community and other friends to get their perspectives as well.

First of all, one of the great things about CrossFit gyms is that we are all individually owned and operated. Glassman created a system so that the Coach can be a gym owner, giving power back to the small business owner instead of the big corporations. We pay a small affiliate fee to be called a CrossFit gym. The methodology of this kind of training has changed the fitness industry. But CrossFit or Greg Glassman does not tell us how to run our boxes. They don’t have one single policy that is required of us. We have complete freedom and independence with no regulations. I think it’s important that you all know this and you have probably seen that some boxes are great and some suck. The bad ones will keep going out of business.

From what I have read, this started with an email from an angry white lady affiliate owner to Greg. She was dropping her affiliation and made a long email saying why. She insulted and attacked Glassman and said he was a poor leader. And then she implied that he is racist because he hasn’t said anything with his platform about George Floyd or black lives matter.
He responded with an angry email back. Insulting her and denying that he is racist. She posted the email which caused outrage because he was rude to her. Imagine being accused of racism because you don’t post online about a social justice issue.

Then the ihme (Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation) put out a tweet saying “racism is a critical public health issue that demands a urgent response.” Greg is a libertarian and so he is for a limited government. He has been critical of the government lockdowns and believes it was unconstitutional. He has been at odds with the ihme and other places pushing the dangers of covid and inflating numbers to justify more government control. Glassman tweeted “It’s floyd 19.” He was insinuating that now they are trying to manipulate people again by conflating social justice issues with health issues. It was a stupid thing to say and it offended many.

He then had a meeting with 30 black affiliate owners and heard them out (including my friend Omar at CF Social City). He then tweeted an apology. Explaining he was trying to get a dig in on ihme and that he didn’t realize Floyd was a hero in the black community and not just a victim. Omar said the call meant a lot to him and he is staying on as an affiliate. Glassman apologized and took a lot of heat for his statement. Omar has also mentioned how there is a lot of social pressure at first to post a black square, and now to deaffiliate on the internet.

He messed up. It was an insensitive tweet. Immediately, one after another people started distancing from the CrossFit brand. I think many are jumping on the bandwagon for fear of being thought of as racist, when the fact is, nothing racist was said or done. One post after another felt like I was watching robots reading from a teleprompter. I don’t think SCCF has anything to prove. I would rather be judged by my actions than copying others posts on the internet. Our history over last 12 years as a business shows we do not discriminate. I love black people white people and brown people. We are all inclusive and always have been.

I also believe that a tweet and an email does not undo all the good that CrossFit has done. Hope for Kenya wod raised money and built schools in Kenya for black kids. Steve’s club is a part of CrossFit that provides free training for at risk youth. Black athletes affiliate owners and HQ staff have always been a part of CrossFit community. Many barriers have been shattered because at CrossFit boxes we share the pain of suffering through the same workouts with people we might not otherwise come into contact with.

I don’t doubt there are some racist assholes that do CrossFit. But not here at my box. They wouldn’t last. We attract great people. The shitty ones get weeded out real quick. I don’t believe there is, but if some believe that there is a race issue in CrossFit, then why throw it all away? Why not create real change from within. CrossFit is a methodology and it created a fitness revolution. It has saved countless lives, reversing chronic disease. It fights against the corruption in the health industry. It also goes to court and lobby’s against state licensing for trainers. It created an awesome sport. It has an accredited educational certification system which develops the best coaches in the world. CrossFit is amazing.

SinCity Crossfit is an example of a great CrossFit box that welcomes everyone. There is so much tension online right now. I want members to be able to come in and disconnect from all that and just work and sweat together. None of us have to agree politically about anything. At SCCF we are all the same. We have created many great friendships and relationships and we will continue to do so.

Billy Howard
SinCity CrossFit
Owner/ Head Coach – CFL3