HOUSTON — People are losing their jobs over racists and insensitive comments that have surfaced during the recent Black Lives Matter movement.
It includes top officials at companies like Bon Appetit, Refinery29 and CrossFit.
CrossFit affiliated gyms in Houston are dropping the company’s name after the CEO, Greg Glassman, tweeted about George Floyd. He has since apologized and retired.
But, that isn’t stopping local gyms from cutting ties with CrossFit.
For example, Behemoth Gym has been open since 2012 and had been affiliated with CrossFit until earlier this year.
Aja Barto, the owner of Behemoth Gym, said there’s one goal at his Cypress gym.
“Our biggest focus is to provide these fitness, nutrition accountability, lifestyle services to help people touch their potential,” Barto said.
He doesn’t have anything bad to say about CrossFit. He decided to break away with the company after he said CrossFit’s values had changed. Barto said the brand or CEO doesn’t represent the people behind it.
“Honestly, I’ve met some of the best people in my life within CrossFit facilities and within this community,” Barto said.
Behemoth Gym doesn’t support the racist comments made by CrossFit’s CEO.
“We were just deeply troubled by those comments that he made publicly. Being affiliated with the brand for as long as we did we were hurt by it,” Barto said.
CrossFit Derive, now known as Derive Athletics, sent a letter to CrossFit on June 7 letting them know they were ending their relationship at the end of their contract in September.
Owner Frank Nguyen said, “We wanted to make sure that we made it very clear that this is not something we support and this is not Something we stand by.”
Derive Athletics has been open for five years and has built a community of over 100 members of all backgrounds. Nguyen supports equality and Black Lives Matter.
Even though Glassman has retired, he still owns 100% of CrossFit.
Nguyen felt he needed to do his part.
“With his values and the things that he’s done over this last week and kind of the straw to break the camel’s back, we don’t think that we could associate with them at that time as long as he’s still at the helm,” Nguyen said.
For local gyms like Behemoth and Derive, that means separating themselves from a company that helped them grow a business.
“Whether a business chooses to keep the CrossFit name or whether they choose to detach from it shouldn’t be a judgment of what that business’ values are,” Nguyen said.
“One voice, even though it’s from the top, does not define what we’ve done over the past decade of serving our community,” Barto added.
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