By Aaron Miller
Head of Crossfit CEO, Greg glassman, has announced his retirement on Tuesday after a tape exposed his cold heart towards the death of George Floyd.
“On Saturday I created a rift in the CrossFit community and unintentionally hurt many of its members,” Greg Glassman, who started the fitness company, said in a statement announcing his retirement.
Glassman had responded to a tweet Saturday by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, that called racism and discrimination “critical public health issues that demand an urgent response. His response has sparked outrage. He said:
“Can you tell me why I should mourn for him? Other than that it’s the white thing to do — other than that, give me another reason,” he asked a Minneapolis gym owner who had questioned why the brand hadn’t posted a statement about the protests across the country after the death of George Floyd.
In a statement stating that he was stepping down as CEO, he said:
“On Saturday I created a rift in the CrossFit community and unintentionally hurt many of its members,” Glassman said. “I cannot let my behavior stand in the way of HQ’s or affiliates’ missions. They are too important to jeopardize.”
The 75-minute Zoom call, which was sent to BuzzFeed News via its secure tipline, was part of an initiative that CrossFit had started after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered gyms across the country.
CrossFit affiliate owners were invited at random to the check-in calls over the past three months with Glassman and other staffers from CrossFit’s corporate headquarters.
The call was held hours before Glassman responded to a tweet on Saturday night that called racism a public health issue, writing, “It’s FLOYD-19.” His tweet drew immediate backlash from gym owners and caused Reebok to end a partnership deal with the company. CrossFit subsequently posted an apology on Glassman’s behalf, calling his words “not racist but a mistake.”
“Floyd is a hero in the black community and not just a victim,” he said in his public apology. “I should have been sensitive to that and wasn’t. I apologize for that.”
But during the Zoom call hours earlier, which had been between 16 affiliates and staff members, Glassman repeatedly expressed doubts about whether systemic racism existed and questioned the motives of protests around the country.
“I doubt very much that they’re mourning for Floyd,” Glassman said on the call about protesters and CrossFitters who were looking for the company to speak out. “I don’t think that there’s a general mourning for Floyd in any community.”
He also recounted unfounded conspiracy theories on the call that included speculation Floyd was killed to “silence him” due to a purported, baseless role in a criminal conspiracy involving counterfeit money.
Glassman speculated that the nightclub where both Floyd and his alleged killer, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, worked has “been under investigation by the FBI for over a decade for laundering money.”
“It’s very interesting that George gets popped with counterfeits, and who comes but the head of security from the dance club? Watch: This thing’s going to turn into first-degree murder,” he said. “That’s what it’s going to turn into. And it’s going to be because I’m predicting this. We have friends in the FBI in your neighborhood, and they’re of the view that this was first-degree murder and it was to silence him over the counterfeit money. That’s the belief. That’s what the cops think.”