Just days before resigning from his position as CEO of CrossFit, Greg Glassman made some inconceivable remarks about the late George Floyd on a phone call with a gym owner in Minneapolis, where the man was killed by police. On Tuesday (June 9th), Glassman officially announced his resignation after some thoughtless tweets about Floyd, in which he'd mocked the gravity and pervasiveness of police brutality and systemic racism against Black people in America, sparked immense outrage. Glassman acknowledged that his remarks had "created a rift in the CrossFit community and unintentionally hurt many of its members" and decided to step down as CEO.
However, it turns out that he'd spewed even more ignorance about Floyd's murder on a phone call with a Minneapolis gym owner just days prior to his resignation. The owner had asked Glassman why the company had yet to make a statement on Floyd's death. "We're not mourning for George Floyd," he responded. "I don't think me or any of my staff are. Can you tell me why I should mourn for him?"
"Now, I gotta say something or I'm a f*cking racist, and now this gym is gonna look like it's reparations or something," he said, referring to the plans he'd already had to build CrossFit gyms in "blighted neighbourhoods" free of charge, prior to the protests. When asked how he felt about these protests, he responded, "I love the rebuilding, I love the helping. I'd like to make an anonymous donation to the rebuild. But I don't want any of it going to or supporting anything that looks like pro-rioting."
He then comments on Floyd's death, insisting that it was not a crime motivated by racism. "What is the indication that this thing had anything to do with race?" he asks. "I think we can make this short, pray, there is none, because it had nothing to do with race."
