this is disabled girls who lift. We are reclaiming what's rightfully ours. One podcast at a time. It's mary Beth Chloe and Marcia bringing you the thoughts and unpopular topics to get you out of that? A bliss comfort zone. Mm hmm. Hello folks, Welcome to disabled girls who lift And let's talk a little bit about the problem with all lives Matter and performative activism. We have all three of our guests joining us today. I'm Marcy from south florida, I'm Chloe from Iowa mary beth from California. So we wanted to sit down and take a break from a regular programming to kind of address what's going on nationwide to start to make sure all of you, our listeners are on the same page with us. Let's just hammer out the problem with saying all lives matter. Just get that out of the way because that's where a lot of this bullshit lies and what is racism? What is white supremacy? What that looks like behind closed doors, what that looks like the foundation of our country. We could really similar that all down two people arguing about all lives matter.

So I've seen like a lot of analogies. I'm sure you guys have seen some to to me one of the two best analogies is one you live in a neighborhood, your neighbor's house is on fire. Your other neighbor comes up and says, damn that house matters. You look at your neighbor and say, well, what about my house and your neighbor says your house isn't on fire right now And you say, well, why don't we just tell that guy to take care of his house and your neighbor says well he's inside the house, he's he's dead now. First analogy. 2nd analogy I've heard that's pretty good. Imagine that you are you are in a hospital, you know you have a broken leg, you're recovering and you sit down with your doctor, your doctor comes in and says you know this sucks your leg matters. How would you feel somebody bursts in your room walking totally fine and said my leg matters too. That's some bullsh it. Right? So I hope we get the point with that analogy. If it still hasn't been clear, all lives matter does not mean we hate white people doesn't mean this person is better than the other, doesn't mean any of that.

It just means that right now this nation does not feel like it cares about black lives and we need to highlight that. That's it. That's all it's very simple. And what I've also seen was people twisting and turning statistics on how many white people in the U. S. Have been killed by cops and how we're not talking about them. But like what percentage of the population right now is white people? You know the ratio is still so disapprove. Disproportionate in that still what is the 18-1? People who are killed by police are still blacks. Yeah it's all about the ratio and some of these people are looking for what is it called confirmation bias? They're looking for things that prove them right. So like I saw one the other day that was like, oh see this statistic says shooting of white people versus shooting of black people by police is the same. Um George Floyd didn't get shot, Freddie gray didn't get shot.

What are we talking about? Yeah. Yeah. People are really working hard to disprove it. Like it's, it's this is the reality of our country and where it is and that doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make your loved ones a bad person. But if you try to pretend it doesn't exist then all right now maybe you are. That's where the problem is. I mean how do y'all feel? I mean I think it's like such a breath of fresh air that we've seen a lot less of the blue lives matter. Also when there were black lives matter protests, What six years ago people sprouted up with these blue line flags and everyone started putting blue lives matter like flags and and stickers and whatever all over the place and now yeah and now we're seeing cops take those stickers off of their cop cars. Uh huh Because problematic they're starting to realize it is some not all but I think we're becoming a little more progressive in realizing how mean.

Yeah I'm in Iowa so we're not quite as progressive here yet. I'm still seeing a lot of things being shared that say blue lives matter. And um, obviously I don't know about powerlifting gyms where you guys are at, but where we're at, we always have like a blue lives matter flag up and I don't know what it is with string sports and that flag, but I swear it's all over the midwest because that's the community, A lot of these people that are like, you know, retired military and veterans, they kind of fall into lifting weights so they kind of bring that attitude with them. I think that the problem with that a lot of times is like, it's not black people versus the police. Like it's racist against people who are not racist. Yeah. Like nobody wants you to die. We are the ones dying. And I do see, I've had a lot of people on my timeline that have family members that are in law enforcement or first responders in general and they were, they're posting that kind of stuff too.

And I, and I let them know like um, somebody posted one thing where it was like one of those social media accounts, this thin blue line or whatever it's called and it's a picture of somebody and it's like, I'll still come when you call and so she's, she's, she like shared that and put the line will remember who you need to call when you have a real emergency, let's break that down. Um, First of all I can get shot in my own house. It's happened to many of us. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. And I know we're going to cover this little later when we talk about how problematic the police industry is and what you know, folks have been talking about surrounding police defunding and all that. But what people don't realize is black and brown communities do whatever it takes to not call the police. You do whatever it takes already to deescalate, deescalate situations and because you you never know where it's going to go, You really don't.

And so the ship that they're talking about where it's like, oh well who you gonna call now? Whoever I've been calling for the last 50 years, which is my uncle, you know, I wasn't calling you guys anyway. And and this is totally separate from calling 911 for for an ambulance or for the fire department. You know, that's how these lines are. That's how the operator just works. Nine no one has been an easy number to call for emergencies and then they decide who to direct the call to. We're still gonna need, firefighters were still going to need ambulances. But historically speaking, if I call a cop to come to my house, there's a chance that I could die in my own house for my own emergency. It is happened. I mean look at look at Brianna who was shot in her sleep or a Tatiana jefferson. It it happens and forgive me, I can't remember the little girl's name, but there was like a little seven year old girl also. So like these kind of comments and I don't and I don't know that people, again, it doesn't make you a bad person.

Nobody cares about your character. We care about the words that you use and what you're doing to share those words and change people's minds. That's that's where the bad comes in. Because posting that isn't helping anything. It's not helping anything. And you want to say blue lives matter. Like it's creating a culture where police feel like it's police versus black people and then they're going to do whatever they can to protect each other instead of holding each other accountable. Yeah. People need to think about where these, these quotes and these anti movements are coming from, they're coming from super white conservative republicans who are trying to break us apart and trying to make it a black versus white. Exactly, right, worked, you know, trying to pull us apart and not stand by each other. I'm seeing a lot of people online saying, oh it's okay to be white or you're racist because you hate white people like guys focus bring it in focus. No, this is still a point that has to be said, like it's still going over people's heads.

It makes no sense to me moving from that, that just saying black lives Matter by itself isn't good enough. It's great that, you know the difference step one, but step to like just saying it, you accomplish nothing. Um, so I do think it's, it's very obvious when you're just saying it to be to put on the performance like, Hey look, I'm an ally. I posted Black lives Matter. I posted a black square look at me and then the next day you post a selfie the next day after that you talk about your new t shirts or the next day after that, you just keep on moving like nothing ever happened. So that's, that's when we draw, that's when we start going over from how do I be an ally in the Black Lives Matter movement to, okay, this is just performative. I'm super happy. We're starting to see more of people are starting to get called out for their fakeness online for their fake, you know, I, I feel like we've been talking about this for such a long time. We've seen the fake feminism that isn't intersectional, they're not including, you know, fat athletes and fat, um, models or disabled athletes and disabled models and it's the same thing, right?

When you use your token black athletes only for blackout Tuesday or only for amplifying mela native voices. But then you're going to go back to posting your white athletes and profiting off of yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not cool. It's definitely not cool and it's not, it's not to say that silence is better. Uh, like we're at a stage and in the world right now where it's too late, you're gonna have to pick a side. And if you could be public about the fact that you're watching fucking Tiger King, you could be public about the fact that Black Lives Matter just saying. So it's too late. Pick a side and when you pick a side, make sure you meant that sh it because we can't tell if you didn't mean that shit. Actually, that's right. Because you saw for a while how many posters were about Carole Baskin, right? Yeah. They would put up signs outside of the front door for the ups or delivery drivers to choose who killed Carole Baskin do the same thing for Black Lives Matter.

Goddammit. Yeah, you could be public about that. I mean, there's so many people that are just being real problematic right now, it's either they're posting to be performative or they're defending the fact that they don't want to post anything at all. Yeah, and that's not cool either. I was just gonna say, that reminds me of a post I read about um how when you choose not to have a stance on something that has harmful effects for a marginalized group, you are making a statement. So for the people that say, oh I don't want to be political. Well actually you still are being political because you've made your stance and you're siding with the oppressor. Exactly. You basically said this doesn't affect me in my life, personally, I don't really want to get into it. Like you have, if you have the luxury of opting out like that should be an eye opener enough. Oh yeah, and just how much it screams privilege. Like, well this is gonna stress me out if I think about it too much. So I'm just going to continue, you know, makeup videos and yeah, people like my pages just about vegan food.

I don't want to get into it all I always only posted about lifting. I don't want to get into it. Well that's nice. Yeah, you have the privilege of opting out, wow and saying how, how we should only be about positivity. There is so much privilege in that because you can choose whether or not to think about somebody's murder. Yeah. And and these people when they get called out, maybe some people are turning around and maybe some aren't, but I do think that we should probably um, talk about the difference versus calling someone out and calling someone in in these kind of cases because to me, a lot of people are like, oh, hey, cancel culture, cancel culture is toxic, whatever, whatever. But to me, um, a lot of times when someone gets to the point of being canceled or called out because somebody tried to call them in and they didn't want to hear it. So I'm like, I'm really curious to know what people think is like the acceptable line of, how long am I supposed to talk to you nicely?

How long am I supposed to be compassionate? How long am I supposed to speak to you calmly and whatever? Concisely blah blah blah before I just turn around and say you know what? Fuck this. I'm gonna screenshot it and I'm gonna tag you bitch like like how long is that supposed to go on? I think that's a really important part that maybe something was missing because this week I've been thinking about that. There's one posts where people say call out culture is toxic, its cancer. I was like, well, but as an alternative, like if we're calling those people in and asking them to reassess um actions they've done or words, you know, they said at what point do we go okay? You know, like just like you said, I'm basically repeating what you said. That was just kind of like a lightbulb moment for me was like, oh yeah, that's it. Yeah, what else am I supposed to do here? I mean that's literally the, it's the same vein of people that are saying, oh I mean I support the protest but um only as long as they're peaceful, like it's the same idea, how long am I supposed to be peaceful and sweet and orderly and in, you know, a dose that you can take before I just say funk this.

I'm about to break this window because they're breaking the rules anyway. Why should I? Yeah it's the, it's the point of you not being heard or not being seen like nobody's just going to politely take that forever and just politely wait for things to change when they're not and and it's funny that so Chloe you shared with us, you know an old power lifter that you used to follow whatever and how you called her out about um her not being okay with how much politics is involved online and how so many people are so political and then here she is what four years later being so outward and so loud about black lives matter and seeing that growth. You know that I think that's a good idea of calling someone in and she's probably thinking about you to this very day. I wonder she unfollowed me because I was quote to political and like I asked her, I was like, hey like I noticed you fell off my following list.

Why is that? She's like you're too political. So I wonder if it's cool to see someone grow like that. Yeah. So maybe there's hope for some of the other people that we've seen this week that have been kind of problematic. So yeah and then that's just somebody who wasn't even in your small circle. You know thinking about those who are are close friends who are uncles and aunts who are just completely anti black, completely able list and fat phobic transphobic. We are calling them in because we want to feel safe having conversations with them or having a freaking beer on a sunday to sunday barbecue. You know and I think that's what people are not realizing like your opinions could be yours until their hateful and then killing people. You're you're like we can disagree on things except when it involves human life and and my rights to live in this country. Like that's that's a little bit more than saying I like Twizzlers or I like red lines like it's a little deeper red vines all the way.

Oh oh no. Uh But yeah, I mean I think I think the problem, you know what else the other end of it, you know what the problem could be also is just the fact that when people are called in number one, they can't tell the difference you telling them something that you don't like is an attack period and then number two, they probably never had anyone in their life come to them with that kind of information. They don't know how to handle it. They don't know how to handle it. And then and that's a reality for some people, maybe that's never happened. Maybe you've never had a relationship where somebody works to build you as a person and grow with you and tell you like yo you said some sh it yesterday I was fucked up. You know like I I expect that the same, like the way I expect that from you guys. You guys expect that from me. That's not the reality for everyone and may be the worst part about it is they do have those people in their ear who are backing them up and saying, hey, I completely side with you, you know, who else sides with?

You donald trump and you have all these people like in your what in your posse that are so for all lives matter and like they have this reason to be right in their own way, but it's so toxic and they don't realize it and I don't know what to tell any of those folks that I've just got to read a book and get through it. I don't know what to tell you Alden repeatedly and it doesn't or just know that the call out will be coming because we're getting frustrated. And so the same people that don't know what to do with criticism, we'll turn around and gaslight you for that criticism, All of that energy that they spend on doing that could be spent on educating themselves on this movement and actually helping absolute nonsense. So you tell somebody, hey, um, you said this and this is problematic. Hey, uh, we don't use this word anymore. It's offensive to that or hey, you know, you just, you let them know and they, well I'm not I'm not homeless, I'm not racist.

You don't you don't know what I do. Um Okay. Yeah. What I said was still true. That is so important. That is so so so important because so many people like gaslighting and I love that that term has been a lot more. That term has been coming out a lot more recently because they're like well I've never experienced this in my life. So it must have never must be a lie. You know that person was super nice to me so he could not have raped you. Are you sure? That's what happened? Did you read it wrong? That police officer always gave me passes when he would pull me over so he could not have beat you to death. I don't believe it. That is so like that is such a fucked up way of thinking and for whatever. I don't know, I don't know how to how to help those people but to tell you that this existed, you gotta stop. I have no I have no idea why that happens or what they're going through in that just understanding that something was wrong and it can be fixed.

Like what's at the at the bear basis of anybody calling you in something was wrong and you can fix it. You know what we should do. I think this would be a great reality tv show since that's what everyone's like into nowadays. You know, you know how there's wife swap, we should do the same thing with black and white families of like super affluent neighborhoods and super low income neighborhoods. So you can see what it's like. Oh jeez yeah, you try to go to the doctor and have a doctor shit on you, then you can go to school and see that the school lunches fucking ship all of that. Just go through all of it top to bottom. Exactly. Or they have to go through all of these procedures just to go to school by getting searched by having four or five officers, you know, taking advantage of the education system. Apparently it's a lot to ask for someone to understand things that they don't personally experience. Apparently it is. Yeah, witness that multiple times this week and that's like general influencers that I've seen for mostly um everything, so there's good and there's bad.

I mean and the other thing about it is like, it doesn't really matter. You could be an immigrant from the Middle East, you could be black, you could be just a white girl that's always lived in America. Like it doesn't really matter. We all have something to learn at some point in time. It doesn't really matter where you come from. So I do think there's also a bit of that where people are like, oh well I'm jewish. So I understand a preference. Like no one's taking that away from you, but also there's something new to learn. I mean even from myself personally, my parents are Haitian, they moved here as young adults. I was born here. I didn't know what juneteenth was until I watched Atlanta for the first time and they had an episode about it. So there's always things for me to learn. So if I got to learn, why not you right? I think what I hear you saying is let's okay if let's say you are jewish, that identity doesn't absolve, is that the word I want you from having to do work in educating yourself, right? Totally, definitely.

It doesn't absolve you. And even a black person just being black doesn't absolve you. It doesn't mean that you speak for the people, like it doesn't absolve you. I mean I've seen people that I follow right now and they've come out, they are black and they come out straight up and said, you know what, I can see that I have benefited from systematic racism. I don't even follow other black people on my accounts. I'm going to do something that changed it. Like everybody could get it totally. And and it's like it's also just reminding people that your oppression doesn't make anyone's oppression equivalent to yours or any less than that, especially when you hear it a lot. Like I'm Filipina, I'm an immigrant, whatever. I'm disabled. I I have all these identities, but I will never compare myself to the black experience the same way a poor white person should never compare themselves to the black experience or the brown experience because everyone is so different and we just got to you know, acknowledge that that I'm not the one getting killed out on the streets, you know, and the more that were also even talking about the the intersections of it, like imagine being a black person that can't see or hear, imagine having an extra layer of of a disability that prevents you from interacting.

Imagine you have autism and you're not processing the the whole vibe of what's going on correctly or you're having a mental health breakdown or whatever it is. Every little one of those things makes all of these experience even more unique. So, you know me as a with all of my senses intact for the most part, I I can't relate to a black woman who is deaf and blind and her experiences with the police or a black trans woman. No, not at all even get respect from her own circles. Not at all. And so understanding that like, okay, this is a problem, this is this is kind of fucked up and that's where you leave it, you don't have to say oh, but but but but no, there's no buts like what are you trying to prove with that? What do you, what is the accomplishment that you're gonna make with that? So I'm saying like if anything, all of that is just showing you that someone is still working on Bringing the conversation back to themselves as it were in a conversation. It's it's pretty specific right now, all 50 states are protesting for a pretty specific conversation.

Police brutality, fuck racism. Black lives matter. So you on the other end going but but but but but but I'm huh? What are you doing? Did you not hear the points? Did you not read any of these signs? What he was talking about? You? That's why if anything, this should make us even stronger. Everyone's protesting with America because it happens over there. And if you, you know, have suffered from your own oppression from police, you know, brown folks, immigrants, everyone you should be with black lives matter because you've seen it yourself. Exactly. They're not, they're not separate struggles. It's not misery olympics. It's not, not at all. You don't have to win. It's fine because we're all losing right now. We're all on the losing side. I will say I'm having a fantastic time seeing the people who are not growing and not changing.

Getting stepping down or getting fired or moving out from their positions like finally good for you. Good. That's what should happen. It's it's going on for too long where these people are in positions of power and just doing the most to make sure we're still losing in our misery olympics. I mean it still sucks that, you know, someone has been in office for four whole years and had not been booted out. But when you see it in crossfit or all these other companies that are their own people are holding them accountable. Let's go with that. Do we want to get into the crossfit conversation right now or you still have some more points to go over? Uh we can get, we can get into the crossfit, here's the thing and I don't know, I have to look more into it again, but the last time I looked into it, so Glasman dude said some sideways ship about Floyd 19, like it was a cute joke to make about number one, a black man dying from the hands of police number to a pandemic.

That is very real that he doesn't think is, and so he stepped down a lot of people are not, or whatever, the word, opposite word of affiliating is disaffiliated meaning, I don't know, a lot of people are dropping the crossfit name, but the person that they put in charge instead of this guy, it's just another white guy. Like what's, what's going to be the difference? Well, and he's still 100% owner of crossfit, right? He's still getting all profits from that brand because Greg is, Yeah, so one thing that's at least important about, like the gym's dropping the crossfit affiliations is that means, um, because jim's pay an annual fee to use the company's brand, so that is less money going back to Greg, Glasman, I absolutely love it. Yeah, I think that, um, and a lot of people um brands companies, whatever that have worked with Carl Spitz, like rogue made a statement, right? Didn't make a statement. I didn't get to look at Reebok Reebok and stuff, so they, they like, I know they condemned his statement and he talked, they talked about how much they are for the black community and how that was unacceptable and I think they're just rewriting their contract for Reebok Crossfit Games and um finding some other plans for the end of the year, so it wasn't super outward and saying like we're gonna take your sponsorship sponsorship away there just like I demand like a change in leadership, which is probably why he stepped down because that's a huge sponsorship and don't get us wrong, you know, the crossfit community, they have communities where we're all in it for the sport and not so much for the brand, but I guess not, we don't want to take that away from, from these national world level athletes, but I'm glad that they're finally talking about about how racist that company is.

Yeah, for sure. So that was, that was that was Reebok. Yeah, so yeah, I rode Post said they don't support Greg's statements and effective immediately. They will remove the crossfit logo From the 2020 event in that, but they're still going to fulfill the 2020 season for the sake of the athletes and community, but going forward, they need to work with crossfit games leadership to determine what the next steps are. Okay, interesting. I know I've seen some athletes, I don't follow many um crossfit folks, but I've seen a few athletes that are outright said, I don't care, I'm not competing, yep, Yep, there is an important one. I think she's from Iceland. Ah and I'm sorry, I don't know how to pronounce her name, but it's like Katrina, but maybe that's uh that's my guess how to pronounce it. Anyway. She um there's a, she posted supposedly like an email conversation between someone, it wasn't her and Greg where he was um upset because the woman that reached out to him, he was trying to say that she's being virtuous, trying to brand him as racist, etcetera.

And so that action along with the other actions of Greg led Catrine again, I'm sorry if I'm saying that wrong to drop out of the upcoming games. I think that's a big part of a big takeaway from all of these things. Is that racist? People should not feel safe anymore. Like there's no, there should not be any safety for that. There should not be any cushioning. There should not be any coddling. And on that, same note, what is it? Nascar banning the confederate flag. Did they ship? Okay. One of the drivers, I didn't write his name down and the drivers has a black lives matter. Nascar Car NPR has a great article on it. Um some of the Nascar supporters were upset and said they're not going to attend anymore, but really come on like that's their sport like. Yeah, I'm just gonna have to leave your racism behind and yeah, Nascar can embrace black lives matter.

Everyone else can. Yeah. And and outside of strength community, a few big ones I've seen also is um so I just did like a 23 and me thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they they had a amazing statement on their newsletter and this guy, the ceo is straight up like you know what? I'm looking around my boardroom and there's no black or brown people here and that's not okay, I'm gonna work on that straight up. This is what we need guys. And then leaf lee which is like a murano resource like medical whatever like the Wikipedia of marijuana basically. They also made a statement that was like um we can't keep on promoting our site with marijuana and not say black lives matter because black people are in prison because of marijuana. We have to talk about this like okay, there you go. This is what we're talking about. Why is this so hard for the strength community to get behind so much about medical marijuana that is racist and people still don't understand that.

So if these people come out and look like around them, look in their rooms, look at their policies, look at how they're making money and be like ah funk. All right, This ship is racist. Why why can't our powerlifting federation's do the same thing. Why can't these strong men federations do the same thing? Yeah. Yeah. So um as far as federations that have posted that they've taken a stance that we know of. I think the best that I've read so far. So okay let me list who I have. So RPS made a statement. Us pa did W. R. P. F. Sorta. Um But I want to focus on USPS because I thought his uh steve denison is the president and I thought his post was the best. Did you both get a chance to read it? Yeah. I looked over that one and this and the U. S. P. A. Happened a little bit after um that petition for them to say something right? I think that's important.

Think so. And I don't know. I saw it on at americans page. Amanda's page. I'm not I can't say that she started it but that's where I saw it started a petition for USB a to publicly denounce racism basically if you look at those comments and the people that are just not getting it. But anyways so I think I'm pretty sure that came after that and that was U. S. P. A. Like official page. Yeah. Usa pay power. So okay that kind of knocks it down a little bit. Um I'm sorry. I didn't realize you needed a petition to write this. But once he finally got the petition, what he said in it, I thought was I mean I thought it was pretty legit because he right off the bat at the top of the letter, he acknowledges George Floyd what happened to him wasn't just and then he goes on a couple of times to say that he is taking the time right now to educate himself and have conversations with other people, which is exactly what all of us.

Yeah, but most of us need to be doing and I think that's really important that he acknowledged that racism exists, especially because our current presidential administration will straight up deny that systemic racism is a thing and and that's also the line of just doing something for a performance or actually caring is like, did you just say black lives matter? Did you even write out the words? Like some people came and write the words down to put Blm, you're not like so many things? Yeah, do you, are you condemning? Like if you're not anti racist clearly then we don't know what you're saying. So he also wrote that he's in the process of selecting someone to act as a point of contact for discrimination issues. I don't know if that was part of the petition that was sent to him. Do you know, I'm not sure I didn't read the actual um they had been so I know it was members or athletes from donuts and dead lifts, so Amanda was not like the one who started it but some black athletes had written that petition out and they were talking about creating more inclusive spaces or something within us P.

A. And for I mean having followed USPS like waiting and waiting to see whether they're gonna talk and speak on it. And I think they had said they were like trying to research more. Yeah I think that they don't know I haven't I haven't looked at those people's pages who posted about the petition but I think that's a good start definitely. It's better than saying nothing and still so much better than us A pl who just completely goes business as usual. Business as usual. And blacks you right and you get black. Oh yeah who hasn't been blocked? Get on the block finger is quick baby. Well not only are they blocking people in their profiles they're blocking you know the word trans on all of their comments or anyone. Oh yeah I've seen that and apparently that's something that they've been doing and really I don't understand how that works if somebody manually deleting comments.

Like what does that actually mean? I think you can put like a filter on your instagram comments and if somebody writes transphobic transform bia or trans it automatically gets deleted by instagram. So people have been commenting spelling it with tr at our sign that that's why are people still getting that money stop. Yeah so Brianna and I don't know if J. C. Posted about but Brianna posted about it. That that's been a thing for a while since they started that litigation, blah blah blah whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if they start blocking black lives matter comments on there, but just fill their comment feed with that and um as far as Strongman goes, I haven't really seen much, I haven't really seen much. And and the thing about Strongman is it's kind of like the gym vibe that you mentioned Chloe where every gym in the midwest has a blue line flag.

Strongman are of that proclivity. So I don't know if leadership is also or if they're scared to make a stand but I mean like we said before, it's too late pick aside like the United States Strongman, it's business as usual. They're like posting like yeah, we got events back guys. Yeah, like they're just moving like nothing. Strongman corp they posted like a blackout Tuesday with like a middle grounds were in it together. Kind of a statement then nothing else. Um on facebook they did repost what you said about rogue. They reposted that too that they shared it to their page but there's nothing that definitely says we have strong man corporation condemn racism and police brutality. No, nothing like that. Nothing like and what you said earlier Marcy about having to choose a side. I'm starting to realize more and more that that is the case and it is important because those who are like half asked with their work or just silent as fuck, what they're working completely ignoring that this exists.

I'm starting to think who are you really trying to appease? You have super racist, super conservative donors or athletes that you are scared are going to start canceling on you because you're supporting black lives matter. And I think, I mean, that's an issue that I'm dealing with internally at my own job. But you know, I'm starting to question who it is they're trying to appease. Do you actually care about your black staff, your black employees and community? Or are you being careful right now because you know, people who have money who are racist shit are watching you? Yeah, yeah. You got to like, pick a side. I mean, and you're like, okay, uh Strongman, we're still chocolate drops, like they were not really deep and strong man. You know, there's like 10 of us maybe, I don't know. But like, if you're a business owner and you have again, the privilege to opt out of choosing a side, you're gonna you're gonna think that way, if you don't, if you don't give a sh it for real?

If you don't give a sh it, you're gonna think that way you're gonna say, Alright, am I gonna make my 15, 20 black athletes mad or am I going to risk having my entire membership drop, right? I can see where that is, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with it. Yeah. I don't give a how much money you're going to lose. I don't care. Yeah. Wait, so what are their companies in like power lifting or? Well, I don't, like you said, I don't know about W. Rpf either because first of all, their social media confuses me because I found two different America pages and then there's like the regular page. But as far as what I've seen it's business as usual. Yeah. I haven't found anything specifically from like uh the president of W. Rpf, but so that's that's a Russian federation, but they now have an american branch. Um And I'm trying to think of the name of the man that runs the America Russell kern or something like that. Is that it is the current guy. Guy. Yeah. The guy who does the current is so unless I looked at their own account which is possible because like you said, there's a couple of them, I didn't see anything but I know the showdown meat which is um part of the W.

R. P. F. Yeah. Yeah. He just said or she I don't know who runs it. This is power lifting. This is our community, there's no room for anything that threatens that. So again it's kind of like a yeah. What do you mean? Right? Like it didn't directly say black lives matter and the caption that followed condemned mistreatment and discrimination? Okay. So ah tell us what that really means. What does it really mean? Yeah. I'm not sure what that means. Can you guys tell me what happened with the metal thing though? Because I saw the responses but I couldn't find the original. What happened? Yeah. I'm going to have to give my partner a little bit of um credit because he's had his own history of, my own partner has had his own history of like not knowing how to inform himself about injustices. I know Chloe had an issue with him being able list years ago and I stop that he was like hey I was going to buy some metal dead lift slippers until I saw this so I saw it from him for the first time.

Yeah. Yeah. Like like you said we're calling people in right, that's your favorite term by the way you call in. That's new for me. I just learned that this week. So that's why I like it because we care about two babies. Yeah. Um so he posted this nasty picture of you know a screenshot of George Floyd and um titled it Pink Floyd and made all these nasty um filters on the photo, you know made it look pink and it was just it was gross um and in it all over twitter who has tons of followers apparently and then the title the caption on it. It's and finished. So I had to translate it? It said there's so much money and diversity and equality in America but they're complaining about pink Floyd. Okay. Okay. Is that what the translation was? Because when I tried to put it into google translate, I was like, it's all over the place. Yeah, it was really hard to do because finishes.

That's tricky. But what came back to me was I didn't quite understand it. So he's upset that we are protesting against police brutality of black men. Okay, Because there's so much money inequality in America. Like right, right, right, go here you're talking about. There you go. You lost all your american money. So by T. S dropped them. That's nice. I don't oh so metal is okay. Metal makes like, um, apparel ship, but or they also make equipment too. I don't know, wrist strap, dead lift slippers. I know for sure if they make wrist wraps, they probably make me wraps. Uh, and I want to say maybe they were kind of in geared lifting, but I could be wrong about that. Like um, the suits, Well, yeah, actually I've seen suits and I see an old pair of metal, um, knee wraps that I'm about to burn right now.

That's in my closet. I don't know. I think I had a squash suit that was metal. Well you're having a bonfire tonight american money? You thought great. So elite made a statement about metal. Did they have a separate statement or was that there? That was it and it was kind of disappointing. Obviously I'm happy that they cut ties with metal. That was great. But I couldn't find anything else where they straight up or like racism. You know it was just that one like it's a screenshot of their note pads saying we have zero tolerance for the behavior by the metal founder in regards to the social media post today about the George Floyd tragedy and that was it. And it was back to posting all their normal content. Yeah it's like a checklist. You know it's like oh well we have to say something alright we said something moving on it's obviously didn't affect you. So. Yeah but they're I mean S. P. D. Had a good post about supporting the black athletes and they said the black lives matter.

I know that. Yeah. And are you guys familiar with ritual apparel? They've taken a few steps so they had a post that said fuck racism. And I noticed a lot of people sharing that. And then they had a they started off with like 10% of sales I think it was over the weekend that they were going to donate to. And CP Then they took another step where they created a shirt that says ritual against racism and they're taking 100% of those profits and sending that to a double CP. So they took a few steps and I thought that was. Yeah that's not bad. But I will say that we have to be careful about the T shirt folks. So I don't know the ritual people personally. But I know most of the people that support them and the regular ask people like me but some of these like big companies you know that you know they have money. Like I'm sorry why don't make the poor people give away the money for you? Like just don't eat your own money. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm pretty sure that the ritual people are not up there, you know, just like the same way that we said we're gonna donate our merchandise profits.

We don't got no money. So like that's fine. But you know when I see the bigger companies like the like the Nikes of the world and that you know that level of things making t shirts or make cute look inside month things like you have money just give it away. Oh that was remembered by T shirt people. That makes so much sense because I just saw two people calling out Safeway and other big corporations like grocery stores that are like, would you like to donate a dollar or $5? End child hunger or like donated to people sometimes 19 Yes. And they get tax cuts from it. They don't donate shit and they rely on individuals like us who could barely afford, you know gallon of milk uh to donate for you and then they're getting all the tax tax. So we have to be a little careful about who's doing these things. I mean, it's the same idea of, you know how they get away with paying a waitress or a gig worker minimum wage because they want the poor people to fill the rest of the wage.

The poor people like the rich people are like, I'm not spending my own money. What? Yeah. Well, they're getting tips so I'm gonna pay them $8 an hour and then make about it. Like if you use the amazon or whatever it is, they'll make you feel bad about all of the tips. Don't forget to tip your work. All of the tips go to. So, okay, well, how about you? Just take less of a percentage. Don't charge me 10% or 15%. Depending on which delivery after use service fee. Like we see what's really doing. So we do have to be careful about some of these companies and watch like what they're, Yeah. Like you said, ritual is smaller. So this. But yeah, Okay. I'm learning today. In general. In general, ritual. You're good. Don't worry about nobody is worried about them. They're good. Don't worry. General. Just, just be careful when you see those things. Just take an extra step. Like, okay, who's selling a shirt. Mm hmm. Okay. They're broke. Like me. Sure. It's fine. It's a two part process.

Who's selling the shirt too. Okay. Yeah, they're broke. Like me. It's fine. They actually don't have any money to give this works. Oh man. I will say lifting large also made a statement but I do know that personally. I help them with that. I think that athletes out there that do have sponsorships and both ways, athletes that have sponsorships have a responsibility to make sure that the company that they're supposed to be about is about the right things. But and also the companies have responsibilities to not fund athletes that are obviously fucking racist. I think it goes both ways. Yeah. I think the same people who worked on the petition for U. S. P. A. They're working on removing some super racist elite level power lifters from U. U. S. P. A. Yeah, that's gonna be a big one. You're for it. Yeah. I saw some other guy getting dragged but I can't remember his name right now so I won't bring it up. But I think it related to what you're talking about. I think so.

So people that are like, I don't want to see this on my feet. I just want straps like um out of here. Yeah, it's not good anymore. I'm sorry. It's too late. Pick a side. Speaking of sponsorships, my sponsor ghost strong equipment and apparel. They made tim who's the owner made his own post without any from what I know of. I think it was without any prodding from any of these athletes he's been doing. It seems like a lot of introspective work and kind of looking at what it's like to be a white man in America and then he's been speaking out against no racism. So yeah, that's cool. Isn't he married to a woman of color or a black woman? I don't remember. Yeah. Um she comes from, I think her mother was white and her father was black, so she's probably been kind of helping him along on his journey. So it's really cool to see that's another example of someone growing and not that he was ever a bad person to begin with, so don't don't take it like that, but he's open about it.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I like his post. And and the other thing is it was very vulnerable. It wasn't like it wasn't like a confident racism and like, you know, it was very it was like, I don't know shit. Um but you know, racism is pretty bad and I'm going to figure it out. It was vulnerable. Yeah, I loved him like it because it's hard for men to be vulnerable. So that's just, I don't know, that's great. So, and there's also the other line, right that don't make it about you too much. It's it's he didn't go that far people are doing like the most like he just made a statement that was it. Moving on. But some people are just the most like posting selfies every day or posting pictures of themselves crying or some sh it like that's so, that's so cringe worthy places. I've been laughing at the number of videos that crescendos posted of like white girls crying, finding out about racism for the first time. Like I'm sorry that there was a meme that I kind of laughed at almost shared, but it was like white people be like, don't be mean to me.

It's my first day not being racist. Yeah, That's it. That is the whole vibe of June 2020 Moving forward. We were gonna be an interesting 2020 for sure because when these competitions come back, I'm not gonna forget the people that was talking sideways. I'm not gonna forget the corporations that didn't say ship I'm not going back to normal so I cannot wait. It's gonna be great. I think it's important for all of us to remember. That's kind of like why I made a mental list of people that have said things and going forward. You know, I want to support the people that are on the right side of history and are you guys seeing gyms actually making statements or doing things that was tough because like every gym in California has been just shut down and worried about trying to stay afloat. So those who have just been quiet, I've been giving them, you know, some time to heal and fix their operations and then, but I haven't seen much that your dog that has something to say.

She's very passionate about this issue. She's so angry. Yeah, I mean I haven't seen any either. I'm working with my gym because I would like them to say something and I would also like us to, I think it's a good time to set some standards and I don't know if every gym has it or doesn't, but I realized that we don't and we're kind of reactive to things. So in terms of obviously in this situation racism, like the gym should be a safe space if somebody's saying some sideways shift and you don't feel like you should be able to report that and anonymously if you don't feel safe saying it. And then also in terms of other things that have popped up throughout the years that we never had the framework for. So I think this is a good time for gyms to kind of consider that like do I have like a code of conduct? Do I have a way that members could tell me if they have been harassed safely? It's not to say people are canceled or you're gonna like throw people out of your gym but at least let people know that your gym is a safe space?

Mm hmm. And that's why like it's good when people do bring it to our attention sometimes because remember that one gym where they posted the handicap sign outside on the right. You know, it's just constantly learning to make your gym a safe space, your your company a safe space for everybody except racist. It's not accept. These are the only people that do not need a safe space. You can be by yourself, go make another country and get out of here. Oh yeah they tried, it didn't work out. Yeah, it didn't work back then. It's not going to work now and when they leave they can take donald trump with them please. Well I mean I think well we're going to spend another episode getting more into what racist means and like what people are saying about police and defunding and abolish and what people are just learning about the disproportionate amount of disabled ah black people that are hurt by police.

So I think that's a whole another episode for this one bare minimum. You hope you can tell the difference between all lives matter and blue lives matter and black lives matter. So the answer is C black lives matter and that you could tell the difference between true ally ship and performative activism because it's it's too late pick a side and we're gonna spend accordingly. Mm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm. And ah squared away stay in shape. All right, stable girls out. Thanks for listening to disabled girls who left. We appreciate all of your support and everyone who's taken the time to show us some love. Don't forget to subscribe rate already review of our channel. We're on apple podcasts, Spotify player, FM, google podcasts and more. You can also find us on instagram at disabled girls who left.