Onward and Upward

CrossFit Dubuque does not support the recent comments made by CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman. We think that the black community has every right to be outraged and to demand action. We stand behind the Black Lives Matter movement and fully support meaningful change that ensures justice, accountability, and equality. While I think ignorance and off-color comments can potentially be forgiven if the offender learns the error of their ways, the continued doubling-down and outright contempt and disregard towards the very community who respectfully voiced their concerns has made it clear what side of history CrossFit HQ is choosing to be on and how highly they value those of us who truly comprise the heart and soul of the global CrossFit community.

Frankly, it’s sad that a statement has to be made to officially announce our position. I started a strength and conditioning gym with one of my best friends because we have always been passionate about improving people’s fitness and overall well-being. We have all been drawn to the CrossFit methodology because it focused on results, was community-driven, and didn’t pay much attention to aesthetics or fads. Nobody cares who you were, what your job is, where you came from, what gods you pray to (or don’t), who you love, or what color your skin is. We came together to see what we could DO, and many of us have developed (and continue to develop) unbelievable bonds with one other because of a common drive that drew us all together to be better versions of ourselves.

This isn’t a time to be passive, and it isn’t a time to be silent. Today more than ever we need to be willing to have conversations with one another so that we can make progress towards a more civil society to raise our children in. CFD chooses respect, inclusiveness, and justice however that may look for us as a community, a business, and a brand.

For more reasons than I care to quantify in this post, CrossFit Dubuque is successful today in spite of our affiliation with CrossFit HQ, and the most recent statements and actions (or lack thereof) have made that abundantly clear. As if CrossFit affiliates didn’t have enough to deal with this year, we are now forced to associate with the ignorant, belligerent opinions of a single man who treats his own community like shit and supposedly represents the CrossFit brand as a whole. No longer.

While the nuances of our path forward are yet to be determined, these obstacles are all administrative in nature and won’t affect a single thing about the client experience. Our community focus, quality of coaching, decades of combined knowledge and experience, and general operations have been and will continue to be the best in the region regardless of what the sign on the building says. Rest assured that every facet of our operations will be completely unaffected, and we embrace our upcoming rebranding as an opportunity to expand our positive impact.

Stop. Listen. Consider other people’s perspectives. We really aren’t so different from one another if we are willing to show some empathy. If some looters and rioters can represent an entire movement and be enough of a reason to discredit the message of the BLM movement, what does that say about a couple of bad cops? Stop. Quit living life in absolutes. Most people are GOOD; we have a far greater ignorance problem than we have an ‘evil’ problem. People are more complex than that – LIFE is more complex than that, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile.

Stay the Course