Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/18/la-fitness-assumes-black-man-i.html
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11 Likes
Just another black person looking for special treatment.
(since it’s apparently necessary: /s)
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Sadly, the most unbelievable thing about this situation is finding a gym that’s willing to cancel a membership contract in any circumstances.
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It’s so fucked up on so many levels, I’d need a month to get to it all
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Bet you $5 they refuse to refund him and charge him an “early termination” fee.
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Roger That!
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He had a legal and binding contract allowing him entry and to use the facilities. Then, they arbitrarily terminate said contract without a substantive reason. I’d sue their god damned racist asses off. But, I’m not a lawyer, so there’s that.
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I guess it may be my own naïveté, but in a era when absolutely everything is videoed and posted, how the hell do people think they can get away with this kind of shit?? How long until the management issues some vague notpology and expects it all to blow over?
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O_O
I'm genuinely confused at the apparent lack of the employees' reasoning skills and any sense of self-preservation.
As a Black person, I totally get ingrained bigotry; as messed up as it is, it’s still practically spoonfed to many of us from birth.
What I don’t get is the total failure to think ahead and envision the potential negative outcome of one’s actions when dealing with the public, especially in this day and age when there’s a camera everywhere and lawsuits are common.
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You have a typo in the title. It should read: LA Fitness implements an anti-black racist policy and bars longstanding paying black member from entering and calls police for being black, because they are anti-black racists.
Just sayin’…
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Yeah 8 years? And no one recognized him? I’m pretty sure he wasn’t paying dues for 8 years without ever going to the damn gym.
Some other gym should offer him a free membership for a year and watch how many new customers they get.
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If I don’t hear something about “justice served” within the next couple of weeks, I’m gonna go ape-shit.
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You don’t have to dig too deep on the Googles to see LA Fitness has ‘Control Issues’ which their HR practices more likely reflect.
LA Fitness bans News channels
LA Fitness bans member they locked in gym over night.
LA Fitness forbids members coaching other members.
LA Fitness bans Mother for coaching 13 yr old son
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Three employees fired: http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2018/04/3_la_fitness_employees_fired_after_kicking_2_men_o.html
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I guess LA Fitness will now follow Starbucks’ lead, apologize, and close for a day for training, right?
/s
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Aaaahhhhhhhhh!!! Thank you!!. I mean THANK!! YOU!!
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ok. So…cops do not shoot or arrest him. Cops openly side with his right to record the situation. They do the one thing here that is their job…they keep the peace and do require him to leave because the management is forcing it…so they do seemingly have to comply with that part.
I guess progress? I dunno.
What does it take for real change to happen?
Edit: just to ask a polarizing question…Does anyone else find it odd that the two employees we see are one white woman who if we profile her would say she is a lesbian (I know…judging sexuality on someone’s looks is not ok) and one latin american male. Which…I guess if they are both classified as a minority/persecuted group, why would you do the same to another minority/persecuted group?!? I am not shocked by this…just why does THAT happen???
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The firings might be an effective stand-in for training. Heck! Firings kick training’s ass.
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I’d wait for head office to issue a statement and confirm the firings before celebrating. So far, we have some guy on the phone who says his name is Josos.
The employee, a salesman who would only give his first name Josos
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Time for LA Fitness to close all stores for a day and do some training!
I’d hope that this happening and actually being recorded and shared via social media will start waking people up to this problem of implicit bias. All us who are melanin challenged are prone to it, and we need to realize it and make a conscious effort to fix the problem - meaning we notice when we do it ourselves and we call our others when they do it.
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