Black History month feels more like a hashtag or a February sales initiative more so than an American tradition. As time goes on, I hear less and less about it every year. Growing up in the 80’s and early 90’s, Black History Month felt like the most important thing. It’s lost some of its impact however it’s not completely bleak for the month long celebration.
I was recently contacted by my former kickboxing instructor who is now an instructor for Flywheel. She told me she wanted to tell the real story of black instructors working in a very white boutique industry. She wasn’t sure that we would get corporate approval on the video but she wanted to make it any way. We filmed the video on January 26th (the day Kobe Bryant passed away). The only reason I include this is to show the stark difference between famous black athletes and the instructor working at your local gym. The boutique fitness industry faces lots of back lash because of its inability to be inclusive of people of color. Some of the Flywheel instructors have faced lots of criticism because they don’t reflect the core demographic of who they serve. This video hopefully helps shed some light on why representation matters.