Speaker 1: Welcome to wok af with me Danielle Moody. As this
Speaker 1: month of Pride comes to a close, I wanted to
Speaker 1: call some attention to what is arguably the most forgotten
Speaker 1: or even vilified letter under the LGBTQ plus umbrella, the
Speaker 1: T for transgender people. In recent years, there has been
Speaker 1: a revival of anti trans bills throughout the United States,
Speaker 1: especially restricting healthcare and athletics for transgender Americans. Last week,
Speaker 1: I was joined on my Patreon, which you can join
Speaker 1: right now at patreon dot com. Slash woke af by
Speaker 1: Ilia Parker, creator of Decolonizing Fitness and participant in Fit
Speaker 1: for Us. Ilia's mission is to detoxify fitness spaces, and
Speaker 1: together with these organizations, they are working to make supportive
Speaker 1: and safe spaces for people of all genders and sexualities.
Speaker 1: As many of us leave of our home gyms and
Speaker 1: head back into society, it's important to make them better, healthier,
Speaker 1: and more inclusive spaces for fitness, and Ilia is doing
Speaker 1: his part to effect change and raise awareness. Once you
Speaker 1: hear our conversation, I hope you do as well. Elia.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about how this all came to be. How
Speaker 1: Fit for Us moved from being what I have read
Speaker 1: and learned from like a WhatsApp chat group, to an
Speaker 1: actual organization. And why, Absolutely, that's a great question, Danielle,
Speaker 1: And I'm excited to be here. So I think with
Speaker 1: any institution, because we need to look at fitness first
Speaker 1: and foremost as an institution, and historically institutions are usually
Speaker 1: embedded in white supremacy. So fitness, when we talk about fitness,
Speaker 1: we talk about a group of individuals that create a culture.
Speaker 1: And this culture is usually dominated by white system men
Speaker 1: six men who are able body, who are thin, who
Speaker 1: are aesthetically pleasing by European beauty standards, and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. So fitness Fit for Us was a
Speaker 1: call to that, a call to so decolonize away from
Speaker 1: this toxic fitness culture into more of a culture that
Speaker 1: is not only carving space for black folks, but also
Speaker 1: celebrating black folks and making sure that we highlight the
Speaker 1: inequities and do something about it. So I love that
Speaker 1: Fit for Us now is bringing members of the black
Speaker 1: community and fitness and wellness spaces that also exists beyond
Speaker 1: the typical, the stereotypical version of what we think is
Speaker 1: a personal trainer or a wellness professional, and then you
Speaker 1: start bringing in the more marginalized voices within the black community.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things I found so interesting
Speaker 1: as I was reading up on your work and on
Speaker 1: Fit for Us is, you know, when we think about
Speaker 1: how black and brown bodies have been policed, when we
Speaker 1: think about you know, you just brought up these European
Speaker 1: standards of beauty, even with some of the biggest athletes
Speaker 1: in the world. Right I'm thinking about, you know, Serena
Speaker 1: Williams and how disrespected her body and just herself has
Speaker 1: been throughout her career, and thinking about right now the
Speaker 1: attacks on trans youth right in Florida, in these places
Speaker 1: where they're saying, oh, transgender girls can't play sports with
Speaker 1: their peers, right, which is a really big part of
Speaker 1: creating community and self esteem in young people. Can you
Speaker 1: talk to like your response to this target that is
Speaker 1: happening right now, particularly around trans youth and sports. We've
Speaker 1: always highlighted the hierarchy that exists in the LGBT community,
Speaker 1: and because of that hierarchy, we've always positioned what we
Speaker 1: thought was important for LGBT voices, and throughout that we've
Speaker 1: seen an erasure of trans people, and particularly back to
Speaker 1: black trans people. So with marriage equality that usually lifted up,
Speaker 1: CISS had assumed or this normal package of what LGB
Speaker 1: looks like, it diminished and further erased trans folks. And
Speaker 1: so now you're seeing an uptick in this type of
Speaker 1: anti trans legislation. So we give a direct pushback. Number one,
Speaker 1: I do want to say that we've constantly been doing
Speaker 1: this work. So people now are understanding because it's hitting
Speaker 1: more of online spacious social media. Everyone's conscious people want
Speaker 1: to know. But we've been working against the erasure of
Speaker 1: trans folks way back when when cross dressing laws were
Speaker 1: in effect, way back when, even when you go all
Speaker 1: the way back to enslavement and the legal the forming
Speaker 1: of disrupting the enslavement and then you having the slave
Speaker 1: patrol calls that coming out of that, all folks who
Speaker 1: existed beyond the gender buyingary had to deal with this
Speaker 1: type of So now what we're doing is we're calling
Speaker 1: attention to that, but we're making sure we let folks
Speaker 1: know that this hierarchy exists and we have to do
Speaker 1: away with the hierarchy even within our community. You know,
Speaker 1: it's so important that you say that because I was
Speaker 1: one of you know, many people who was on the
Speaker 1: front lines with regard to marriage equality. And I've been
Speaker 1: you know, I worked on the hill and did various
Speaker 1: forms of policy work on social justice issues throughout my career.
Speaker 1: But I can remember being on Capitol Hill and this
Speaker 1: is you know, this is many years ago, and them,
Speaker 1: you know, wanting to create lgbt inclusive legislation, but having
Speaker 1: an active conversation about removing the t removing just let's
Speaker 1: just focus on lgb We'll come back, they were saying.
Speaker 1: And these were you know, these are politicians, legislator, these
Speaker 1: are people also within the LGBTQ advocacy space saying no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're good. Well we'll come back for them. And I
Speaker 1: remember sitting at a table and saying, no, you won't.
Speaker 1: You never circle back. We're here right now because you,
Speaker 1: because of how people have been marginalized, you'd never circle back.
Speaker 1: And I said, and if you can't with in the
Speaker 1: context of our own community, within the LGBTQI a community,
Speaker 1: recognize the importance of lifting everyone up, particularly the most
Speaker 1: marginalized of us. If your responses will will come back
Speaker 1: at a later date, like what does that say about
Speaker 1: our inclusiveive inclusivity when we're asking the mainstream CYS society
Speaker 1: to include us, and but we are acting actively excluding
Speaker 1: trans the trans community from the work because it's too
Speaker 1: hard right this in these word that they do you
Speaker 1: feel like there has been any movement in a way
Speaker 1: to have more inclusivity or do you feel like as
Speaker 1: part of the trans community you're still fighting to be
Speaker 1: recognized and seen within the community as a whole. I
Speaker 1: think that's where I want to bring Fit for Us
Speaker 1: back into this conversation, because that's where I see the
Speaker 1: movement work. Because what happened was when we think about
Speaker 1: the harbor dreadful bathroom bills in my home state that
Speaker 1: got a lot of attention for that, it was a
Speaker 1: lot of grassroots organizing that inform legislative policies that shut
Speaker 1: that down. A lot of grassroots organizing is happening now
Speaker 1: to shut down a lot of the anti trans legislation
Speaker 1: that we see. And so when we have organizations that
Speaker 1: Fit for Us, that reach to the roots of community,
Speaker 1: that pull those community members up who've been boots on
Speaker 1: the ground, myself included. I've been a grassroots organizer for
Speaker 1: about fifteen years now and so when we merge with
Speaker 1: organizations where you have the grassroot influence who really value
Speaker 1: our lived experience and the work that we do, and
Speaker 1: then are able to partner with corporations and companies and
Speaker 1: other major ords that we never ever be on the
Speaker 1: radar for, that's where the work. That's where we feel
Speaker 1: included and not only included, but literally dismantling these systems.
Speaker 1: But because we can't be included in systems that are
Speaker 1: rooted in white supremacy, that's never going to work. You know.
Speaker 1: In the self article that Fit for Us was profiled
Speaker 1: in the Conversation. Part of it was about how, following
Speaker 1: the murder of George Floyd that we all witnessed and
Speaker 1: then now the trial which retraumatized many of US, companies,
Speaker 1: you know, particularly health and fitness companies ran to declare there,
Speaker 1: you know, we're we're anti racists, like we don't stand
Speaker 1: for racism. And you know it, during Pride Month they
Speaker 1: run to put up their rainbows and commodify pride. Right,
Speaker 1: how do you make how do you build the bridge
Speaker 1: between the commodification that is happening around inclusivity? Right, these
Speaker 1: health companies and fitness companies saying Oh yeah, we're doing
Speaker 1: these you know, we're doing the work by putting out
Speaker 1: their statements, but then it doesn't actually connect back to
Speaker 1: the instructors that they're employing the people that are coming
Speaker 1: into the classes. So how do you build that bridge
Speaker 1: between making these very you know, declarative statements but then
Speaker 1: not actually changing structurally and through your policy, we continue
Speaker 1: to hold them to account and hold them to the
Speaker 1: fire and essentially tell them to cash in on all
Speaker 1: the promises they made, and then we show them how
Speaker 1: to do that when we partner with organizations that are
Speaker 1: actually doing that work. For example Fit for Us. Now
Speaker 1: I have the opportunity coming up to be one of
Speaker 1: the feature keynote speakers for a diversity, Equity, Inclusion and
Speaker 1: Belonging panel that's happening with Class Pass Fit for Us.
Speaker 1: As partnering with these organizations, this puts me in a
Speaker 1: room with major, major companies who can directly see and
Speaker 1: learn from the folks who are doing this work. And
Speaker 1: then we help them build the blueprint. We know this
Speaker 1: takes tim We help them build the blueprint and we
Speaker 1: show them what to do and continue to hire us
Speaker 1: and bring us in these organizations so it can be
Speaker 1: done because there's a lot of companies out there that
Speaker 1: are actually doing the work. It should be more, but
Speaker 1: it's folks that are out there doing the work. Now,
Speaker 1: what does it look like? What does success look like
Speaker 1: for fit for us? What does it look like to
Speaker 1: feel in a way we are making progress, We are
Speaker 1: denting this very enormous industry right and changing it for
Speaker 1: the better. That's a great question. I think understanding that
Speaker 1: it's a consistent thing. Understanding that we are reflective of
Speaker 1: our community and we actually help to move away from
Speaker 1: some of the disparities that black and brown folks face,
Speaker 1: in particular black folks with multiple intersecting identities of oppression,
Speaker 1: and also realizing that the onus as a collective, especially
Speaker 1: since we're so rooted in doing the work for black folks,
Speaker 1: that it always shouldn't fall on our shoulders. So success
Speaker 1: for me also looks like the looks like the partnerships
Speaker 1: that we're merging with major corporations continue to do the
Speaker 1: work and elevate us with resources financing, putting us in
Speaker 1: the right rooms, with folks continuing to amplify our work
Speaker 1: as best that they can. Because I just have to
Speaker 1: be explicit, we can do this work, but we need
Speaker 1: help with the greater community always. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: you've had to do how to do like purposeful education
Speaker 1: process to explain to people how white supremacy works in
Speaker 1: this space or do you think that pete folks get
Speaker 1: it right, Because I feel like we're in a space
Speaker 1: right now in so many different ways, still having to
Speaker 1: explain to people how that one that white supremacy and
Speaker 1: white privilege exist, that we're still in that place and
Speaker 1: so getting to the actual work of unlearning this behavior,
Speaker 1: we're not even really on that path because we're still
Speaker 1: It's like I'm trying to convince you still the sky
Speaker 1: is blue. Well, I can't move into gravity and all
Speaker 1: of these different facets of the atmosphere and what have you,
Speaker 1: because I'm still in this like very elementary place. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like that? Yeah? And I feel like more
Speaker 1: so because I think white folks get it. I know
Speaker 1: white folks get it. You can't not get it. I
Speaker 1: think it's more so white folks feeling like we have
Speaker 1: to be palpable or we have to coddle their feelings
Speaker 1: and make sure it's delivered in a particular way. And
Speaker 1: so I want to lift up even the privilege that
Speaker 1: I carry with that as someone who is light skinned,
Speaker 1: someone who speaks well, someone who has a little bit
Speaker 1: of accolades, that white people listen to me a little differently.
Speaker 1: But I'm saying the same stuff that all my kindred
Speaker 1: is same. So I think white folks get it. But
Speaker 1: once we get past the place of I want you
Speaker 1: to deliver it this way in order for me to
Speaker 1: affirm it and validate your experience that I'm really ready
Speaker 1: and willing to do the work with you in a
Speaker 1: sustainable way. Those are the conversations we need to continue
Speaker 1: to have. You know, I want to talk about for
Speaker 1: a minute to because it's just, you know, it's popped
Speaker 1: into my mind about how how is the pandemic played
Speaker 1: out in the feeling of inclusivity with working out right,
Speaker 1: Like jims were closed, you know, places where you took
Speaker 1: classes were closed, and then folks were online, right, So
Speaker 1: the anxiety, maybe the fear of having to walk into
Speaker 1: these spaces and not know how you were going to
Speaker 1: be treated. Did you find that in some ways for
Speaker 1: the community, if they were doing this kind of doing
Speaker 1: health and fitness online, that it was a better and
Speaker 1: safer place to engage like did you did you find
Speaker 1: like any upsides? I would say to us being inside, Oh, absolutely,
Speaker 1: you know, because now on a greater scale, fitness institutions,
Speaker 1: businesses everywhere has been forced to do essentially what my
Speaker 1: Kindred has been doing around the work of disability justice.
Speaker 1: They've been wanting to make spaces more accessible and providing
Speaker 1: an online opportunity that's embedded in your practice is making
Speaker 1: spaces more accessible. And so this is a this is
Speaker 1: a major shift for the fitness industry because I know
Speaker 1: a lot of companies have established so much of an
Speaker 1: online presence now because of the pandemic, they're just keeping
Speaker 1: that factor in their business. So that allows for them
Speaker 1: to support a wide, diverse group of people that they
Speaker 1: normally wouldn't serve. So this is great. Yeah, I found
Speaker 1: that too. You know, I say on the show often
Speaker 1: that you know, with obstacles, you know, you can look
Speaker 1: at obstacles as opportunities, right, and the pandemic, you know,
Speaker 1: presented a lot of obstacles also showed us a lot
Speaker 1: of the institutional issues that we kind of just swept
Speaker 1: under the rug and figure that they would you know,
Speaker 1: figure themselves out at some point and they were exasperated,
Speaker 1: exacerbated by the pandemic. But then there was this other
Speaker 1: side right where folks who had been traditionally shut out
Speaker 1: UM had a weigh in because everyone was online UM.
Speaker 1: And so for folks you know who who have UM,
Speaker 1: who have who have disabilities, I thought to myself, you know,
Speaker 1: this is a tremendous opportunity right in to work in
Speaker 1: different spaces, in different places where you have been shut out, right,
Speaker 1: not even interviewed, not even you know, looked at UM
Speaker 1: in any type of way. And I've been thinking, you
Speaker 1: know too, with regard again to to queer youth right
Speaker 1: and the fact that being online and learning online UM
Speaker 1: decrease the bullying in some there was new ways of
Speaker 1: bullying that I that I have heard about, but decrease
Speaker 1: the pressure, the social anxiety of what it means to
Speaker 1: kind of show up in the classroom. UM. What do
Speaker 1: you feel like the community needs to do in order
Speaker 1: to continue to uplift the needs and center the needs
Speaker 1: of trans folks in the health and fitness space and
Speaker 1: in general. I'm really quick. I want to go back
Speaker 1: to what I just shared. I want to be clear
Speaker 1: that there's still so much work. As you highlight it
Speaker 1: to there's still so much work for those of us
Speaker 1: who are most marginalized. There have been spaces of opportunity,
Speaker 1: but it's disabled folks in general. We need to continue
Speaker 1: to do as much as we can to lift them
Speaker 1: up in fitness and wellness spaces period. But I think
Speaker 1: the work continues around being reflective as a practice as
Speaker 1: a person, what biases you hold, where your sticking points
Speaker 1: are with your exclusivity and fitness. Fitness is very very
Speaker 1: very exclusive industry that define certain people as experts that
Speaker 1: very rarely listens to particular groups. And that's why I
Speaker 1: created Decolonizing fitness in the first place, to carve spaces
Speaker 1: for those vulnerable boat populations who could benefit the most
Speaker 1: from fitness and wellness services. So it's about being reflective.
Speaker 1: It's about getting honest with what your practices look like,
Speaker 1: what your business models are. It's about bringing in the
Speaker 1: people who can understand and help you without exploiting them,
Speaker 1: And it's about getting down and doing the work. And
Speaker 1: it's as simple as that. What is next elia form
Speaker 1: fit for us and for decolonizing fitness. How can people
Speaker 1: get involved if they're if they're interested in learning more,
Speaker 1: if they're folks that are listening to this that want
Speaker 1: to partner. Please absolutely, First, you can go to Fit
Speaker 1: for Us dot org and plug in and become a member.
Speaker 1: You can follow Fit for Us on social media. Instagram
Speaker 1: is my favorite social media platform. You can follow us there.
Speaker 1: You can reach out to me directly on you can
Speaker 1: reach out to me on my website, Decolonizing Fitness dot com.
Speaker 1: And I'm always open to answering questions. So become a
Speaker 1: member of Fit for Us learn, especially if you're a
Speaker 1: black fitness and wellness professional. If you're a corporation or
Speaker 1: work for a major organization, again, reach out to Fit
Speaker 1: for Us. We're constantly partnering with companies I like I mentioned,
Speaker 1: I do DAIB consultancy work for Fit for Us, so
Speaker 1: I would love to come in and work with their organization.
Speaker 1: We have a wonderful team. I'm not the only one
Speaker 1: that does that inclusion work, but we have a wonderful
Speaker 1: team of folks that are willing to work with you now,
Speaker 1: So just reach out to us and extend that branch
Speaker 1: to us and let's do this work. Acceptance for the
Speaker 1: trans folks in our community is crucially important. Whether you
Speaker 1: are under the LGBTQ plus umbrella or not, it is
Speaker 1: not an exaggeration to say that transgender people are under
Speaker 1: attack throughout our country. Finding against anti trans legislation in
Speaker 1: this moment and beyond is crucially important, but it's also
Speaker 1: important to create spaces of safety and acceptance. Since many
Speaker 1: of these hate bills are about banning trans athletes from
Speaker 1: participating in sports, it's even more important to create an
Speaker 1: accepting environment. In the world of fitness. Ilia Parker, Decolonizing
Speaker 1: Fitness and Fit for Us are all doing the work
Speaker 1: to drive us towards that necessary reality. I will be
Speaker 1: having more of these conversations, so to hear them as
Speaker 1: soon as they go live, and to support me in
Speaker 1: my mission to make our world a woker place, consider
Speaker 1: joining the WOKEAF Nation on Patreon at patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash wokeaf You'll get five full one hour episodes every week,
Speaker 1: exclusive interviews, and some fun bonus content, and I'll be
Speaker 1: back here next week with some exciting news on what's
Speaker 1: next for the podcast, So stay tuned. Power to the
Speaker 1: people and to all the people. Power, get woke, and
Speaker 1: stay woke as fuck.