Chris Gillam, has a 16 year-old son and he describes the discussion a parent must have, when raising a black son, as “protocol.” According to Gillam, every time his son goes out of the house, he has certain “protocol” reminders. “Do you have your license?” “Do not reach for you license.” “Keep your hands on the steering wheel at ALL times.” “Do not give the officer any reason.” You continually train your son to act and talk a certain way, when interacting with law enforcement. And it’s your hope that when they do have a police encounter that their training will kick in, as second nature.
“I don’t know if that’s how white parents talk to their children about being pulled over. But, that is how you have to coach and train your children, as a black parent”, said Gillam. It’s ever-present in the black community and “if black parents are not having these conversations, shame on them.” He said, “you have to be as non-threatening as you possibly can, in that environment and as compliant, as possible.” When asked, if this was something you must be cognizant of on a daily basis, as a black man. Gillam responded, “if you wanna live.”
Gillam, grew up in Woodlawn, part of the Zone 15 community and has quite the resume. He is the Owner of The Grind Shop: Sports Performance Training; the Defensive Coordinator, College Recruiting Coordinator, and Director of Strength and Conditioning at Princeton High School; the Co-Founder of Redeemed Xposure; and Co-Owner of a flag football league. But, Gillam is much more than his accolades; he is a mentor, an educator, an advocate, a mediator, a motivator, a helper, and someone who leads by example.
He takes pride in being from “Zone 15” and the Woodlawn community. He has witnessed the economic decline of Lincoln Heights and Woodlawn, over the years; development and growth have been an issue for a long time in these areas. According to Gillam, this is not just isolated to Zone 15, many predominately black neighborhoods, have experienced shrinking economies and a reduction in affordable housing, due to systemic racism.”
The disparage between the predominately white community of Wyoming and Zone 15 is a prime example. Wyoming borders, Lockland and the two communities are separated by railroad tracks. Gillam, describes crossing the tracks from Wyoming to Lockland, as “heaven and hell.” “You have thriving businesses on the Wyoming side and on the Lockland side there are dilapidated buildings. The sad thing is, you see it so much, you become de-sensitized to it.” Gillam is hopeful that the Zone 15 community can regrow and prosper, as it once did.
Miami, FL, 2017, and Gillam is seated at the table with 50 other gym owners from around the world, in an open forum with CrossFit Champion and owner of NCFIT, Jason Khalipa. Gillam recalls, Khalipa asking the room full of gym owners, who has “CrossFit” in their gym name. Most everyone raised their hand, except for Gillam. Khalipa’s gyms were formerly called NorCal CrossFit and he illustrated the importance of not limiting your gym to the CrossFit brand. He encouraged the gym owners to remove CrossFit from their names, citing that any negativity geared toward the brand could have an adversarial affect to their personal gyms.
Fast forward to 2020, amidst the murder of George Floyd, the CEO of CrossFit, Greg Glassman, refuses to put out a statement on CrossFit’s behalf in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Glassman, tweets a racially negative remark and the unraveling of the CrossFit brand begins. As a result, thousands of gyms de-affiliated with the CrossFit brand. Khalipa’s advice, reverberates in Gillam’s mind. Gillam arose out of this controversy as a sounding board, advocate, listener, and confidant to other local gym owners. Gillam says, “I was happy and honored to help others understand the gravity of the situation. I accepted and welcomed the call.”
Glassman’s comments reflect the whiteness of the CrossFit brand. Gillam’s gym, The Grind Shop, is quite diverse and that’s one thing he loves about it. That diversity contributed towards progressive conversations between Gillman and his members. He said that, after the killing of George Floyd, he had members come to him and ask for his help. People wanted to be educated and obtain an understanding on the current racial injustice climate. Gilllam says, “so many people are not racist, they just don’t understand. They are clueless to the conversations that I have to have with my black son. They are clueless to the number of people that have been victims to social injustices. They just don’t know.” Gillam believes, we have to be willing to aid in everyone’s growth and keep the conversations going about the plight of the black community.
The question was raised, if there was allowable ignorance in this current climate and Gillam gave the golden response. “Prior to George Floyd’s passing and the unrest that it has generated in our country, you are no longer allowed to be ignorant to racism and social injustice. People and sports leagues were given a pass. The NFL didn’t understand why Kap took a knee. They didn’t see the seriousness of this issue in our society. But now, they get it. Now it’s the responsibility of the human race to get involved, to know what is going on in the black community and aid in the progress, toward ending racism.
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Photo credit: 1takebake
