DK Co-Founder Fired for Calling Rayshard Brooks’s Killing “Justified”
Jim Cummins, the co-founder of a premier Kansas gravel race and the former Chief Gravel Officer at Life Time Fitness, has been fired after calling the police killing of Rayshard Brooks “justified” in a public Facebook post.
While Cummins has yet to publicly comment on the issue, Life Time fitness released a statement saying they were “truly sorry for the hurt and emotional distress the events of the last few days have caused.”
On April 24, Bicycling published a story on the event’s name which included an interview with Cummins. In ongoing reporting we were conducting after the interview was published, we learned that the statements Cummins gave us considerably downplayed the attempts by members of the Kaw Nation and their allies to petition for a name change.
Cummins suggested that he was first made aware of the problematic nature of the name via a letter from Kaw Nation Tribal Chair Lynn Williams about the name issue in January 2019.
When asked about that on May 14 of this year in follow-up reporting, Cummins said, “During the 15-year history of Dirty Kanza, I have received approximately one half-dozen emails from individuals expressing concern over the event name, and last year’s Life Time COO received an inquiry as well. In each instance, either I or Life Time responded immediately to these individuals. Furthermore, Ms. Williams has made it clear to me in phone conversations and in person, that I should not engage in discussions with anyone expressing an issue in this matter other than her. That she is the only one empowered to make a decision on this matter. It is for this reason that I ended all correspondence with all other parties.”
Our reporting shows that Cummins received an email on November 9, 2018, signed by 45 members of the Kaw Nation, along with academics, advocates, and allies. The email was addressed to Jeff Zwiefel (COO of Life Time) and appears to have been forwarded or copied to Cummins. Cummins corresponded with some of the authors until he was contacted by the Kaw Nation. At this point, we could find no more responses to the authors of the letter.
This chain of emails shows that Cummins and Life Time corporate were aware that the name was offensive to many people in or associated with the Kaw Nation, even as they sought the permission and support to keep the name.
Throughout this discussion, some have argued that the name is drawn from where the event takes place, and not the people who live there. This type of argument, sources say, is indicative of the erasure of Indigenous people. One tribal member, who requested to remain anonymous due to possible repercussions, said, “I tried to explain to them that the place is named for a people. If the area was called Mexican Hills would they call the race Dirty Mexican? They totally dismissed the idea of the name being associated with a race of people, I was very upset.”
One advocate, who also requested anonymity due to possible repercussions, described this argument as “whitewashing” the history of the area. A database search of historical newspapers from the time of the Kaw Nation’s forced removal from their homes in Kansas returned dozens of references to “dirty Kanza” by advocates for their removal. Kaw people were routinely labeled in this way. Their dehumanization was an intentional and deliberate effort to undermine their claims to their homeland.
Cummins also suggested to Bicycling that he had made plans with the Kaw Nation to include members at events. We were unable to secure evidence of this from him.
Chair Williams was unavailable for comment on Cummins’s dismissal.
After Cummins was released, the race organizers used an Instagram post to announce that “we have been working throughout this year on options for a name change.”
A coalition called Name the Change has released a petition urging the organizers to adopt a new name, which you can sign here.
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