Gravel Grinder News: Dirty Kanza 200 Co-founder Fired

Late Saturday evening word got out that the co-founder of the Dirty Kanza 200, Jim Cummins, was fired due to a racially insensitive post on his social media in which he compared an incident that happened two years ago with the recent shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta recently. That incident has sparked further complaints and protests against police brutality and excessive force issues which were brought to the fore by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis recently.

In Cummins post, which has been captured here in this "Cyclingtips" post, Cummins appears to justify the shooting of Brooks. This led to an investigation by Life Time Fitness, the owners of the DK200, and subsequently Cummins was fired.

Comments: First of all, I am extremely disappointed in the actions of Jim Cummins in this social media post. The fact of the matter is that, while we are free to have our personal opinions, you cannot express whatever you feel like expressing without consequences if you are the de-facto face of the biggest gravel event in North America. Jim represented the DK200 and Lifetime 24-7. There were no "off hours", and that is how things work these days. His social media post was wrong and ill-advised and Life Time had no choice but to let him go.

The reaction has been pretty harsh from several fronts that feel like Cummins was wronged and the "big, bad corporation" ruined things. Well, that is simply misguided thinking and dead wrong. Like I said, Jim was the face of the DK200, and he should not have jumped into that issue without consulting Life Time or his DK200 cohorts. Because anything he said would be put under a microscope. If he had done that he would have, perhaps, learned to do better.

Well, it's over. Jim Cummins is no longer a part of the Dirty Kanza 200. I'm pretty sad and I am pretty disappointed in him, disappointed in the whole situation, and disappointed in much of the reaction to it. It'll be interesting to see where it all goes from here.

UPDATED: The following was posted to the @dirtykanza Instagram account on Sunday evening:

dirtykanza

As most of you know by now, we made the difficult decision yesterday to mutually part ways with the founder of Dirty Kanza. On behalf of all of us and our organization, we are truly sorry for the hurt and emotional distress the events of the last few days have caused. Our cycling community is very diverse, and it’s one of the key factors that make us so unique and strong. At the same time, we stand by our decision as a company and by our vision and values that aim to ensure that everyone is accepted and supported. Those visions and values do not have a place for racism, prejudice or discrimination.

We are committed to taking action to ensure these values are upheld and continue to be centered in our work both as a brand and as an event. Most of all, we are committed to listening, learning and continuing to grow.

As an initial step, in the last few weeks, Life Time has launched a Diversity and Inclusion Council. This council will allow us to act and put intentional focus on changes we need to make internally so our company, clubs and events are a place for everyone.

In addition, we have been working throughout this year on options for a name change. Our event name wasn’t created with ill-intent, and while we have worked with and received support from the Kaw Nation, we also understand that our name should not cause hurt. This process does take time, and we want to make this change in the correct manner. Please know that we will share progress as we work through this process.

Actions speak louder than words, and we are committed to putting in the continual work to establish long-term, sustainable changes.

COMMENTS: In my opinion, after all of these happenings over the weekend, you are going to see the last of the "Dirty Kanza" name soon. Look for a rebranding, ala "Mid-South/Land Run 100" to occur before the rescheduled event in September, (IF they can even have that event). It makes sense now that one of the original founders of the event is gone and the other is deceased. Making a clear cut by way of a name change, in my opinion, would make a LOT of sense now.  

For a deeper dive into my thoughts on this, see Tuesday, June 23rds post here.