I'm pleasantly surprised about my hobby right now. For some quick background, Scott Harkey is the co-owner of Sword Masters, who are(well, were) the "Official Repair Center/Armorer of USA Fencing."
He posted this:
Followed by doubling down on it once called out, refusing to apologize and being generally...quite confrontational with people, to put it mildly. I'll skip the details, but basically imagine someone doubling down on the above picture with its logical conclusion. It's not the first time he has posted racist things.
Fencers started a petition regarding Sword Masters and to my surprise, USAF actually took it very seriously and immediately severed the contract. Like, I never expect petitions to be successful.
Here's the petition:
And here's the USAF response:
When this first happened I was actually kind of down that this would happen in the fencing community. Black friend of mine who fences in the US was even more depressed because...yeeeeah. But now I'm just happy that the petition gathered a ridiculous amount of steam and actually led to USAF immediately taking action to keep the sport inclusive happened and like, that's awesome.
I don't know if GAF will care about this since it's about a niche sport, but I'm very pleased with how this was handled and basically needed to talk about it haha.
He posted this:
Followed by doubling down on it once called out, refusing to apologize and being generally...quite confrontational with people, to put it mildly. I'll skip the details, but basically imagine someone doubling down on the above picture with its logical conclusion. It's not the first time he has posted racist things.
Fencers started a petition regarding Sword Masters and to my surprise, USAF actually took it very seriously and immediately severed the contract. Like, I never expect petitions to be successful.
Here's the petition:
On May 24th, 2017, the co-owner of Sword Masters, Scott Harkey, publicly posted to his Facebook account the following status:
"Isn't it nice to have a first lady that's fluent in five languages and not just two... By 2 I mean English and Ebonics."
The intent of this petition has nothing to do with Mr. Harkey's political affiliation; the intent of this petition is rooted in a desire to protect athletes of all ages from the blatant racism Mr. Harkey has displayed.
As we stood together and proudly showed support for our first Muslim American woman to wear a hijab while competing in the Olympics, we must also stand together against allowing anyone who holds racist beliefs to profit from our athletes.
We, the members of the US Fencing Assocation, request the following:
1. That the contract with Sword Masters as the "Official Repair Center/Armorer of USA Fencing" be immediately terminated.
2. That Sword Masters issue a formal and public apology to all POC fencers in the community.
3. In the event that an apology is not forthcoming from Sword Masters, that Sword Masters be immediately and indefinitely banned from vending at any and all USFA sanctioned events.
As the first-ever 2015 recipient of the USOC's "Advancing Diversity and Inclusion Ward", we trust that USA Fencing will act swiftly and sternly to let it be known that racism will not be tolerated at any level.
https://www.change.org/p/a-call-for...ing-and-sword-masters?source_location=minibar
And here's the USAF response:
Effective immediately, Sword Masters LLC is no longer the Official Weapon Repair provider for USA Fencing and will not be serving in that capacity at the USA Fencing National Championships and July Challenge or in advertisements or other media.
A Request for Proposals (RFP) will be made available in the coming weeks to fencing equipment companies who are interested in forming a partnership with USA Fencing beginning with the 2017-18 season.
http://www.usfencing.org/news_article/show/797046?referrer_id=2272806
When this first happened I was actually kind of down that this would happen in the fencing community. Black friend of mine who fences in the US was even more depressed because...yeeeeah. But now I'm just happy that the petition gathered a ridiculous amount of steam and actually led to USAF immediately taking action to keep the sport inclusive happened and like, that's awesome.
I don't know if GAF will care about this since it's about a niche sport, but I'm very pleased with how this was handled and basically needed to talk about it haha.