Richard Spencer, a suit-wearing human pustule, will have to find a new place to crank out reps after his Virginia gym cancelled his membership on account of him being a Nazi.
Spencer’s membership was revoked following an incident with Georgetown professor C. Christine Fair, who recognized him while she was going about her own workout at Alexandria’s Old Town Sport&Health last Wednesday. In a post on Tumblr, she wrote that she fully anticipated that she would get kicked out after confronting him, which she didn’t hesitate to do:
First, I want to note that this man is a supreme coward. When I approached this flaccid, sorry excuse of a man and asked ‘Are you Richard Spencer,“ this pendulous poltroon said “No. I am not.” But of course he was.
Second, I exploited the full range of my first amendment entitlements by telling him that this country does not belong to white men. As a white woman, I find his membership at this gym to be unacceptable. I found his membership at this gym to be an unfair burden upon the women and people of color–and white male allies of the same. I also loudly identified him as a neo-Nazi who has said, inter alia, the below detailed things.
Geez, even Richard Spencer doesn’t want to cop to being Richard Spencer. Which makes sense: Imagine being such a gurgling puddle of excrement that even CPAC doesn’t want shit to do with you.
Unable to defend himself alone, Spencer responded by calling upon (a black female) trainer to rescue him from Fair, who he accused, according to Buzzfeed News, of “screeching” at him.
“I’m really a model-gym goer. I don’t bother anyone. I don’t talk to anyone. I really just go and lift weights,” Spencer said.
Spencer said he was at the gym “peacefully working out” when Fair came up to him and asked him if he was Richard Spencer. “I said no, because I wanted her to go away,” he said. “I didn’t want to get into a confrontation.”
Fair said that she was shouted at by a white woman during the encounter, who accused her of making a scene and threatened to call the police. In the end she was spared the trouble—the gym’s general manager asked Fair to leave around 10 minutes later, while Spencer continued his workout.
That, however, would be the last time Spencer will step foot in Old Town. He helpfully provided Buzzfeed with his termination notice, a curt, two sentence message that said only that his membership was no more and that his credit card would be reimbursed.
So what’s he been doing now that he can’t blow off steam on the treadmill? Oh, just retweeting hateful dreck from the internet:
We reached out to Fair for comment, and will update if we hear back.
Remember, anyone has the right to refuse service to Richard Spencer—gyms, gas stations, grocery stores, fast food chains, dollar stores, farmers markets, ice cream stands...really, anywhere that sells food, clothes, camping equipment, survival gear etc. Something to keep in mind.
Update: Fair tells Jezebel that employees of Old Town Sport&Health were notified that Spencer had joined the gym around two months prior, though until last week, he’d yet to actually work out there.
But when she arrived for a class on Wednesday, the trainers—many of whom are women and people of color—were alarmed to learn that Spencer had visited the evening before.
“They were really upset,” she said. As a longtime member of the gym, Fair said she had become close with many of its employees, and they felt comfortable expressing their trepidation with her. One African American trainer, they told her, had even been assigned to give Spencer the complimentary introductory session included with new memberships. (Spencer, fortunately, did not show up for that.)
Fair said she immediately bristled at the idea of having to share weight machines with a white nationalist, and vowed that she wouldn’t stay quiet if caught sight of him.
“I said ‘If I see that asshole, I am going to tell him off,’” she told Jezebel. “I said also, ‘I’m going to go to corporate, because this is a hostile work environment for you all.’”
No sooner had she made that proclamation than Spencer strode in—the second time in two days he’d been to the gym. Fair made good on her word.
The day after the encounter, Fair received a call from Old Town’s corporate office asking her to come in. They explained that they had decided to terminate Spencer’s contract, but added that nevertheless, Fair shouldn’t make a habit of accosting patrons.
“I said, ‘I’ll make a deal with you: Don’t let another Nazi in, and I won’t accost that Nazi,’” she said.
Regarding what it was like to confront Richard Spencer in the flesh, Fair said she was unimpressed.
“There was nothing Übermensch-y or master race-y about him,” she said. “He was kind of pathetic.”