Carter Berry | US Biathlon Record Holder

Welcome to the platform podcast. I'm your host Jordan Kunde-Wright, founder and head coach of the Twin Cities Kettlebell Club And I'm on a mission to help others build sustainable healthy habits I know how hard that can be because I've struggled and succeeded to varying degrees throughout my life But I've lost over a hundred pounds and kept it off for over a decade now the key for me was discovering my passion for lifting weights in Kettlebell Sport on this podcast we'll talk to athletes coaches experts and everyday people about Kettlebell's fitness programming Nutrition, mindset, making an impact and generally striving to grow and leave a legacy of positive change Please join me. Alright, welcome to the platform podcast. I am super excited to introduce my first guest Carter Berry. Carter is the US record holder for Men's by Athalon with the 32 kilogram Kettlebells He is a team USA Kettlebell athlete and he is a trainer and coach in New York, New York Carter, thanks for being on the show. Welcome, men. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here So tell us a little bit about yourself. For those who are uninitiated to Kettlebell sport, what weight class do you compete in? And tell us a little bit about your background athletically. Where did you grow up? I mean, who's Carter Berry? How did you get here? Well, I compete in the 85 or 87 kilogram weight class depending on federation. My specialty is by Athalon And I also, you know, I worked really hard to try to increase my long cycle result because I'm a biathlon specialist And my background is basically so I grew up in New York my whole life. Which birth? I was born in Lower East Side, Manhattan and then I grew up in Queens and I also grew up in Jersey City Heights And kind of went back and forth between Jersey City Heights and Queens for a few years. Right now I live in Brooklyn, but I move around a lot. So Yankees are met. That's like a serious thing, right? That's a very serious thing where you come from. Not so much anymore. I mean, I felt much more serious when I was a kid. Growing up in Queens, we were met fans, you know, but the met's never win. The Yankees always win. And, you know, the Yankees met's rivalry has never been as intense as like the Yankees red socks rivalry. You know what I mean? Yeah. But, um, but yeah, so. Dominates unfortunately. Yeah, you know, I feel closest to to Queens in terms of which part of the city I consider my home. And yeah, so basically after leaving high school, you know, I was never athletic in high school. I was smoking cigarettes. I wasn't at all involved in any sort of sports or really working out at all. And I just started learning how to exercise and get a little more curious about the physical sciences when I was 19 and 20 years old because I had started training in some MMA. And so the MMA training was really my primary physical background in that way. And that's what got me off of smoking cigarettes and got me into personal training. And after my first year of personal training, I decided, you know, that kettlebells would be the tool that sort of defined me as a professional. I made that my specialty and I just spent all day learning more practicing like, you know, I would go just to certification workshops. I did the. When I was working for equinox, we had an in house, you know, certification works out for kettlebells. I also went and got the strong first certification. Carter a couple of years, I ended up taking a leadership position within equinox and became a manager. And at that point, I was also transitioning into kettlebell sport training around 20 sports. How did this happen? Because it's usually it's an interesting transition. How did you stumble upon it or did you meet somebody tell us how you discovered kettlebell sport? He had a mentor. He's he's still my mentor and one of my best friends Juan pellets. He worked with me at equinox when I had just began as a personal trainer. And he taught me, you know, he taught me how to use kettlebells in the first place. And then I sort of went out on my own like he left the gym. We kind of lost touch for a little bit. And then I ran into him on the street one day. I ran into him on Fifth Avenue. And I had seen on social media that he had transitioned into doing sport training. I was curious about it. I asked him to teach me and the rest is history. You know, he's the one who really laid the groundwork for me to be able to excel in this sport and then progress the way that I have. So what year was that transition? That was 2014. So 2014 that that summer, you know, Juan took eight weeks and taught me how to do jerks and taught me how to do snatches because I wanted to do biathlon. And he was competing a long cycle. And then, you know, after that eight week training cycle, I went into my first competition at USA Nationals in 2014. And I got 152 jerks with the 20s and 162 snatches with the 20. So it was a pretty big result for my first ever competition. And that sort of, you know, gave me some good momentum. As far as taking the sport seriously and really going headfirst into it. Yeah, and just for context for people that are unfamiliar, you know, to start at that level is pretty impressive. He started out at basically half of his body weight for jerks. He's lifting half of his body weight overhead for 167 reps unbroken in 10 minutes. And now you're doing now you're doing double 32s, which is 64 kilos, which is roughly two thirds of your body weight. Which is, which is incredible. What's your, what's your best result now? Your best all time result with the 32s? That was from 2019 worlds in Ireland and my best result. So I got my best result in jerk was 134 from the year prior. That was 2018. So, but in this most more recent. So that was in 2018 worlds. I got my master of sport in a master sport elite class result. I got 205 points total from 134 jerks and 142 snatches. And then the following year in 2019, I got 133 jerks and 149 snatches. So I beat, so I got 200 and you get to you get one full point for each for each jerk you do because you use two belt. Half a point for each snatch rep you do because it's only one bell. Yeah, exactly. That's phenomenal results. So from from uninitiated in kettlebell sport seven years ago to master of sport elite class in under a decade is pretty, pretty impressive. Man, that's that's fantastic. What would you, what would you say is your, your biggest strength as a lifter? Like what do you think is the thing that you kind of hang your hat on as a, as an athlete for kettlebell sport? I would say that I'm very flexible and mobile and I prioritize that a lot. And that's what, that's what I sort of allows me to relax properly in some of these positions. Like, I notice what a lot of athletes have trouble with on jerk is that, you know, they burn out early and they can't maintain a fast pace from the beginning. And it's because they, they're unable to reduce the tension in their muscles at the right times. And I feel like I'm really good at doing that. I can, I can turn off my muscle attention really easily just by focusing on it because I have this level of flexibility and mobility that I practice, I maintain really aggressively, you know. Yeah, I have to admit I low key hate your elbows because you have, you have what they call in Russia, the champions elbows, right, that you have very mobile, very mobile elbows. So when you fixate overhead, you get full attention to the elbows and can fully relax your triceps and fully relax your shoulders. I have an old three in my right elbow that doesn't allow my right arm to fully extend. I'm working on it with my physical therapist, but every time I live, I'm like, I'm like, oh, man, I would kill for those elbows. Yeah, because you definitely, you've definitely got to have you always been flexible that way. And I know you said you work on it really diligently. Have you, have you always been pretty mobile and pretty flexible, but is that something you've been born with and then just focused on accentuating or is that something that you had to work really hard to develop? A little bit of both. Like I had a decent level of flexibility when I began working out and stuff. Like I've always done martial arts on and off throughout my life. So I've always had that sort of that sort of base. And then when I started learning more, you know, when I became a personal trainer, I was a big nerd about it. And I still am. And so I would read a bunch of books about a lot of different subjects. And there was one book by Pavel that I read called relax and to stretch where he goes in detail on PNF stretching techniques. And, you know, load them or hate them. That was a great book. And, you know, that book was really transformative because I took it and I practiced it. And I got to this level of mobility where all I have to do is maintain it now by lifting under load. And, and just entering those ranges of motion every day, you know, I do a little bit of yoga every day. I touch my touch my toes every day. You know, I just make sure I'm always maintaining it. Yeah, so what is PNF stand for? PNF stands for proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation. And what it means is when you do PNF stretching, what you're basically doing is you're establishing. You get into the max range of motion that you're able to do first. And then in that max range of motion, you then contract the muscle that like contract the target muscle group hard in that extended position. So it's all stretched out and you're trying to contract it hard, which it hurts. And so that's why a lot of people, you know, don't do this technique because it's pretty uncomfortable to do it. And you have to like choose to contract that muscle. But what happens is then when you release that contraction, the muscle fibers relax a little bit more and they're able to lengthen further and you're able to get deeper into that targeted range of motion. So now the end range, the end range of motion gets progressively larger through the through the course of putting it to its end range, contracting it and then allowing deeper relaxation. And over time that progressively gets to a larger end range. The end point moves then it through the through the focused effort and relaxation. Exactly. Right. Yeah. And that happens during the same training session. So you you get there during that training session. And then it's like your nervous system has breached a wall, you know, flexibility is not so much a structural thing as it is a nervous system thing. Your goalie tendon and your what's the other one called your goalie tendon organ and your muscle spindle, you know, they act a certain way when you start approaching that end range of motion and they create contraction in the muscle, right. And trying to protect trying to protect you from bursting your bubble is the analogy I use with with my athletes, right. You have your acceptable range of motion is your bubble that your brain tries to keep you safe in. Exactly. And so when you create a high level of contraction and then release that contraction while you're in that extended range of motion. Your your your GTO can relax a little bit and allow that extended range of motion a little bit more and then your nervous system then doesn't have that obstacle the next time you go into the stretch. But what's important is that prior to working out and then load the movement pattern to ingrain that to ingrain that new range of motion. Well, the PNF I don't do before training I do the PNF the the PNF stretching and that passive stretching that really focused flexibility work, not to be confused with mobility work. The flexibility work real quick for people flexibility, the ability of the muscle to go through its full range of motion and and be loaded appropriately and respond without injury and mobility is the ability of the joints. To go through their full range of motion correct kind of yeah the way that I describe it is flexibility like you you you did kind of get it right like flexibility is the ability for the the targeted joints to enter its range of motion with like passively. I say gravity brings you into that range of motion whereas mobility is the opposite muscle group or the the joint entering its range of motion actively so maybe maybe someone can touch their toes because gravity is bringing you bringing your hands down to your toes but can that person you know laying on their back. And actively bring their feet up to their toes you know what I mean that so flex their spine in that same range of motion but engage muscles to put it there exactly so that that's what I consider to be the difference between flexibility and mobility because in that way flexibility acts as a prerequisite for mobility because if you're flexible enough you know that your body can enter that range of motion. Now the next step is to apply that flexibility by actively producing that range of motion whether under load or or not but in an active situation. You know what I mean fantastic like I love that framework that's that's a new framework for me but I love it because it's it's one of those things I've struggled to adequately articulate to my athletes is the correlation between flexibility and mobility because they are obviously strongly correlated but they're not the same thing so I love that framework because it gives me a way to explain the flexibility is foundational to mobility but mobility is the next is the next level up. Yeah exactly it's like a martial artist might be able to palm the floor or touch their toes but can they kick someone in the head you know can their hip flexors work together antagonistically with their hamstrings and have one contract and one relax at the right timing to produce that range of motion. And can your body understand reciprocal inhibition in that way and use it properly to create that range of motion in an active situation that's what in my opinion that's what real mobility is so what I'll do is I'll do the flex I'll do a flexibility session like the PNF stretching and the passive stretching that will be its own 45 minute workout that has its dedicated day of the week right. And then mobility work I'll do before training and then I'll do more passive flexibility work after training so prior to training I won't do any I'll do maybe like a little bit of passive stretching but I'm mostly doing ballistic stretching I'm kicking up into the air you know swinging the arms around and forcing the muscle groups to contract. Relative to those muscle groups that are those opposite antagonistic muscle groups that have to learn to relax because you know kettlebell sports all about efficiency right you don't want the wrong muscle group contracting at the wrong time you know if i'm doing my if i'm doing my my bump portion of the jerk like the full extension portion of the jerk my I need to trust that my hip flexors are not tight. So that I can get good extension and I can produce force efficiently with my hip extensors in order to launch the bells because if my hip flexors are too tight and I haven't developed the amount of flexibility that I need in that muscle group then my glutes have to work that much harder to contract against them and your body is kind of working against itself so really nailing that flexibility. And then applying it through active mobility drills so that your body and your nervous system understand when to contract and when not to contract certain muscle groups is is really essential and I think that that's the most that that's like the number one thing to prioritize as an athlete before adding volume before worrying about the intensity of the training session because you want all of those repetitions to be feeding that habit. yeah absolutely that's that's fantastic advice I think especially for new lifters I think that's that's one thing that for me I wish somebody had told me 10 years ago you know but you know I came to it from a from an Olympic background and a powerlifting background being a football player you know where it's always you know go run into that well as hard as you can. yeah the concept the concept of being mobile and not loading dysfunction right is was was not something that that was ever taught to me at the at a young age so I think that's I think that's fantastic let's talk a little bit about your total what's your total time training spent during during a given week right like what does it what does it take from a time commitment standpoint to perform at the level that you perform at as a top level athlete. well right now I am only training probably because you know I don't have access to kettlebells right now so right now I'm not really training but usually you know during a non pandemic when I have access to the gym I would train probably 15 hours a week total like every everything everything everything everything included probably 15 hours a week that includes the stretching and the mobility that includes going out for runs on my off days so usually it'll be a two hours gym session and then 30 minutes of stretching or mobility or taking extra time warming up and a couple of running sessions throughout the week. so but yeah between 10 and 15 hours a week yeah depending on what phase I don't always end up doing the 15 hours you know but if there's a lot of you know if I'm doing a full kettlebell training session and then I also have to do squats and deadlifts afterwards that involves a long rest period and you know I end up spending a lot of time in the gym. yeah so you you mentioned you mentioned the pandemic and obviously you are in the epicenter for as far as the U.S. for where the pandemic really took hold first being being in New York so first of all how is how is everyone is everyone in your family healthy is are your people good how how is how is the pandemic training how are you how are you responding right now. well you know it's it's definitely had its ups and downs I have been very fortunate to not lose any family members to COVID-19 I didn't get sick none of my family members got seriously sick like my my cousin did get sick but she was okay you know but you know I have friends who have lost siblings who have lost parents I have a client who got really sick and she just like. you know was completely uncommunicative for a couple of weeks and you know sometimes that's you know sometimes that'll that'll get to me you know I think about my friend who lost her mother recently I think about my other friend who lost his brother you know my my homegirls fiance lost both of his parents and I can't imagine what that's like to go through. and you know it's there's a lot of pain that happened throughout this pandemic and you know I have been really fortunate that I am able to get financial support from the city through unemployment you know so even though I'm unable to work I'm still able to get some income so which and that feels good because I didn't pay in taxes my whole life. and now it's time for me to cash it you know and so you know I feel very positive about my own situation and I know that it's been a lot harder for many other people here in New York and you know what I will say in terms of I am optimistic because I saw how how well my city responded to the pandemic after. I mean no one in our country really responded well we all responded late but once the severity of the pandemic really became evidence here in New York everyone buckled down we social distance we're still wearing masks outside all the time you can't enter any businesses without a mask as a sign on every door as there should be and we are completely on the other side of our curve now because we followed directions we didn't you know. question whether or not this was real we didn't you know pedal in these conspiracy theories and tell disgusting lies and we're we're almost good now you know like we have very very very few daily hospitalizations and we you know I don't feel unsafe going outside anymore you know everyone's outside. working out at the park running around people who were not active before are getting active now because they had time on their hands you know it's not just like the shredded dudes with their shirts off at the park it's like there's people of all shapes and sizes who are working out outdoors and getting active because there's no there's no more time excuse now because everyone has a lot of time. on that and you know that does give me a lot of optimism because this sort of low in activity that we've seen in the city has produced a lot of a lot of new activity for all the individual level and you know. overlinings I think is that we're seeing to your point you know because people have more time you're seeing some people start to take advantage of that and act in healthy ways but I think we're also seeing because the information is coming out about how strongly your outcomes are correlated to your overall health when you can track the virus if you're unfortunately. that we're start people realize oh shit maybe I need to take a little better care myself maybe I need to not eat that McDonald's and maybe I need to get out and get outside and move my body a little bit more so i'm i'm with you i'm optimistic that maybe on the backside of this hopefully we'll see a renewed commitment. revealed some of the underlying health issues that people that people need to address yeah I agree it's it you know it's great to see people moving yeah absolutely. yeah I share some similar my wife my wife works in the ER here in in St. Paul and she actually works in a COVID care unit most of most of the nights that she that she goes in so I we haven't seen the this the same infection rate that you guys saw in New York but we had. you know kind of this a very similar response took it very seriously our governor took a very seriously stay home orders were issued pretty quickly and we're seeing kind of some of that that same result where we're not full on the backside of our curve but the growth rate of our curve was much much slower than in other places in. very i was very very thankful very thankful for that but I also find it very infuriating. when I see people who aren't experiencing those things are aren't seeing those things denying the seriousness of it or even questioning whether it's actually a thing the denial of science I don't know how to wrap my head out so I don't know if you have I don't know if you've encountered some of that as well. how is that because my inclination initially was to fight people and argue with them and now I've kind of given up on that but I don't know the right responses yeah it's. you know I only argue with people who I care about you know if it's a friend of mine who I had one friend who was like on board with the conspiracy theories and whatnot at the very beginning. and I just stood my ground like I just you know I didn't take it personally she doesn't live in New York so. I didn't take it personally I just stood my ground and I just kept showing her the facts and I was like. you know every time we would catch up I would just mention like you know yeah i'm a little sad today because my homeboys brother died from covid 19 so tell me about your conspiracy theory. when people are faced when when when people hear that kind of stuff and it's someone that they know or it's someone who or they're getting these personal accounts that's one way that i've noticed i'm able to sort of chip away at these people but yeah. you know at the same time there's there's others who downplay the severity of it and I I get angry about it but at the end of the day people are going to do what they choose to do and the proof is in the pudding at this point that the states that took it seriously and. really buckled down and took care of business like New York you know we are on the other side of our curve and the states that ignored the warnings and kept all kept everything open and. had a really soft approach to a shutdown and our reopening early there they're seeing high levels of hospitalization soon you know like thank god they aren't. filling up their hospitals all the way the way that it happened in Italy because they have such a lower population over there but you know I think that a lot of these people just don't. is aren't comfortable with changing social norms and aren't comfortable with changing their lifestyle you know in the United States of America we have such a heavily individualistic society where. we value individual autonomy more than anything and so when somebody hears that they can't go to this place or they have to wear this or they have to act a certain way they feel like their rights are being infringed upon which. change upon which obviously isn't the case you know it's just common sense and common decency and looking out for others but a lot of us really feel threatened when we're presented with new rules of conduct. and that's what I feel like we see we see tear there where there is none simply simply because it's uncomfortable as individuals the the mask thing is particularly frustrating for me because that's here in the Twin Cities that's that's one that I see it's it's like 30 to 40 people wear masks and. the rest do not and it's it's one of those things that to me is like what's the cost benefit here like if the people are if the scientists are wrong so let's just operate under the assumption that people that have dedicated their lives to. studying epidemiology and reducing the spread of infectious disease let's say they're wrong about the effect the effectiveness of masks and reducing droplets spread okay. even if they're wrong what are you out by wearing mask yeah you have had inconvenience of wearing a piece of cloth to cover your face, but if they're right and you're not wearing a mask you could potentially be spreading a disease that could that could kill. other people's loved ones like that to me is who raised you. exactly it's a you know it's this individualistic selfishness and don't tell me what to do kind of attitude that is proving to be our downfall right now and the lack of leadership from the federal government is not helping. yeah and i mean i told you we were going to get into the into the real talk so i'm going to i'm going to go there because one of the other things obviously here being in Minneapolis you know. we've seen the the effect of the pandemic i feel like has amplified the racial disparities that we see in this country and because of the because of. the racial tension that was already that was already at a simmering boil most of the time and now we put the pandemic put the lid on top of it now we've seen it boil over in the in the country with the murder of Floyd how are you how are you seeing that in New York and as a person of color how is that how is that affecting you. well i'm i'm very passionate about the issue of racial justice in the United States of America. yeah i'm i'm a mixed-raced individual i do have my personal connection to it my grandfather was a black journalist. from Harlem and he was a number of the communist party which back then in the in the 30s and 40s you know it meant something a little bit different and the communist party really laid the groundwork for a lot of the leftist movements and. racial justice movements that we see in the United States of America you know Angela Davis became a member stokely car Michael and a lot of other black leaders you know we're we're associated with that and so I feel a very personal connection through my blood to these kinds of movements and I feel like with so we have several recent. killings that we can address right we have a mod Aubrey which was a straight up racist vigilante yeah like that was a straight up racist vigilante killing you know we have Breonna Taylor no knock warrant shoot up the apartment and killed and she's an essential worker like she's the kind of person. who we have been celebrating throughout the entire pandemic you know and she's an EMT and she was murdered in her own home because of negligence and the willingness to snuff out a human life without knowing that you're in the right place. and you know still no arrestment yeah you know we need to we need to charge yeah we need charges and we need conviction and then it sort of came to like the frequency of those two and then the George Floyd killing and I think what made the George Floyd killing so impactful in you know it was sort of. the the match that got thrown into the gasoline when made that so impactful was the fact that it was all on video and how graphic that video was and how hard it is for people to watch. and I think that I think the duration of it to as part of it to right because if some of these other some of these other killings were where it involves a firearm it's it's fairly quick right because somebody is shot and they they bleed out relatively quickly but with with George Floyd he was suffocated and you can just. it's I still haven't watched the video because I I feel like i'm feeding into the fetishization of killing of black bodies if I if I watch it that's that's been a personal feeling of mine so I don't generally watch those videos but I've obviously read the description that i've seen. the dialogue and the duration of it I feel like had so much of an effect because you can just you can just watch over an extended period of time there was so many opportunities for somebody to do something and by somebody I mean one of those three officers or even the officer could have gotten off of his back you know there was opportunities for the people in a position of authority and power to do something to intervene and George Floyd could. and probably still be alive today you know and and then we're having a very different conversation yeah that to me felt like part of it as well because you could just you could see that you could it was such a long. video yeah relative to other videos that that i've that i've seen or heard about yeah and I think that that video provides such a visceral reaction to so many people who maybe before. you know those of us who have been involved and have always been conscious of systemic racism and fully aware of its effects you know this is not something new to us but I think that video was new to a lot of people. and what they witnessed was a major symptom of multiple systemic issues that we as a country have failed to address over the several over the past several hundred years you know like what I see recently is that people. you know figure heads like you know like Candice Owens and other you know conservative people they'll focus on the what they always like to do is they like to focus on the individual and they focus on these individual acts. and they throughout red herrings and they they they change the subject and they use these tactics like what about is them to and and gas lighting to minimize these issues and to sort of change the subject right but yeah focusing on the individual I think misses the point you know like you know Candice Owens has that famous video that came out where she reads out George Floyd's whole arrest record right. and what I think that that kind of mentality misses the mark completely because you don't need to be a hero to deserve a fair trial you know you can and I think I think to take a step further forgive me for interrupting but but yeah. I think that I've that I've made the point of the whole structure of the American justice system is supposed to be predicated on the laws protect the worst of us so the fact that no even if you murdered somebody you have the right to do process and a fair trial right so the whole premise that because he was a criminal it's okay that he was strangled by the police goes against everything that the American justice system is supposed to be built upon. Exactly and and it's it's that sort of misdirection away from the point it's like when people talk about George Floyd's arrest record they'll say yeah it was wrong that he was killed but look at X Y and Z it's like no it's wrong that he was killed period you don't have to be an angel to deserve a fair trial and I don't care if he just frickin punched a baby in the face like you don't deserve no one can get executed in the street. You know and I think that it's assist like like I said it's a symptom of the systemic issues you know the fact that that officer had you know between 12 and 18 misconduct like a documentations and he was still on the force and there is these police unions that protect cops and you know protect them. Protect cops that perform these these acts of misconduct and keep them on the force and those unions also create this fraternal police culture within the not only within individual departments but across the profession that incentivize quote unquote good cops to stay quiet when when things go wrong. He incentivizes speaking up whistleblowers get fired from police department it's a mass like that's that's just one piece of the puzzle so when people say defund the police I think that that sentence is hyperbole to a degree but what's more important is that we think about where our funds are allocated. Why do police departments have all of this military grade equipment that's very, very expensive when instead of giving them military grade equipment what we could do is we could allocate those funds towards de escalation training the way they do in in Camden New Jersey you know they fired their entire police department. There was a process that they put in place to you need to you need to get approved to get rehired even those that were in leadership positions and after they rehired select officers and hired new ones they allocated funds towards more de escalation training and more community policing and crime got cut in half in Camden New Jersey and that's just one individual example of. If we address these problems the systemic problems at the root of our police departments we can prevent police violence and that too is just what I feel to be a symptom of systemic racism as well you know since the the quote unquote end of slavery you know there have been barriers placed in front of black people and people of color in the United States. It's time and time again you know we had segregation we had red we had red lining which completely prevented black people from from acquiring capital and being able to play the game in American free market capitalism because they couldn't acquire real estate you know they were denied at the table exactly and so for people to use the bootstraps argument at this day and age it completely. Disregards the context of systemic racism in the United States of America and I've had the conversation with several of my friends here in the Twin Cities that I think part of the like the reason that Selma Alabama was the the heart of the civil rights movement in 1960 was because it was it was emblematic of the current system of injustice you know we're we're African Americans were simply denied the right to vote simply denied any any type of enfranchisement to have any say in their own in their own life and now I feel like the Twin Cities is actually become the epicenter for a reason because if you look at Minnesota as a as a state it's emblematic of the current state of race relations in in the United States because the system over those 60 years has manifested in what exactly we see in Minnesota in Minnesota it's the second healthiest happiest wealthiest state in the United States. The biggest state in the in the Union for white people yeah but when when you look at it along racial lines everything is terrible if you're a person of color so it's for the system is set up really really well for the for the white people but for people of color the education you know we're so proud of our education system we're proud of you know a number of these things in Minnesota and I love Minnesota it's a great state to live in I moved here from Chicago because some of the issues in Chicago. I wanted to raise my family my wife's from here but you know it's it's still emblematic of those 60 years we we have made progress in some areas but we've seen the the weight of those generational systems really continue to stack the deck against people and it's it's you can see that if you look for it and you're you know you know about systemic racism in the in the interaction between social institutions you can see it in in the Twin Cities there's a highway that divides you know divides black neighborhoods from white neighborhoods typically you know there's here you know see you can see the practice of redlining you can see the area where you know they've pushed they've pushed the the the crime into smaller and smaller areas that are gentrified largely by race or social class yeah you know and that's that's you know that's not unique to Minneapolis but Minneapolis is emblematic of what that's happened in almost every major metropolitan area in the country I'm actually not aware of a of a city that in the US that that's not the case yeah exactly you know it's a it's a relic of segregation and it's a cycle that does not get broken because there have never been reparations put in place there aren't enough social programs and we aren't funding these grassroots efforts that that can little by little not reverse the problem but can remedy the the problem of systemic racism you know so when people say defund the police they don't mean literally just defund the police and what do we do with the money it's like they don't need military grade equipment we can instead of spending you know and we don't have let's let's not pretend that we don't have the money you know when when tensions got high with with Iran of several months ago you know you know Trump put on executive order and dedicated to trillion dollars towards new military equipment like the federal government has the money for all this military equipment for the US military and for the policing throughout the United States and what we need is sweeping federal legislation that removes unnecessary funding for weaponry towards these police departments and instead like we're not talking about firing individual cops necessarily we're talking about taking that funding and allocating it towards improved training for new officers maybe we do need to fire some officers those ones that have like 12 13 counts in this conduct and have ties to white supremacist groups you know but you know allocating well let's not get crazy no there's I know right yeah let's you know and but you know allocate those funds not only towards improved training for onboarding police officers but allocate those funds in the communities where they are most needed you know we need to fund public schools better we need to teach we need to pay teachers more money we need more social programs more after school programs for kids we need more we need we need more parks in these neighborhoods we need we need these sorts of social initiatives that prevent crime from the ground up you know we need to create these lanes where black people and people of color are able to you know get a piece of real estate we need to make it easier for people to learn about about finances and stuff because that's also another thing that often times in poorer communities which more often in the United States tend to be you know more often than than not a poor community in a metropolitan area and in the United States is also going to be a black community or a POC community and so a lot of these wealth building strategies aren't spoken about it. The dinner table in these communities you know create funding for financial education within these communities as well there's so many things that we can do with the money that we're spending on tanks and guns and armored vehicles that you know only serve to perpetuate our you know our are overflowing prison population you know which you know you can't vote if you're in prison and so the question is who like who's winning from all of this you know what I mean like the system sort of removes the voice from the black community by creating a situation where more black people are going to prison they lose their rights they're doing free labor you know just as the 13th amendment says you know the 13th amendment that's been criminalizing black people since it was ratified exactly you know the 13th amendment ended chattel slavery but if you get arrested you can still be forced to work for free labor you know there's a lot of things that we can do and the thing is we have to allocate funds differently we have the money we have the money we have the ability to do so we have a roadblock in the Senate and we have someone in the White House who's not concerned with those issues and that's our biggest obstacle right now is we need to flip the Senate we need to get Mitch McConnell out of there we need to flip a bunch of seats everyone who anyone who hangs out with Confederate flag waivers needs to get out of the Senate and we need to get the show on the road and move things in the right direction from a legislative standpoint because these individual issues the these George Floyd's are symptoms of these systemic issues and these systemic issues can only be called be be solved by sweeping legislation and that can only happen with a unified Congress and a White House that's on board and that's not what we have right now So I'm going to I'm going to bring this I'm going to bring this home to an individual level for for me as a white guy in the in the middle of the in the middle of Minneapolis what what is something I can do you know in your opinion to be an ally in the in the movement for enfranchisement of black and people of color to lift your voices how can I be part of the solution. That's a good question I think there's multiple ways I think if you have the financial wherewithal to do so you can donate to you know these these lists of agencies that are worthy of your donation have been you know disseminated a lot during the past several weeks you know the some that come to mind are the well one big one that comes to mind for me is the NAACP legal defense fund. Which provides what which helps to provide better legal defense to prevent innocent people from going to prison and to prevent people from serving longer senses than is necessary because as many of us know black people when charged with the same crime. Tens to serve longer senses than white people and they tend to be arrested at higher rates for the same crimes that that white people do and so from a criminal justice standpoint I think NAACP legal defense fund is worthy of your donation and. Apart from from monetary things you know I think that using your voice is really important. And having these discussions and educating people around you you know like there's not everyone is aware of these systemic issues not everyone knows that redlining was even a thing people don't understand that generational wealth was something that was available to immigrants coming here from Europe and wasn't available to blacks because of redlining you know and. If we can you know there's there's little four and five minute animated videos on the internet that explain these things because people don't like to read you know and you know because you know you can recommend books to someone I can tell someone hey go read the new Jim Crow to learn about you know for profit and yeah you know but I don't know if they're going to read it they probably won't because they've already they're already on one side of the issue. And you know why would you want to why would they want to spend their time reading something that they're already feeling opposed to you know so there's these little videos that you know are easy to distribute and just having these conversations you know I even you know over the past several weeks I've gotten a little bit more political with my Instagram account because I've been I've been angry. And that yields some certain responses from people and then that opens a dialogue where they'll ask like well what does this mean like I've never heard of this what about this then the third and it's kind of like a little argument but at the end of the day if you know how to communicate with them properly and you don't insult them when I'm not going to. Frickin no one likes to be called a racist right even if what they're doing is perpetuating racism right so if we find a way to communicate with these people where we sort of speak their language and we don't like it's like yeah it's okay you're not a racist don't worry but here's the problem with what you're doing you know like and here's what you can do to make it better. And this is why things are the way that they are. You know and the biggest problem I have is the is the straw man right when you said the the well black lives matter well all lives matter you're saying all all don't all lives matter well no that's not what I said I said black lives matter because we're yes all lives matter but black lives matter because those are the ones that are not being prioritized yeah and I really I really struggle with staying calm with the the attacks on the attacks on things I didn't say yeah. Well the thing is the reason the only reason people need to say the black lives matter is because every time there's an unjust killing so that the phrase came about after the Trayvon Martin killing in 2013 after the Trayvon Martin killing. And the Michael Brown killing in 2015 in Ferguson what we noticed was. That when people expressed outrage for those killings there was a massive outcry from the other side doing the same thing like listing off oh well he was wearing a hoodie well he shop lifted he did this and there's there's this aggressive effort to devalue the lives of people who are killed by police or killed by vigilantes. And the fact that people were taking their time to find their background and devalue their lives and and make excuses for why they were killed that's why people need to say no black lives matter to black lives matter black lives matter because people tried actively to devalue black lives. The same way they did when slave ships were coming across the Atlantic the same way they did when we had the three fits compromise. When they were considered three fits of a person when it came to electoral votes. The same way that people devalued black lives by redlining and forcing them to stay in their own neighborhoods and forcing them to be stuck with underfunded schools and and a lack of infrastructure. It happens today just verbally through these people devaluing black lives by listing off you know the same thing that Candace Owens just did you know it's terrible at this cop killed the guy but look at all these felonies he had back in the day you know none of that should. Discount someone's right to live black lives matter period well said i yeah you know well all lives matter is really only a knee jerk reaction to racial dialogue that people don't want to engage in people saying all lives matter on for some of them it's a misunderstanding and they don't understand the context like. When people say black lives matter it's because when trade on Martin got killed people made excuses for why he got killed so now we have to say no black lives matter to you know that's one thing that people just don't understand that context and the other thing is people think. People I don't I don't get why people would think that it means black lives matter only or if black supremacy can even be a thing at all because there isn't a systemic base to even create. What people would think of as black supremacy the way that white supremacy exists because we live in a white normative society you know but you know. When people say all lives matter. I I get triggered and I get angry but allow the time it's because they don't understand that context so. It's it's the burden of the people who have to constantly see their people getting murdered and devalued it's also the burden of black people to force themselves to explain these things. To the people that don't understand and so for white allies who are aware of their privilege the biggest difference that you can make is using your voice to us to help people understand what it means when people say the black lives matter and to help other. White people with privilege to gain an understanding of the context of systemic racism in the United States of America because that lack of context is putting people's votes in the wrong direction and it's causing people their lives because people who say that they aren't into politics only say that because politics does not affect them. They have the privilege of not having to care about politics because they're going to be fine either way but their vote matters and their vote will affect the lives of other people. Or they're lack of a vote even but that to me is the ultimate privilege to choose to not participate because it doesn't make a difference on your life one way or the other exactly because it's not going to it's not going to affect them. So out of sight out of mind I don't want to talk about politics. Let me go back into my house where I can lock my door and no one and a cop isn't going to come and shoot me while I'm asleep. Well, thank you very much for for being willing to to educate and have these conversations. I know it's I know it's probably an emotionally draining experience to continue to have to not only process these things emotionally for yourself but then also to have to continue to go through them. Educating people like me and others about the context behind these things and I know that that's emotional labor that it's not really fair to put on people of color but I really appreciate your willingness to do so. Yeah, and thank you, you know, like I You know, of course it's there's the emotional burden of Explaining this and whatnot, but that's nothing compared to having a knee on your neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. Yeah, so I have pretty Carter, thank you very, very much for for coming on. It feels it feels wrong to pivot back to anything About kettlebell sport because it's much less important than what we've been talking about. So I really appreciate it really appreciate Your time. I know I could I could talk to you about kettlebell sport for hours on end but I really appreciate your time And I want to thank you very much for coming on and having this conversation with me. Thank you And I want to love your time and and and let you let you go, but I really really appreciate it. And it's it's been a Been a very good conversation. I appreciate you nerding out on kettlebell sport with me a little bit and then and then talking about some important issues as well Yeah, for sure. I appreciate you reaching out to me and thank you for having me All right, thanks Carter. All right. Have a good one You too Thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast. I'm Jordan Kunde-Wright if you have a question Please email me at Twin Cities kettlebell club at gmail.com Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Twin Cities kettlebell club on Twitter at tckb club online at twincities kettlebell club.com And please help us grow our reach and give us a review on Apple podcast Spotify Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts until next time