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Racism was the motivation for the fitness movement, claims an article in Time magazine about “the white supremacist origins of exercise.”

According to the NY Post, a chat with author Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, associate professor of history at New York’s New School, led to the eye-catching headline.

The self-styled “scholar, writer, teacher and activist” insisted being fat was once “desirable” – and working out in the 20th century was motivated by racism.

She claimed that the idea of “women should be lifting weights and gaining strength” started because racists thought that “white women should start building up their strength because we need more white babies.”

According to her, free exercise plans such as running were “never totally equal” because “people of color were thought to be committing crimes.”

Many tweeted clown-face emojis after reading the article, suggesting they assumed the headline was from a satirical site like the Onion or Babylon Bee. Numerous black fitness influencers and authors also ripped and ridiculed the article.

The article the Time magazine released regarding the “white supremacist origins of exercise” came as a shock. The unreal and unbelievable claim that people had racist motivations for encouraging others, such as women specifically, to work out in order to create more “white babies” was met with confusion and backlash from everyone. Even more bizarre was the suggestion that people of color were committing crimes if they were running in public, something which many believed to be impossible. This outlandish article very easily became an example of modern woke madness for many and sparked debate about whether it should even be taken seriously or not – although few would deny that it still deserves attention regardless.