FreshPrinceCEO (real name Walter Weekes) and Myron Gaines, the hosts of the Fresh & Fit podcast, have been on the proverbial hot seat for a few weeks now (and for good reason). The approach that they’ve taken to a slew of subjects and interactions has led to backlash, due to the nature of said topics and their lack of sensitivity or understanding of them. This has become an ongoing series of happenings, with more and more issues arising as the year kicks off. As a podcast tailored to the concept of them being “life coaches” and giving advice to their male viewership, none of these situations are a good look.
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To bring in 2022, they had an interview with Asian Doll go awry after disrespecting and berating her on their podcast. While on the show, one of the hosts said “I don’t even know who she is,” referring to the guest that they invited. She left respectfully, but the reason behind her exit left an understandably bitter taste in the mouths of viewers that eventually saw the viral moment. Joe Budden took the time to sound off on this occurence, expressing how insecure it made the Fresh & Fit hosts look. Even more recently, they were absolutely smoked by Brittany Renner for “having no lives” and their childish mannerisms.
Now, the hosts of Fresh & Fit are under fire for their comments about not dating black women. Not only did they state that black women are not their preference, they repeatedly made “jokes” about “ghetto black women and Shaniquas.” The hosts of the Flagrant 2 podcast, Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh, were not about to let them weasel out of explaining themselves during their visit to the show.
About 3 minutes into the sit down, Myron begins saying that the Asian Doll situation was taken out of context. He says his comments were directed to another girl that was “being disruptive 2 hours prior to Asian Doll being there.” Asian Doll tweeted that she was defending a black woman, to which Myron says “Cap. It wasn’t that. You got called out because you didn’t know what happened prior. You didn’t wanna look stupid, so now you’re gonna go and say ‘I’m a savior! I was just protecting a black woman!'”
He then claims that Twitter used that moment as leverage to dig into videos from over a year ago to find reasons to call them “racist” and “anti-black”. The thing is, if the videos and anti-black comments were never said, they wouldn’t have anything to use, right? Some of the comments include saying that black women are not their preference, that they only “dabble in the dark”.
Akaash Singh makes it a point to speak to the preferences topic, and does so loudly and clearly. At 7:50 into video, he gives his viewpoint. “I have empathy for trying to be funny, but then it comes out fucked up and then everybody’s on your neck… What I don’t like, what I find corny as f**k, is when people say ‘my preference is not my women.'” He continues to be extremely direct about why Fresh & Fit’s statements are unacceptable. “You guys have established yourself as role models. ‘From Simps to Pimps,’ which is another model I find corny, but I’ve looked into what you guys are about. A lot of the sh*t is childish.”
Weekes attempts to clean this up by saying the age-old “I’ve dated black girls, my mother is black, my sister is black” trope, while Gaines still doesn’t seem to fully get it.
At 11:10, Alex Media interjects to speak his piece as a fellow black man. “You guys go out of your way saying what you don’t like, even though that’s not what you’re discussing.” He continues, “Then the way in which you went about how you don’t like black women. ‘Oh I don’t like the ratchet, I don’t like the ghetto. I don’t like the Shaniquas.’ If it was a white person saying it, that’s racist sh*t. I’m just disappointed in you guys as black men, to be talking about our sisters like that. If it was a white man saying the same thing, you would be upset right?” Myron replies “No. It wouldn’t bother me.” Alex responds “Wow. That’s lame.” An understandable way to feel after taking the time to express why the statements were so upsetting.
Myron then goes into a spiel about the world not owing him understanding. “The only thing I can control is my reactions to what happens in the world. The world isn’t a rosy place where everyone is gonna not be biased or not be racist. I understand that there are going to be people that are inherently racist, it is what it is.”
After more beating around the bush and tip-toeing from Fresh & Fit, Alex directly references their “I don’t do dark” statements, to which Fresh replies “That was a joke, bro.” Alex and Akaash aren’t buying it, with Alex blatantly calling it a “cop-out.” He continued with “If your show is educational and trying to help people, but then when you say something wrong it’s a joke?”
Akaash allows him the space to have this conversation as a black man, and doesn’t let Andrew give Fresh & Fit the joke route. “We can’t expect him to have the same comedic empathy as us in this situation. We’re comedians. He’s a black dude and isn’t a comedian.” It was good to see Akaash differentiating the perspectives and allowing Alex to speak to the situation.
What do you think about Fresh & Fit‘s antics as of late? Let us know below.