 My name is Cliff Fretwell. I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm 43 years old. I'm a father of two and a grandfather of two. For those that say that I can't relate to being a black man today in America, you're a thousand percent correct. But what I can relate to is raising my biracial son for the last 25 years and the things I witnessed and tried to protect him from watching his attempt to fit in. When some days he didn't fit in with either side, I adopted him when he was four. And from that moment on, he wasn't my stepson. He wasn't my adopted son. He was my son. And I was there unconditionally to teach him to raise his kids better than I raised him. I witnessed the learned hate from all angles. And I wasn't ready for it. I didn't know what I was sounding up for. I wasn't ready for it. I even witnessed black teachers and mentors in his life had their hands tied because of the system. Teachers are supposed to be an extension of the love and positivity that we teach in our homes. And I felt like that was stifled. It was regulated. There were times when I would go to a school because of stuff and I would be talking to black administrators. And they were just kind of coaching me on this is kind of how it is. He's got to figure out his way through this. And it was extremely frustrating for me because it was something I never experienced before. I haven't waited to post because I was scared. I haven't waited to post because I was worried about what people would think. I waited to post because I wanted to get my thoughts properly organized so I could convey them out to whoever wanted to listen or choose to not listen. No narrative, no agenda, no gray areas, no skirt and the lines. Just my perspective on what I experienced raising my son for the last 25 years. And in light of the recent murder of Armand Aubrey and the very public killing of George Floyd, I wanted to be clear on where I stand. I haven't seen too many business owners. I haven't seen too many businesses without the push of other people on social media trying to force these guys to take a stand and force these businesses to speak out on where they stand. I think a lot of people are scared what it's going to do to their social circles. I think a lot of people are scared of what it's going to do to their pocketbooks or how it's going to be perceived on the internet. And to that I asked those people like, are you really worried about that? Are you worried about your hollow words not lining up with the person you are behind closed doors? And I think a lot of people got to take a look at that. If you're a kid watching this, ask your parents why you hear the hateful words in your home. Ask your parents why they use derogatory, racist, negative statements about other people of color, people with other religions. Hate is taught in the home. It's a learned behavior. It's not something we're born with. It's not something that's in our DNA. And that's the thing that scares me about where we're headed. That's the thing that scares me about the lack of people addressing things. And I don't feel like this should be a black problem. I think the burden shouldn't be on the black community to fix this. The burden's on the human race. The burden's on all of us to make a better world. If you're only worried about the white community or the Latino community because it only affects you, you're sorely mistaken and take a look around at what's happening. I thought I did a good job of educating myself on how to raise my son. I thought I did a good job on exposing myself to things I was unaware of growing up as a white kid so I could have empathy for not only his situations but the people around him and the situations they were putting him in. As an adult, a lot of times you feel a little bit more safe because it's the things you can control. As a parent sending your kid out into the world, whether they're four years old or whether they're 29, the things you can't control are the things that terrifies you. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on that, but I didn't. As things started to be more clear with me about the world my son was living in and growing up in, the more it started to scare me. I still have talks with my son to this day about his interactions in certain social circles, his interactions with law enforcement if he gets pulled over. I have to explain to him that even though he grew up in a white home, he doesn't get to enjoy the luxuries that I have just because of the color of his skin. That's so foreign to me to have that conversation with my son. It's scary. It's scary as an almost 30-year-old man now with two kids of his own that are now biracial kids growing up in this world, what world he's going to raise them in. We've gone so far as discussing putting cameras in his car just to protect himself, just to protect himself so he can be there for his family. That's terrifying. That's terrifying to know that I still have to protect him and that he's got to learn to educate his children on how to protect themselves to the African-American parents that send their kids off and are scared when they leave the house, whether they're going to the store, whether they're heading off to school or whether they're moving out to start their own family. I understand your uncertainty and fear to the wives that their husbands leave to go to work and you're worried about them getting pulled over or having an encounter with police on the way home. I can't imagine the uncertainty and the stress of a normal day of the uncertainty of the worrying. Those situations break my heart. Those situations are things that it's tough for me to wrap my head around. Those listening to this video and disagree with me because I'm white and I can't relate, I completely understand. I know why, but I'm sending love out to you guys anyways. I'm sending love out to your community. I'm sending love out to you to deal with the pain. I'm sending love out to you guys to hopefully bridge that gap for you guys listening. If you guys are listening and think the world is fine, and this is just a couple of hiccups, or it's just one bad cop, you guys got to do some soul searching. This is not something that's just happened a couple of times. I often think a lot of these people that have skewed perspective, if their family member was on their deathbed and needed a doctor to save their life, would they first ask what race the doctor was before the doctor saved their life, or would they just want any resource possible, but then flip the script when it's something that they deem is not near as important. To raise someone to hate or to create a condition for someone to learn how to hate is one of the most cowardly things we can do. If you're watching the news and spouting racial slurs of the TV in front of your kids and in front of your family members, you're the problem. You're the problem. If you think any racism is acceptable on any level, just miss me in the future. Miss me on social media. Miss my family in public. Just miss me completely. And for those of you responding, action speak, I hear you. If you teach hate in your home, don't bring your kids to my gym. They won't fit in. The compounds about love, equality, positive progress. If you're teaching your hate in your home, you're not going to fit in at my club. You're not going to fit into my gym. If you preach hate to your family and those around you, don't buy anything from my clothing company. Don't do business with me. Don't have any association with any events that I host, any things that I sponsor. And people that ask me to sponsor their events know where I stand on that because it might cost you some money down the road for some people with some skewed perspective. I want to say to people that wake up every day with hate in their heart, take a long, hard look in the mirror. You learned it from somewhere and it's not too late. It's not too late. It's not too late to go back and change. It's not too late to gain new perspective. It's not too late to look for guidance and empathy for what's going on with other people in their lives and things around the world. If you don't want the human race to win as bad as you want your family and yourself to win, then you got some issues. You got some soul searching to do. And lastly, to my community, oh, you got an apology. I owe my community an apology for not unconditionally standing up and confronting racism every time I witnessed it. I apologize for not calling out people making racist comments in front of me because I'm white and they thought I would just go along or understand their perspective. To my community, I'm going to do a better job to bridge the gap. We got to be better than this moment.