Kenyan woman Tracy Muringa Njeri said she was brought to tears when she saw videos of an invite-only fitness retreat using tribal Maasai people as props in their workout videos - and now, she said she's not going to stop pushing until sees accountability.
The Instagram videos of the Skinny Bitch Collective (SBC) Kenya retreat, run by celebrity fitness coach Russell Bateman, show a group of white women doing various exercises as the local people stand in the background.
At one point, the women - all dressed in black workout gear - appear to crab walk around a line of Maasai people.
Images from Russell Bateman's Instagram reposted on Diet Panda. Source: Instagram
Originally posted to the trainer's Instagram, the videos were swiftly deleted following the backlash but reposted on viral Instagram account Diet Prada, which has over 1.2 million followers, alongside the caption: "the Colonial mindset is alive and well."
Shortly after, Mr Bateman issued an apology on the company's Instagram account, which has since been deleted.
"Our intention was to promote a cross-cultural exchange through shared experiences and to highlight the beauty of Kenya and its Indigenous peoples," he wrote.
"However, having taken a step back, we accept and understand that our content fell well short of this aim and lacked appropriate cultural sensitivity by reinforcing colonial era depictions of people of colour."
But in an open letter to the coach and wider collective, Ms Njeri said it's too little, too late.
"The apology isn't about your complete misappropriation and misrepresentation of the Maasai culture or the blatant dehumanisation of the individuals," the letter reads.
"A response should have come immediately after you were called out ... NOT after the crisis management team met."
Ms Njeri, who is based in Milan, described that watching the videos left her shocked and speechless, but said she was above all angry. "Blinding, unfiltered fury," she wrote.
In an earlier Instagram story, she said she was in tears at what she saw.
Russell Bateman's Instagram story reposted on Tracy Njeri's Instagram account with comment. Source: Instagram
"Because of the pain we have endured for years, the stealing from our culture and to be relegated to props when this tribe is one of the few untainted that didn't let colonisation strip them of their pride," she wrote.
But Ms Njeri was far from the only social media user to criticise the videos, with thousands commenting across Instagram and Twitter.
On the collective's website, which has since been deleted, SBC is described as the "secret class for supermodels" and "specifically aimed at promoting lean, strong, empowering women".
The website also includes testimonials from singers Ellie Goulding and Nicole Scherzinger and model Suki Waterhouse. In 2017, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle - then an actress - told Women's Health Magazine that she was "eager to come to the UK and do a workout with Russell".
