At the wake of the gruesome murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, an African-American who was fatally shot by two white men, the black communities, especially at the Georgia neighborhood where the incident took place, has been cautious of going out for their physical fitness routine. This inhumane assault has put a question mark on the safety of Blacks who find interest in outdoor fitness activities.
When I’m running, people give me two looks,” Edward Walton, a metro Atlanta cybersecurity architect and consultant and co-founder of running enthusiasts group Black Men Running, told NBC News. “Why is this Black guy running? What is he running from? What did he do?”
The group whose aim of being founded is to address health differences often faced by African-American men, and pay attention to their physical fitness.
But on the flip side, looking at the circumstance that surrounded the killing of Arbery, whose family affirmed his routine physical fitness like jogging, it will serve as a quick reminder for any Black person going out for a routine exercise to be weary of how suspicious he/she might be seen, and being taken as complicit in criminal act.
This recent ill-fated development has turned Walton’s group toward a more activist outfit. Recently, the group developed a social media campaign #irunwithmaud which encouraged people to run 2.23 miles, symbolizing the day of Arbery’s killing, on May 8, which would have been his 26th birthday.
Tobias A. Jackson-Campbell, an Atlanta realtor who runs marathons, said that because of what happened to Arbery, he has had a clear rethink on where he will choose to run henceforth. He says in the past he has been followed by police, stopped and asked what business he had in certain neighborhoods.
“For me, as a Black man running, it’s sometimes like driving while Black,” he told NBC News. “If it could happen to him, it could definitely happen to me.”
That worrying perception is alive in the minds of parents of young runners who want to be sure of their children’s safety. Kristea Cancel, a running enthusiast who lives in North Carolina recounts how she was being followed by a man in a pickup while running in Tennessee, and later threw a drink at her. To that effect, she tracked a recent run of her 13-year-old son on an app so that she’d know his whereabouts.
“When will it be OK to just be shopping, running, in the park and not be feared or criminalized by people who can’t just let us be human beings, enjoying life as they are entitled to do?” Cancel told NBC News. “No mother should be worried a run or walk may end their son’s life.”
This incessant trailing and assault is apparently putting the mind of Blacks at a juncture confusing them on how to safely go about their normal lives without any form of harassment.
“I’m changing my patterns,” Walton said, “because I can’t change the color of my skin”, Walton said.
