By Leah Frost
I am reeling with the current events and injustices of our society, and on my runs now, I am meditating on how to respond, how to act, and how to educate myself, my students, and our new child.
As people gather across the country to protest police brutality and the ongoing and systemic racism Black and brown people face every day, we are in a place of reckoning with our own internal prejudices and biases as individuals, groups, and institutions.
I am deeply saddened by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and the many other Black lives that have been taken by white supremacy.
The shooting of Ahmaud Arbery by two white men while on a run had a profound impact on runners across the nation. That someone could be chased down and killed in what many of us runners consider our protected, sacred space simply for his race is sickening and unfathomable. Arbery’s death forced me to consider again just how much aggression Black people in the United States face every single day and how much injustice. His murder was atrocious, but the anti-Black violence he faced was not novel.
Since I returned to running postpartum, I have taken mostly to the trails and mostly alone. I haven’t come close to the mileage I expected I would have regained by now, no workouts yet, no tempos. I had signed up for Boston, but when it was postponed due to COVID, I was partially relieved (I was full on disappointed that it was canceled in September). I am just running these days, without concern for pace, through the woods, thinking.
What a privilege it is for me to run, as Arbery liked to do, to clear my mind, but without fear of being targeted for my race. What a privilege for me as a white mother of a white child to have the space to think about how to educate myself and our child to examine these inequities in our society, and NOT have to teach myself and her to fear the very institution that is supposed to protect us, as it is at its hands that so many Black lives have been lost, to know that she can feel safe and valued.
As a teacher, I am scrutinizing the many insidious ways white supremacy and white privilege are entwined in our education system and the intentional barriers students and teachers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color face in providing and accessing education here in our schools and beyond. I want my students to know how important each of their voices is. Above all, I want all of my students to feel safe and know that their lives matter.
Racism and the inequities of our society cannot be rooted out on a run through the woods thinking. I am committed to examining my own implicit bias and educating myself, my students, and my daughter on the history of racism in this country.
“It is our responsibility to take action to dismantle white supremacy and leave our children a world with less hate, a world in which human life is precious and valued, and running without fear is not a privilege afforded to some, but a right.”
Before our daughter was born, before we decided to have a child, my wife and I spoke about the injustices of the world we live in and if and how we could responsibly raise a child within it. It is our responsibility to take action to dismantle white supremacy and leave our children a world with less hate, a world in which human life is precious and valued, and running without fear is not a privilege afforded to some, but a right.
Arbery’s death was but one in a long pattern of violent manifestations of the pervasive and pernicious inequities and injustices Black people face, rooted in a long history of white supremacy and racism. As runners, we need to acknowledge the discrimination and bias Black runners face every day and unite to fight racism in our sport. The outrage expressed across the nation in response to these latest acts of brutality is both justified and called for and is a loud cry not to stand idly by, but to unite in affirming that Black Lives Matter.
Many people and groups have been working to compile anti-racist resources and ways to take action against white supremacy and police brutality. Below are links to just a few of these efforts that the Maine DOE put out in their response to recent events. Please take the time to follow some of these, access the materials listed, and work towards a solution.
About the Author
Leah Nook Frost lives in Portland, Maine, with her wife, Katherine, their daughter, Willa, and dog, Boo. She is an educator who works with new immigrants and migrant workers. She has always been driven to explore beautiful places and cover lots of distance pretty quickly and has only taken to doing so in competition more recently in her running journey. She loves the community she has found through racing to accompany the peace she finds in running.
