why is running so white?

November 4, 2016 11:03 AM

Why is running so white?
posted by garlic (32 comments total)

Because white people can run on public streets without the fear of being harassed or worse by racist police thugs?
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:08 AM on November 4, 2016 [110 favorites]

This article is about six years old, and running isn't so white anymore. But Faint of Butt has the only answer.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 11:09 AM on November 4, 2016 [5 favorites]

The closest thing I've done to running in the last decade is holding down the shift key, so it was interesting to skim this article, and then go look at the USA Track and Field team from the most recent Olympics and compare them to their teammates in other sports.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 11:17 AM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Because white people can run on public streets without the fear of being harassed or worse by racist police thugs?

Or robbed or otherwise attacked by unsavory types. There's enough systemic racism and poverty to go around.

See also, where are all the black swimmers?
posted by leotrotsky at 11:19 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

The closest thing I've done to running in the last decade is holding down the shift key, so it was interesting to skim this article, and then go look at the USA Track and Field team from the most recent Olympics and compare them to their teammates in other sports.

Why is canoe kayak cycling rowing diving equestrian pentathlon field hockey sailing shooting water polo so white?

And why is badminton so asian?
posted by leotrotsky at 11:23 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's also infrastructure to consider. White people are more likely to live in suburbs where they can run on nice, even sidewalks, crossing low-traffic streets at will or waiting briefly for the working WALK light to change. If it's cold or raining, they can go to their local gyms and run on maintained tracks. The high schools they go to are more likely to have facilities and coaches to nurture an interest in running. And they're more likely to have the time and energy to devote to it. It's a lot easier to peel off an hour a day when you have a nice 40-hour middle-class job.
posted by Etrigan at 11:24 AM on November 4, 2016 [31 favorites]

This is a pretty long article that actually addresses a lot of these points, believe it or not.
posted by Think_Long at 11:32 AM on November 4, 2016 [32 favorites]

Since you guys are trying to answer the question in the post I thought I'd link to this article in Runners World that also attempts to answer the question
posted by beerperson at 11:32 AM on November 4, 2016 [61 favorites]

This part seemed pretty accurate to me based on my sample size of one US high school:

The common social currency for Sobomehin in Gary was basketball, and the extent to which it and football eclipse other sports (including, now, even baseball) in the black community cannot be overestimated. The skinny second-string high school wide receiver rattling around in his pads who easily completes end-of-practice bleacher runs rarely entertains the idea of going out for the cross-country team. "There's social pressure to play football and basketball," says Martin Beatty, an African-American who has been the head track and field coach at Middlebury College in Vermont for 24 years. Shawn Fenty, who co-owns the Fleet Feet Sports store in Washington, D.C. (and whose brother is former Washington, D.C., mayor Adrian Fenty), concurs: "Within African-American culture, if your kids don't play football and basketball, in a lot of communities, it's not respected."

Now, for all that I like to think my kids' school is pretty mixed it's still only 3% black kids (36/27/23 Hispanic/Asian/white) but this seems to match the interests of the black kids I see on the various sports teams. High school sports is about social currency and group identity as much as anything else.
posted by GuyZero at 11:37 AM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Since you guys are trying to answer the question in the post...

Why is RTFA so un-MeFi?
posted by rokusan at 11:38 AM on November 4, 2016 [7 favorites]

Individual runners might especially encourage coworkers and friends of color to try running with them or start programs through community groups targeted toward minorities. One poster on a runnersworld.com discussion board suggested, "Basing running clubs at the Y would be huge in terms of diversity."

I have tried this but I had never thought about the huge impact of hair on what Black women cannot do easily that I can.

I don't know that I as an individual can do anything about that, but knowing it will at least help me be more sensitive about how I encourage friends to run.
posted by winna at 11:39 AM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Why is canoe kayak cycling rowing diving equestrian pentathlon field hockey sailing shooting water polo so white?

And why is badminton so asian?

When African Americans first entered professional basketball in large numbers in the 1950's, the league, in an attempt to preserve white males oh-so-fragile egos and the racist status quo, instituted an unofficial quota. Rumor had it that no more than 4 black men were allowed on a team. This, in addition to the fact that black players weren't allowed to play against white ones in states like South Carolina. Read: Only the Ball was Brown for more info on this time period.

It's been 70+ years and many things about race and sports have improved. Many have not. ESPN still has an annual feature about the year in racism in sports: 2014. 2015. And as the article notes, some African American runners, like Sobomehin got their start in basketball. Something that would have been unheard of back then.

This is a subject worth looking at for many reasons -- but the most important is that it is still a problem that needs to be solved. The article is definitely worth reading and the topic absolutely does not deserve mockery.
posted by zarq at 11:48 AM on November 4, 2016 [9 favorites]

In America at least, there's also the issue of access to healthcare, and to jobs that won't fire you if when you fuck up your knee and can't walk for a few weeks.
posted by Vulgar Euphemism at 11:49 AM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is pretty US-centric, given that the greatest running ability appears to be strongly correlated with African origin. The best long-distance runners currently seem to come from North and East Africa (e.g. Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco), while the best sprinters seem to be Caribbean in origin with West African heritage.

Probably a cultural thing in the USA - running for health and fitness is associated with suburbia.
posted by theorique at 11:52 AM on November 4, 2016 [4 favorites]

This is a pretty long article that actually addresses a lot of these points, believe it or not.

Yes, but here we can do it in under 5900 words, and with 100% less lynching jokes.
posted by zamboni at 11:52 AM on November 4, 2016

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said, but this article did remind me of this excellent Runner's World interview with Melvin Van Peebles.
posted by brand-gnu at 11:56 AM on November 4, 2016 [4 favorites]

One of the things I liked about running and racing in Prospect Park was the diversity. Lots of PoC running there.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:03 PM on November 4, 2016

I really appreciated this article, especially the sketches from the Atlanta running community. At my very diverse high school, both of our cross country coaches were black men who had attended college on scholarships as distance runners. I think that helped reduce the expectations/stereotypes of who could be on the team. But even then, our cross country team was still mostly white, and the few black runners that we had began as sprinters until Coach Jackson persuaded them to try longer distances. I also can't think of very many other high schools in NC in the 1990s that had black cross country coaches. And most of the other black runners came from (frankly) segregated school systems where they went to all black schools.

(Coach Jackson: The meanest most amazing guy who made me who I am today--a person who is terrified to drink Coke or use the word "can't" because I'm still afraid I might get screamed at.)
posted by hydropsyche at 12:04 PM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

One poster on a runnersworld.com discussion board suggested, "Basing running clubs at the Y would be huge in terms of diversity."

I've been a member of a couple different (suburban) YMCA's for well over a decade and I've never been to a YMCA branch that didn't advertise a running club. I'm very willing to believe that that is a regional phenomenon though.

Something that it seemed odd for me for the article to not address vis-a-vis football and basketball, is the the lottery ticket aspect. Yeah, the average kid might have a 1 in 300 million chance of making a living playing football or basketball, but at least that's a lottery with the potential to pay out. Sure, if you're Flo Jo or Carl Lewis you might be able to rake in the sponsorship dollars but you'll never make a football player's base salary from running without being chased.

So from the point of view of your average high school kid, on the one hand, you've got the pipe dream sports that at least you get to play with your friends (even if you're kinda so-so at). Or you've got a sport that doesn't lead to a career and you pretty much just do it alone. I know which one sounds like more fun to teenage me.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:12 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said, but this article did remind me of this excellent Runner's World interview with Melvin Van Peebles.

The Hiyed anecdote is particularly great.
posted by zamboni at 12:29 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, the average kid might have a 1 in 300 million chance of making a living playing football or basketball, but at least that's a lottery with the potential to pay out.

Even the kids who will clearly not go anywhere playing football or basketball choose these over other sports. Not every potential star athlete has a pro career but the 5'7" kid who weighs 135 pounds soaking wet is definitely not going pro. And yet these kids don't choose cross-country (or badminton or whatever) for the most part. They choose football and basketball.
posted by GuyZero at 12:31 PM on November 4, 2016

A related question might be "why is 'running' defined as 'distance running' ? I have seen a significant number of black athletes at the track doing wind sprints and short runs, but they don't do Turkey Trots or street runs for the reasons mentioned above and in the article. Black athletes who are not visibly east African are pushed to sprint events in high school and college, and those events are harder to compete in as you age, but many former sprinters keep a sprint element in their workouts, which often diversify into weight training and other more durable aspects of their former athletic practices with time.
posted by Svejk at 12:35 PM on November 4, 2016 [4 favorites]

They choose football and basketball.

Like all their friends do. After watching the games that are televised every week.

I mean, this is only one factor. But in the absence of coaches encouraging kids to go towards distance running (which, there's a lot to unpack here some of which has been done in TFA and this thread), football and basketball are things that kids will choose to play for fun regardless.

I know elementary school kids of multiple races who like to practice "dunking" on mini-nets. I know toddlers who like to throw balls around (for some reason, their parents don't like it if I ask if their child knows how to play "fetch"). I know preteens who work on mastering skateboard tricks. I don't know any kids who like to go on long runs outside of a program set down by a middle or high school coach.
posted by sparklemotion at 12:44 PM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

I don't know any kids who like to go on long runs outside of a program set down by a middle or high school coach.

Yeah, I have to say the real question to me is why any kid in high school goes into long distance running. I like running and all but I'm with Melvin Van Peeples on what running is for.
posted by GuyZero at 12:48 PM on November 4, 2016

Yeah, I have to say the real question to me is why any kid in high school goes into long distance running. I like running and all but I'm with Melvin Van Peeples on what running is for.

High school? Try middle school! Ours had a cross country team I joined when I was 11. Why? I ran and cycled all the time anyway. We'd run ten, twelve miles. Races were ten miles (16km). I loved it. Ran cross-country for five years before my knees and shins got too angry to go on. Finally took up again this year, in large part because I still remember how it felt like meditation. Parts of the first few miles can suck, but once you're around mile 3, it's steady nirvana. Especially if you're in a forest.

That said, you likely don't want to run those distances too often for good health. Shorter distances and slower paces are optimal, they've found recently.
posted by fraula at 1:06 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

This is such a white question.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:08 PM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Interesting article. I've definitely noticed the same trend here in New Zealand. My running group is hugely white, and this is in a city where 20-25% identify with non-white ethnic groups. Seems like there might be multiple causes - safety issues or fear of the police probably wouldn't be as important as in the US, so I wonder if here it's more about lack of peers/role models (a big issue in the article of course), or a sense that a very white group wouldn't be welcoming.
posted by Pink Frost at 2:42 PM on November 4, 2016

Because white people men can run on public streets without the fear of being harassed or worse by racist police thugs?

FTFY.
posted by Hermione Granger at 4:21 PM on November 4, 2016 [12 favorites]

Yeah, I have to say the real question to me is why any kid in high school goes into long distance running.

The Loneliest Runner is an autobiographical made-for-television film written, and directed by Bonanza star Michael Landon. It first aired on December 20, 1976 on NBC and starred Lance Kerwin, Brian Keith, DeAnn Mears, and Landon's Little House on the Prairie daughter, Melissa Sue Anderson. The film was nominated for two Emmys.
Wikipedia
posted by lazycomputerkids at 8:25 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

The same is true in cycling too! My local bike club runs a great outreach program to teach cycling skills to kids from underrepresented minorities called the Major Taylor Project, which is getting more successful by the year. After reading this article I'm definitely making the effort to do the Major Taylor ride and buy the jersey next year.
posted by Joe Chip at 9:38 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Now, for all that I like to think my kids' school is pretty mixed it's still only 3% black kids (36/27/23 Hispanic/Asian/white) but this seems to match the interests of the black kids I see on the various sports teams. High school sports is about social currency and group identity as much as anything else.--GuyZero

I was thinking that this sounds a lot like my kids's school, then I looked at where you are located and I'm thinking that it probably is my kids's school. My kids aren't into track or football, so I don't know who participates in those sports, but the sports they are involved in are very racially mixed.

One advantage of having a really diverse student population is that there are lots of opportunities and therefore groups that split across the traditional racial identities.
posted by eye of newt at 9:49 PM on November 4, 2016

Easy answers are suspect, but recreational/fitness hobbies are a suburban phenomenon (from post-WWII engineering to white flight)-- a cross-pollination of leisure, discretionary income, and a compelling approach to increased productivity and quality of life.

An example: I have a friend raised in Detroit, a minority and single mom who always chastised me for any Southern proclivity to associate poverty and African-American experiences because 80s Detroit had a range of Black experiences-- a big middle and upper-middle class. But her own socioeconomic standing was pretty vulnerable and she has made do without a car her whole adult life. For a stint, she worked part-time at a fitness club (trainer) and when telling a group of women she rode a bike to work, their response was a mix of congratulation and pity: "Oh, I could never do that," one had said.

My friend said, "I didn't say what I wanted: Bitch, I have to."

Another gem she gave me was, "At any party or gathering, Whites meeting each other will ask straight off what they do for a living, or maybe it's the second question. I've known brothers for years and never known what they do to make ends meet. We talk about shit we're interested in.
posted by lazycomputerkids at 12:17 AM on November 5, 2016 [3 favorites]