If you’re Black and looking to exercise outdoors in Las Vegas, be prepared for some scrutiny, says local activist and minister Stretch Sanders.
Sanders says Black runners can’t exercise in poorer neighborhoods without getting stopped, because “the stereotype is that Black folks in the ’hood don’t work out.”
He also says Black runners can’t exercise in higher-income neighborhoods without getting stopped, because “they’re going to assume if you’re Black that you’re up to no good, that you robbed somebody or stole from somebody.”
And he says Black runners can’t exercise in gated neighborhoods without getting stopped, because “they’re going to assume that you’re not in the right neighborhood, that you don’t belong there.”
That might leave you wondering where it’s safe for Black runners to actually exercise.
“This is something that Black people have been dealing with for a very long time,” Sanders says. “What it ultimately comes down to is that we really can’t run anywhere. And that’s really sad. White people have the luxury to bike ride or to jog, but we don’t.”
There’s a reckoning in the country right now when it comes to race, specifically about the systemic treatment of Black Americans. George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have become household names after dying at the hands of police officers.
Then there was Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old jogger who was shot and killed while on an afternoon run through a neighborhood near his Georgia home on February 23. Videos of the incident sparked national outrage, and on May 8, Arbery’s birthday, runners across the country ran 2.23 miles to remember the day he was killed, hashtagged #IRunWithMaud. Three white men were indicted on murder charges in late June.
“I really never thought about it until that incident happened down South,” says Las Vegas runner Kevin Youngblood. “I did the run for Ahmaud that day, running and thinking about [how] that could be me right now, just running down the street and some random person accused me or thought I was somebody else.”
Several Black runners in Las Vegas said they have neither experienced any sort of prejudices while running nor felt in danger on a run. That, of course, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
Chris Trim, a retired police officer who moved to Las Vegas from California two years ago, says he hasn’t experienced any form of racism while running in the Northwest Valley.
“Having worked as a cop, done law enforcement, I’ve been talked down to by people more as a cop because of my race than as a person just down on the regular street,” Trim said. “I’ve never had any racial issues with anyone just being me, Chris Trim—husband, father, photographer, whatever I do.”
On the other hand, Jeremy Wallace, a local running coach, says he has dealt with prejudice for so long, it has become ingrained in his social experience.
“Because I live as a Black man 24 hours a day, it doesn’t stop when I run,” Wallace says. “Somebody crossing to the other side of the street to me is normal. Somebody tensing up as I approach them, that’s normal for me. So I can’t say I notice it any more when I’m running.”
And though he has had insults hurled at him as he goes by, he says he feels it’s more of a case of “just kids just goofing off,” explaining that he has never been frightened to the point of altering his routine.
“I’ve never felt like I needed to change the direction of my run, or like I needed to hop a wall or anything like that,” Wallace says. “I’ve never felt in danger like that, and I don’t personally know of any Black men who have experienced anything like that here.”
Black runners in other cities have expressed concerns after Arbery’s death. In a New York Times article, LA’s Simone Leanora described being assaulted on a morning run: “On the surface, Los Angeles is a mostly liberal town, but the white privilege runs deep. I was verbally assaulted by a white man while on a morning run. I’ve been dreading the moment I might run into him again, wondering if he will be emboldened by our encounter.”
She described the encounter: “He tried to keep pace running alongside me and yelled, ‘Turn down your music!’ I told him to just stay away from me, and he yelled, ‘You stay the [expletive] away from me.’ I told myself just keep running, so I did.”
In Boston, the Unnamed Run Crew was created to provide a safe space for runners of all colors to come together in unity through running. After Arbery’s death, the group posted on Instagram, “This is our reality! If we want change, we as a whole, must demand it! It is imperative for us to collectively work against racism and inequality, systemic injustice, and police brutality. We, as a people, as a society, simply have to do better!”
According to the most recent FBI data, there were 7,120 reported cases of hate crimes in the country in 2018. Only 33 of those took place in Nevada, or 1.09 per 100,000 people, ranking the state 34th among 49 reporting jurisdictions. That encompasses all hate crimes, not just those committed against the Black community. It also, of course, only counts reported incidents, though it’s likely others went unreported.
And Las Vegas is by no means perfect. It was called the “Mississippi of the West” in a 1954 Ebony article for its history of discrimination against Black Americans, and Sanders says the nickname could still be considered accurate.
“Vegas is definitely racist … but I can also say that Vegas is a work in progress that’s also being built and dismantled every day by those who are on the ground trying to make this city a better place to live for all humans,” Sanders says. “There’s a lot of darkness here, but there’s also a lot of light.”
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.