“Running While Black” with Gerald Parris was an Online Learning Event for the Love Training More Running Club, part of the club’s commitment to anti-racism work within the running community. This session featured Gerald talking about his lived experience running and coaching while Black and detailed under-representation in the running community, why it’s an issue that matters and some ideas for better supporting Black runners.
The following is a summary of the session, summarized by Coach Erin and reviewed and approved by Gerald.
Erin’s intro: This online learning event features Gerald Parris: Halifax sprinter/runner, Coach, Mentor and Fire School Graduate.
Erin and Gerald met while training under the late, great Coach Cliff Matthews in around 2009 and have been friends since. During this time, Gerald was racing some blistering indoor 60m races wearing the Cliffs Antiques Red. By “blistering”: I mean fastest time recorded at the meet in his debut. He has also ventured onto the roads at races including Natal Day 2 miler, Mac Pass Mile, Navy 5/10 and Blue Nose.
When Coach Erin took over the Track and Field Program at the high school where she is based, Gerald was her first choice to coach alongside her for several reasons. Gerald was a passionate and skilled runner. He was already an excellent mentor to youth in the city and the kind of guy that people just wanted to be around. And he would be a Black Coach to partner with Erin, a White and Female Coach. This was important because at this large, urban, diverse high school and at : race representation mattered.
Race Representation in the Media: Gerald began talking about how he just read Love Training More’s open letter to Canadian Running re race representation and shared that it’s so important that this is out there. Gerald shares that race representation matters so much in the sport running because representation of Black and other POC runners is not always present. After reading the letter, Gerald hopped onto Canadian Running Magazine’s mobile site and scrolling through, saw many, many White bodies. Even the stock photos associated with running articles were White bodies. The only BIPOC athlete he noted in this scroll through were Usain Bolt in a story about him testing positive for COIVD and a Black runner who ran a FKT. Gerald shared that this representation is reinforcement of Chris Rock’s assertion that Black people need to be extraordinary to share space with White people doing regular shit.
(Coach Erin has since emailed a summary of this conversation to the editor of Canadian Running Magazine).
Representation at Road Races in NS: Gerald moved on to road races in NS: Look around at road races. It’s a big population of the same faces. Most are White faces. There are many barriers for BIPOC communities and the cost can be a significant barrier. The Blue Nose Marathon is touted as “the people’s marathon,” but for what people? How many Black runners are there? How many are experiencing barriers to participate.
Erin shares that sure there is a bursary program but it’s buried on the website and it requires an application and a wait to find out if you are approved. Does a bursary program like this count as removing a barrier if it’s putting up more barriers to overcome in order to get around your first barrier? Gerald notes that this procress is a lot of hoops to jump through and that’s exhausting for minority peoples:jumping through hoops is exhausting for minority folks because they have to do it All. The. Time.
Gerald notes that the MacPass Mile has historically had more diversity. It’s free. And it’s possibly the shorter distance appealing to both sprint and distance runners.
Systemic Racism: Gerald shared lived experiences of racism in Nova Scotia and notes that NS is one of the most difficult places in Canada for BIPOC folks: “The racism is always there, it’s just quieter.” We discussed that people hire people who look like them and this fuels systemic racism because in NS; this leads to White folks hiring more White folks. We brought attention to these experiences as truths that can be shared when Nova Scotians try to assert that “things are different here, systemic racism doesn’t exist.” Fact: systemic racism is alive and well in Nova Scotia.
Black Youth Participation: The school where Gerald and Erin coach does have one of the most diverse athlete populations around but there is still work to do and progress to be made. Gerald was asked about what he thought contributed to more diversity on their team? He believes that a significant contributor is having a Black coach (and he acknowledges that he doesn’t want to brag about himself). Gerald covers that Black youth don’t always feel comfortable nor do they always like the sport is for them, especially when they don’t see anyone else who looks like them. Having a BIPOC Coach is really important in youth sports. Youth feel safe. Youth see themselves represented: this sport is for them. And that representation is important for all kids on a team no matter if they are White or BIPO; it shows “here is what a coach looks like. Here is what success looks like.”
Sport as a powerful way to develop relationships between Black kids and non-Black teammates. Several amazing young friendships were discussed with team running named as the factor that brought these cross-race friendships together.
Gerald named many reasons why Black youth, especially male youth, don’t participate in high school running and sports at all. He trains many young athletes personally, getting them ready for football or simply building fitness and strength. When Gerald was asking one outstanding athlete why he didn’t come out for track at high school, this young man replied, “Because everytime we (Black men) leave the house, we get in trouble (i.e. police checks)”.
Is change going to come? Gerald shares that his father has been waiting for 65 years…..He doesn’t feel encouraged that Canadian Running Magazine is going to make good on their promise to ensure race representation in their magazine in a meaningful or ongoing way. This one is completely achievable. They could easily do it.
Erin noted a line from Robin D’Angelo’s book reading that many White people live from cradle to grave without having diverse or BIPOC friends in their lives. Their lives are completely White. And they live this way without any sense of loss. Here’s a big problem because these people are potentially not caring about being engaged in anti-racism work because it’s not impacting their lives at all. This takes us back to sports like running and how important those cross-race relationships are.
Gerald echoes many voicesi in the Black community in that they are not responsible for bringing about this change. They didn’t create racism. They aren’t keeping racism going. Gerald: “We can’t end it. We got nothing invested in it. We don’t want it. We can’t end it. We all need to be involved in ending it.”
Intervening in Racism as an Ally: What should you do if you are noticing racist behaviour or microaggressions as a friend or running teammate. Gerald shares, “just do something, even if it’s not the precise right thing.” Something matters more. Doing nothing is almost worse than trying to intervene and not getting it totally right. “Silence speaks loudly,” says Gerald.
Erin shared that in her experience, when you mess up and apologize and are well-intentioned and authentic, people see this and will often give you a second chance (after you do the learning on how to do better on your own!).
Erin notes that several of the White people in her life have expressed that they would like to intervene or be involved in Black Lives Matters and would like to more actively anti-racist but they worry about saying the wrong thing and say they don’t know how to do it so it leads to what is almost paralysis. They are scared so they don’t do anything. Gerald comments again that silence is worse than doing allyship imperfectly. He says, “please do something.”
Idea for Black Summer Games. As we came to a close, participants/team members were encouraged to ask questions. During this time, Jarvis shared how important the Mi’kmaw Summer Games are for the Mi’kmaw community and there was wonder about whether this would draw more Black youth to all summer sports including cross-country and track and field.
The Love Training More community would like to share it’s deepest gratitude to Gerald Parris for sharing and leading them in this important hour long discussion (and we note that we paid him for his labour). We remain committed to anti-racism work within the running community and in the community at large. Our next session in late September will feature Jarvis Googoo and a look at Indigenous communities and running.
Final words: Black Lives Matter.
