Indigenous People's Day

COVID-19, “The Rona Era”

Today is Monday. For some it is Columbus Day and for others it is Indigenous People’s Day. I chose to celebrate the latter. How do you discover a people that were already here? Today was going to be my off/work light day, no run rest day.

Then I saw the White House proclamation to commemorate Columbus Day and accuse “ radical activist” of trying to undermine the Christopher Columbus’ legacy. That is problematic to me on several fronts. Then later in the day, I saw a post on social media that read “ Hey, Black Lives Still Matter: Running Protest. Monday October 12th: Indigenous People’s Day, West Roxbury Parkway.

I appreciate the acknowledge of Indigenous People’s Day and the Protest of a Black Man runner who was stopped by ICE. Bena Apreala, 29, was on a run in his neighborhood when he was stopped and question by ICE. Tjey asked for his ID and asked if he had any tattoos on his left or right arm to confirm” who he was.

Yet, again, jogging while black, you are stopped and just can’t be. Thankful he wasn’t arrested or shot. Still the psychological trauma and terrorism is still there. I knew I couldn’t just have an off day. I needed to protest and use my physical body and ability to run as a way to protest and enact social justice actions. Besides, what is a 1 mile loop- nothing. My physical presence and what matters.

I was very excited and pleased to see so many people who came to run and protest. Especially seeing several black and brown runners here. This was a combination of a couple of running groups: Pioneers, Heartbreakers, TrailblazHers. Here are local running groups who have a strong racial minority membership and that is something that unfortunately is invisible in this running space.

We ran the 1 mile loop , several times to support Apreala and other black and brown people that have been killed by the Police. What I did not know, was the weekly Monday protest of people about racial injustice in this country.

The crowd of folks was larger than I thought. The community and support we all shared for a common goal was great. I ran two miles on a Monday, on Indigenous People’s Day. That is priceless