Stand on the sidelines of any major marathon, and the winners are almost always people of colour. Stick around to watch the rest of the race, however, and after that participants are overwhelmingly white. This is what Jules noticed when she started running over 20 years ago.
“There was a perception that black people loved running, but that wasn’t translating over into grassroots running,” she explained. “(We) found that we were going to races and not seeing very many people who looked like us. I'd often run after work and see running clubs or crews running through London and I could count on one hand the number of black or brown people that I would see.”

This is what motivated Jules, her sister Denise, and their friend Trojan to start the Emancipated Run Crew in London in 2014. Having had the experience of feeling “othered” by the wider running community, they wanted to create a community where black and brown runners felt welcomed and championed. From there, they began organizing group runs, supporting each other in their training, encouraging more people of colour to get involved in running. One of those people is Lionel, who is now a run leader for the ERC.
“The only two black women that I knew that ran were Jules and Dee,” Lionel said. “I joined the ERC, and I felt a community in terms of,’ oh, it wasn't just Jules and Dee’. There are other black women that run as well as black men, so these aren't just anomalies.”

Fast-forward nearly 10 years, and the ERC community has expanded across London, the UK, and the world. Jules, Lionel, and the rest of the ERC leaders have been working hard to make grassroots running a more welcoming space for people of colour. They have partnered with major London races and running events to help the organizers remove barriers to entry and increase diversity in their events. While there is still plenty of work to be done, the ERC has made an incredible impact on the lives of everyone in their community. Their ultimate goal? To one day see a London marathon as diverse as the city that it runs through and to have black people running be as normal and accepted as anyone else.

Sign up for a run with @emancipatedruncrew on Heylo✨

#shortsvideo #fyp #runnerscommunity #ytshorts #shortsviral #shortsviralvideo

свернуть