I didn't realize how much the tragic story of Ahmaud Arbery affected me. At first, it felt like another black man getting murdered story that we have sadly gotten accustomed to seeing in the news.
The New York times did an article on it called " The condition of Black life is one of mourning" .
But this one was different for me.
As an avid walker + runner, I go everywhere. Even when I travel, which is something I do frequently for work and play. You will catch me on the first day of any hotel stay, asking for running routes recommendations from the concierge.
Even now with the pandemic, I've been evacuated to a new city and all I do is run/walk on most evenings around my new neighborhood as part of my mental health.
For a while I will get anxious when I stepped out for my regular routine. I started turning down my headphones or having them completely off just to make sure I was more alert to my surroundings. This isn't to say I wasn't already practicing safety precautions especially as a solo female runner. But this incident brought on a heightened level of anxiety that I have not experienced in a while.
Coupled with that anxiety, the thought that this could have been any of my brothers or black male friends, makes it an even more painful story to digest. In my own way, am grieving this young man I obliviously do not know but feel connected to because of our tragic collective experiences of being black in america.
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