A Conversation With the Ultrarunner Yassine Diboun

I called Diboun, 41, at his home in Portland, Ore., to ask him why he decided to start writing about this now, and his hopes for the future of trail running as a more diverse sport. The conversation has been edited.

JAM: What prompted you to write this piece for Trail Runner?

YD: I have experienced racism my entire life, unfortunately. It wasn’t until these last couple months that I have experienced some more blatant, overt racism.

Right before Portland locked down, somebody called the cops on me for parallel parking. I lightly bumped another bumper. Then, I’m sitting in a coffee shop with a potential client and a police officer comes in. A middle-aged white woman saw me bump into the spot and she felt she had to take it upon herself to call the cops. There was no damage at all and the cop actually laughed it off. But it was really frustrating. It was embarrassing, because I’m in the middle of a meeting.

Then a couple of weeks after that, I was in the post office, and this guy referred to me as ISIS because I had my mask on. After that, I was followed out of a store by security. I went into the store, looked around with my mask on, and they didn’t have what I wanted so I left without buying anything.

I’m so frustrated by everything that’s going on, so I made social media posts about how I’ve experienced this my whole life, and how stuff’s starting to boil over right now. I can’t be silent anymore.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/well/move/yassine-diboun-racial-discrimination-ultrarunning.html