I hang out in a number of forums for runners. A common topic is women being harassed by men while running. On the one hand, these discussions are something I'm glad to see. Women should not be the object of harassment while running and we should speak up about it. Too often, though, the posts mention the race/ethnicity of the harassers for what I can only call no real reason. (These posts are from various sites on the net.)
Case 1: Wow, lots of posts in this thread disgust me and REALLY make me want to buy a gun -- as if running alone in Chicago didn't do that already. On my latest solo 5 mile run through my neighborhood (one where lots of families live) I got harassed 3 times in the first mile alone. I was FURIOUS. I always say something back to the harassers, I can't help it. So after the 2nd guy, I shouted "f**k off" so loudly that it echoed down the street. People turned to stare. This moron was pushing his kid in a stroller and he still felt the need to harass me??? Unbelievable.
By the time the 3rd guy said something (surprise surprise, a Mexican making kissy noises at me from his car. Real manly), I was so p*ssed. I yelled some angry things back at him and he only seemed to get more turned on by it.
Case 2: ...who honk and yell profane things out the window at me when I'm running. Sometimes it can be flattering or amusing, like when I car full of mexicans yelled "OOOO MAMI!" to me, but they freak me out. Because it is never the cute, young guys that say things, it is the old, rapist-looking men.
There are two more that I've seen in the past month. In each case the ethnicity of the harasser is mentioned. Notably in the first case the woman was harassed 3 times and, in the first two cases, she did not even bother to mention ethnicity. What do you think these women are trying to convey by mentioning the race/ethnicity in these stories?
I get the sense it is put in there to make the story less hostile to the audience, which is mostly white people at these sites. Specifically, to make it less hostile to white men, by making it about another group of men who they assume are not reading the complaint. But perhaps I am being to harsh in my reading. What do you think?