TL; DR — this kind of discussion is almost always fairly ridiculous, starting with the easy targets of those who make the points and often with those who pile on criticize them.
Longer — I’ll take up the point in a moment, but the framing of this is partially correct and partially ridiculous. Her general point is over the top, and her “good versus evil” point is way too much. Is it therefore a reasonable target of criticism? It’s easy to criticize, but I never would’ve been seeking out her views for a reasoned political take anyway. It’s all part of the online political culture she participates in, though. Her tone is fairly measured even through her more bombastic claims, and I doubt Daily Wire’s assessment of Ben Shapiro is that he is “triggered” or “ranting” as he blathers on about Megan Thee Stallion or whatever.
But of course the case of East Africans doing so well in large numbers is the easiest point to use to refute her, even though their real rise to prominence came with more funding and attentive work toward building up supportive programs.
But also think about the complaints here about race entry fees these days. Part of her point involved those who race a lot. So there clearly is an element of privilege involved to some aspects of running she singles out.
And there is some barrier to entry, but it is not as great as for, say, basketball, and it appears that a lot of underprivileged young people get to experience a lot of fulfillment participating in that sport. There are other factors that guide a person’s preference for one activity over another.
Yet a lot of people here participate in threads talking about running in less safe parts of cities. You can imagine some of the comments and the feeling behind them. And so are you wondering why a kid living in the middle of that doesn’t just hop out the door and run through that every day?
Her brief mention about running and the climate is another one that she could gather evidence for, but that really involves a line of reasoning you can carry out for any choices about clothes someone wears, products they buy, or where and how they travel. The all-encompassing nature of those questions means that if someone cares about seeing potential climate effects in an activity, it becomes nearly meaningless to single out running.
A lot of people on here also express gratitude for being able to run. In that sense, it feels as though running is indeed a privilege, although maybe not in the most politically charged way Walz and others tend to view the term.
Her remark about being in a safe and healthy enough mental space is a related area. I feel a level of gratitude for that, as I suppose many on here do, but it doesn’t really strike me as a very politically charged sense of privilege. And again, if having that foundational part of your life is being “privileged,” then it’s meaningless to signal out running, because that’s something that would apply to basically any productive endeavor.
Some people go around viewing the world through a lens that makes them see, for better or worse, “privilege” all around. Others work very hard to look for those who are “triggered,” call them out, and spend a lot of time smugly deriding them among the like-minded online.
