About

Jogger, not to be confused with someone who runs for recreation or exercise, is a racial slur for African Americans that was started on 4chan following the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, whose family contends was out for a jog when he was shot and killed in early 2020. In early May 2020, users on 4chan's /pol/ board orchestrated a campaign called "Operation Jogger" to have the term recognized as hate speech.

Origin

On February 23rd, 2020, two men allegedly shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery, whom they believed was connected to a series of burglaries in the area. That morning, they claim to have seen Arbery "hauling ass" past Gregory's front lawn. Gregory claimed to have recognized Arbery from the past incidents, and he and his son Travis, both carrying weapons, chased after him, confronted him and killed him. Arbery's mother said that he was out jogging that morning.

On May 7th, 2020, an anonymous 4chan^[7] user started a thread called "Operation Jogger." In the post, they featured a meme called "The Eternal Jogger" and wrote of a plan to make "jogger" a form of hate speech. They wrote, "ITT we meme 'jogger' into being recognized as hate speech. >What can we do On social media refer to n**** in a offensive manner by calling them a jogger. I.e 'He's such a jogger' Also you can help by making memes like pic related."

Spread

On May 9th, an anonymous 4chan^[1] user posted in a thread about the murder, in which other posters use other racial epithets such as the n-word, a user responded to a comment that the murder of Arbery violated one the Bible's 10 commandments with "That means other humans not joggers" (shown below).

Over the next few days, others on 4chan used the term in place of other epithets for African Americans. For example, one user^[2] wrote, "I hate those fucking jogger hoop earrings so god damn much" (shown below, left). Another^[3] referred to African American conservative activist and commentator Candace Owens as "Our Jogger Aunt Jamima" (shown below, right).

On May 9th, a 4chan^[4] user wrote, "Is jogger the New N word??" (shown below).

Less than one week later, Vice ^[5] published the article "White Supremacists Have a Disgusting New Code for the N-Word After Ahmaud Arbery's Death." They wrote, "White supremacists have a new code for the n-word. It’s “jogger” -- a direct reference to the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the young black man who was shot dead in February while he was running in a suburban neighborhood in Georgia."

On May 14th, Redditor ^[6] Ready-Purchase posted a screenshot from 4chan that reads, "Joggers = N**** Springters = Wypeeple" (shown below, left). The post received more than 225 points (96% upvoted) in less than one week (shown below, left).

That day, a 4chan^[8] user wrote, "The Jogger meme was a success, but there's more work to do." They continued to say that users on 4chan "successfully conflated 'Jogger' with the nword and it has now reached the mainstream, as planned" (shown below, right). They continued to explain how using the term could help sway others toward white supremacist ideologies by making the outrage toward the double standards associated with "jogging" (shown below, right). They wrote:

Search Interest

External References