Harvard University's Pre-Exam Naked Run Joined By Anti Police Protest

Photo: Mac G Schumer

Primal Scream runners and Black Lives Matter protesters face each other before the start of Primal Scream Thursday morning in Harvard Yard. During Primal Scream, students organized a Black Lives Matter protest in response to recent examples of police brutality.

[From article]
A group of about 30 students attempted to hold a silent demonstration in the first minutes of Primal Scream, a biannual naked run around Harvard Yard, early Thursday morning, inadvertently leading to a chaotic exchange of words and gestures that reversed the usual direction of the run and left many questioning the significance of the heated interaction.
The run is a College tradition in which students, at times inebriated, run naked around the Yard on the eve of the first day of exams. It usually attracts more than a hundred participants.
Protesters said that their goal was not to protest Primal Scream itself, but to hold a four-and-a-half minute period of silence before the run for Michael Brown of Ferguson, Mo. and Eric Garner of New York—two unarmed black men who were killed by white police officers this summer—and to join in solidarity for people around the nation who have experienced racism.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/12/12/primal-scream-protest-chaotic-exchange/?page=1

Protest at Primal Scream Leads to Chaotic Exchange
By MEG P. BERNHARD and SAMUEL E. LIU
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
December 12, 2014