This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal yesterday
Fourteen-year-old Cornelius Thomas slipped off a raft and drowned in a high-school swimming pool earlier this month in Alexandria, La. He had never been taught how to swim. There aren't any "pools for kids to learn how to swim around here," Forest Martin, the boy's grandfather, said Tuesday as he wept.
Cornelius's drowning reflects a problem USA Swimming hopes to highlight Thursday in a report showing that 70% of African-American children and 58% of Hispanic children have little or no swimming ability, compared with 40% of Caucasian children.
Evidence of a continued swimming gap comes as the economic slowdown has cut back opportunities for inner-city kids to swim. With the approach of Memorial Day, the official start of swim season, "some cities are cutting back on pool hours if not closing pools altogether, and they're also cutting public-safety budgets, including lifeguards," says Christiana McFarland, director of finance and economic development for the National League of Cities.
What kind of logic is this? Black children are drowning so they need more swimming pools so they can learn to swim and not be in danger of drowning in swimming pools? Why not just keep them away from the water?
Why does this story sound familiar? I did a quick search and found this from the Seattle Times almost exactly two years ago.
Nearly 60 percent of African-American children can't swim, almost twice the figure for white children, according to a first-of-its-kind survey which USA Swimming hopes will strengthen its efforts to lower minority drowning rates and draw more blacks into the sport.
In two years USA Swimming apparently realized that it would need higher numbers and a few sob story spokesmen to have a better chance of getting federal funding.
The standard HBD reasons why blacks are more likely to drown are more muscle density and worse native judgement. Also, while searching the topic I found another x-factor that may explain why black females in particular might not like jumping in the water: hair.
