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[novapsyche]

New study: 58 percent of black children can't swim (thanks, brendand)

Comments

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

So? I hear white men can't jump. So only 2% of USA Swimming's membership is black... what percent of the NBA is white? Quoting statistics like this as if they're something wrong is part of the problem. Not everyone wants to do/be/know the same things, and this kind of statistic makes it seem like that means there's something wrong with either them or "the system" for not being the same as everyone else.

Broad generalizations like this always set my teeth on edge. "Women aren't good at math, so there aren't 'enough' women engineers." Bullshit. I was in the top math classes from jr. high through undergrad and the women in my classes kept up just fine. If they CHOSE not to be engineers, then who is anyone to tell them they were wrong to do so? They were certainly capable of it.

As a side note, in the pool at my old apartment complex over 70% of the people in the pool were black children. The white kids just went there to lay out in the sun.

watch out for snakes

[autodidactic.livejournal.com]

Oh, Nova, you're gonna get a lot of kneejerk reactions from well-meaning whitefolx on this one.

I am one of the examples of black kids who learned how to swim early on. I was in a Water Babies course at the YMCA when I was a kid until ear infections stopped me.

I can tell you, though, anecdotally, that I was maybe one of two black kids in a class of 30.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I suspect a coorelate could be schools. My school didn't have a pool. If they did, I might have learned to swim in high school. I'd also be curious to see a breakdown by region of the U.S.

I can't dance, I can't sing, I can't swim. ;)

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

Well, saying "New study: 58 percent of black children can't swim" is like saying "99% of Inuit can't swim". It doesn't provide any context, and so people are going to jump to conclusions before they even read the article. Adding "family, societal factors affect likelihood of acquiring the skill" adds in the relevant bit of context that the study looks at.

(FYI, I didn't learn to swim till age 12, due to ear infections. Oh, and Inuit don't swim because the water's too f@#%ing cold. *g* ;-) )

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we learned about this in lifesaving class in high school. There were all of two black girls in my class, and at the beginning of year swim-placement test, ALL of the girls who refused to put their faces in the water were black. In lifesaving lecture, the teach asked us why. Some white kid said it was cuz poor people don't have access. Wow, I watched those two girls prickle like porcupines. The irony was that the two black girls were from river forest, immaculately accesorized, and literally dripping with money and class privelege.
I think it is class privelege, at least in cities.

The reality is that all kids go to pools and lakes and waterparks, and as a lifeguard, you have to watch the black kids more because more of them can't swim.
Swimming class was required because we lived next to a huge body of water, and were priveleged enough to have a pool.
I learned to swim several times, including at summer camp for inner city kids. I still don't know why, but lots of black girls were unwilling to try. If there is a cultural issue I'm curious to know what it is. The fact that I forgot how to swim a few times and needed repeated education and a swimming habit to really cement the skill may be a factor; it takes more than a handful of infrequent lessons.