I loooooove swimming, and like to write about it too…
30 Mar
I just went back through a discussion thread on Diversity in Aquatics. It all started in response to Errol Dupplessis’s question, “Can African-Americans swim well enough to save themselves?” At first, I was perplexed by the question. Surely the more appropriate question should have been, ‘do African Americans want to swim well enough to save themselves?’ I thought that desire was more the issue than ability.
Now I see that he wasn’t speaking about specific people, but about the black community as a whole. Even though not all white people can swim, for example, as a community, they see the importance of swimming. The Black community as a whole has yet to value swim skills.
So the burden on Diversity in Aquatics is to make swimming of value to the Black community. How do you do that? This whole each one teach one mentality could take a looonnnng time to bear fruit.
Mr. Dupplessis has some good ideas. One is to talk to ministers. I hadn’t thought of that. Why not go to church leaders with the message of swim literacy? How better to make it a value than to have it addressed from the pulpit? I remember when our pastor spoke about how we all needed to get in shape. Then he put his money where his mouth was by offering a church-wide discount in Y memberships. We joined the Y that year, as did several other church members. Other churches in town have built their own fitness centers. I say right on, but I think it’s not a fitness center without a pool. That’s my bias, of course.
Another idea Mr. Dupplessis puts forth is to have all the HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) open their swim facilities to the community. They could start learn to swim and competitive swim clubs that would train and recruit other black swimmers. I like the responsibility of this option. Since drowning is such an issue in our community, it only makes sense that we address it. What better way than to use our college and university pools to teach swimming?
So I guess my question is, how do we implement these great ideas?
3 Responses for "Building a black swim culture from the ground up"
I like the idea of trying to make a difference on a large scale. As a white person, I never even thought about this issue. I started swimming lessons when I was three. I guess I just assumed everyone could swim, at least a little. Even my cousins, who never had swimming lessons, were perfectly comfortable diving in at the lake and paddling around. They also got a small above-ground pool when they were in elementary school. My best friends had a pool in their back yard too. None of us were rich or anything, we just always seemed to have access to swimming pools somewhere, or lakes, or ponds, or something.
I like the ideas about approaching churches and universities and encouraging them to teach swimming and open their pools to people in the community. The best way to spread an activity is to make it attractive.
That is fascinating, Julie! You perfectly describe a swim inclusive society. My experience is so different. The people who can swim are those who had years of swimming lessons. It is the rare parent who can swim and actually get in the water with their children, so people that can swim are actually first generation swimmers. There is not much connectedness to the rest of the community, and it is hard to make it spread, to make swimming a priority. But for you, it was just a part of life. That is my goal!
Angie, you are growing; and all of us are growing together. I like the idea expressed by you and Julie(goal) to make swimming a way of life. When a child is brought into the world, he/she must believe from the onset of consciiouness that they are a swimmer. It is expected, it is to be believed, and not to be challenged. Just like Julie, she never thought anything less growing up. She believed all people are swimmers. When you can teach this concept to a 7 or 8 year old, without prejudice or fear (what else do they know), they will swim. Period! And thanks for the invitation to your blog. Keep up the good work – you are raising consciousness!
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