this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
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51
Do you know how to swim? (lemm.ee)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
66 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

If not, why haven’t you learned how?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

How is living in a predominantly black city relevant?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

There is a relatively unknown (outside of the black community) bias against swimming. Slaves were traumatized to be hydrophobic to prevent escape from slave ships and then there was segregation of pools until relatively recently. This is fortunately fading now, last I checked.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

According to statistics they're less likely to know how to swim. Less swimmers means they'd have less places to swim.

But according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the fatal drowning rate of African-American children aged five-14 is three times that of white children.

A recent study sponsored by USA Swimming uncovered equally stark statistics.

Just under 70% of African-American children surveyed said they had no or low ability to swim. Low ability merely meant they were able to splash around in the shallow end. A further 12% said they could swim but had "taught themselves".