This is serious business, guys.

True... but the headline is still funny.


In any case have they done research to find out why this is true? Are there just more black people living in cities without pools? I know every black person I knew in school knew how to swim, but that was because this is Arizona and everyone goes to the pools during summer. They charge like .50 to go swimming so it wasn't as though it was economic issue.

Sarcasm just doesn't show up very well on the interwebs :D. Maybe I should have added the [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags?

I caught it :)

I also caught it....everything is made to seem horrifying in the news.

I think everyone should know how to swim, It is kind of ridiculous to die of drowning if you come from a rich (although horribly in debt) country. It should be taught to all children for free.

We need to invent a sarcasm font... maybe italics?

Not everyone lives in am area with pools or lakes, so it is plausible for that reason.

I agree.

All well and good...[sarcasm] but will this help the "Blue Man Group"?[/sarcasm]

Do people 'of color' need extra help? And is that all colors?

All but the whiteys.

I'm more of an apricot/peach color...so do i count?

You can either laugh or mock based on the headline OR read the article and see the reason for this is actually quite telling on the subject of white privilege.
The reason?


Makes sense to me. Skills are passed, generally speaking, from generation to generation. My dad taught me to swim, his dad taught him ect.

My mum never learnt to swim because she grew up in a city, her mum and dad didn't know how to swim as they came to England as immigrants and were too poor/busy working in mills, to be able to afford luxuries such as swimming for leisure.

The same sort of scenario applies to the article here and raises the, albeit uncomfortable, issue of Afro-Americans still being affected by the life, or lack of, that they were introduced into in the days of indenture, slavery and segregation and a lack of equal opportunities.

Fascinating article on segregation and swimming pools HERE for anyone who can be bothered to read it.

interesting articles.. I only learned how to swim b/c my mom worked at a recreation center in detroit and she couldn't afford a baby-sitter so I hung out there and played pool and swam all day.. since then tho the only time I do swim is when I'm going on my rich friends boats (wearing 2 life jackets of course) or in their private parks in grosse pointe where u have to live in the city to go in.

anyways though whys everyone trying to murder stereotypes lately?? black people cant swim we know this.. whats next? starting a group to teach white people to dance?? i dunno how to make italics, lol

I don't know the truth of this or not, but growing up (I was a lifeguard) I was told that more blacks drown because they don't float as well as whites...keep reading. :)

The story was (20 years ago)...after all the slavery and the result of their forced labor that blacks today still tend to be leaner and more muscular on average than whites. Whether or not slavery has anything to do with it or not, the bottom line is fat floats..muscle sinks. The same goes for white people who work themselves up to a very muscular body--they will be less bouyant than say..a 30+ year old software developer. :)

Not sure if it bares any relavance or truth today, but growing up I heard comments like that often.

lol, and where did you grow up?

Is that the rational? I thought it was the air in your lungs that kept you floating. I suppose fat might help, but if you exhale all the air you can, you will sink (quickly)

I know that fatter people will float better than slimmer people because fat does float BUT the notion that lack of fat will render a person useless to swim is BS! Look at all the professional/Olympic swimmers and you will see they don't have an ounce of spare fat on them but are muscular in build.