Stark statistics underlie the initiative by the national governing body for swimming. Black children drown at a rate almost three times the overall rate. And less than 2 percent of USA Swimming's nearly 252,000 members who swim competitively year-round are black.
To alter the numbers, USA Swimming is teaming with an array of partners—local governments, corporations, youth and ethnic organizations_ to expand learn-to-swim programs nationwide, many of them targeted at inner-city minorities. One of the key participants is black freestyle star Cullen Jones, who hopes to boost his role-model status by winning a medal this summer at the Beijing Olympics.
As part of the initiative, USA Swimming commissioned an ambitious study recently completed by five experts at the University of Memphis' Department of Health and Sports Sciences. They surveyed 1,772 children aged 6 to 16 in six cities—two-thirds of them black or Hispanic—to gauge what factors contributed most to the minority swimming gap. The study found that 31 percent of the white respondents could not swim safely, compared to 58 percent of the blacks. The non-swimming rate for Hispanic children was almost as high—56 percent—although more than twice as many Hispanics as blacks are now USA Swimming members. The lead researcher, Professor Richard Irwin, said one key finding was the influence of parents' attitudes and abilities. If a parent couldn't swim, as was far more likely in minority families than white families, or if the parent felt swimming was dangerous, then the child was far less likely to learn how to swim. Irwin said this means learn-to-swim programs in minority communities should reach out to parents. Among black children, the study found that girls overall had weaker swimming skills than boys and were less comfortable at pools. Irwin said this might justify experimenting with single-sex swim programs, comparable to single-sex academic programs now spreading through some schools.
USA Swimming's motives are twofold, executive director Chuck Wielgus said.
"It's just the right thing to do—making an effort so every kid can be water-safe," he said. "And quite frankly it's about performance. We're something of a niche sport and for us to remain relevant, considering the changing demographics of the population, it's important we get more kids involved at the mouth of the pipeline."
First off, I don't believe this, not for a moment.
58% non-swimmers means 42% CAN, and that's ridiculous. From my personal experience in being born and raised in the American city with the most blacks per square foot than anywhere else in the country, its doubtful that 20 to 25 percent are actual swimmers.
A plus to this non-aquatic lifestyle is of course the fact that relatively few blacks drown (at a higher rate than whites yes, but it's far from an epidemic) , but I suppose USA Swimming feels that black youngsters don't have ENOUGH problems so getting them into programs that could lower an already bottomed-out life span would be just the ticket.
Black children are 3 times more likely to die in an automobile accident, 5 times more likely to die in a fire, so there's a lot more going on in their lives than merely not having the skill sets to succeed. Asking parents who already expose their children to greater risks than normal to expose them to yet another way to die is downright criminal.
And not for nothing but if they have enough leisure time to take up swimming perhaps they'd be better served taking up remedial English and Math classes. Because no matter what Reverend Wright says, blacks can learn just as easily as whites and isn't it long overdue for them to join the rest of the country in acquiring the skills to be contributing members of society rather than the burden that the Wright's of the world want them to remain.
Please now. Enough talk about this "altering the numbers". Enough black kids already die from neglect.
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