Count the ways...

[The ClayTaurus]

I'm afraid I don't agree. There are plenty of school pools and community pools even in urban and rural areas.

It doesn't matter if you agree or not if it's true. And, again, there's a difference between hanging out in a pool and swimming laps. I think you're taking this a bit to the extreme. I'm with you on the part about saying blacks suck at swimming... but you should have stopped the train at that station.

 

[Gunny]

Fair enough... but still a function of the individual. Stereotypes are just ignorant.

Not if you fit the mold.

 

[Gunny]

I'm afraid I don't agree. There are plenty of school pools and community pools even in urban and rural areas.

You would be wrong. What Kathianne states is essentially correct. Children who grow up inner city, even if afforded the rare opportunity to participate in swimming, consider it too big a hassle and don't bother with it. Then there's the "cool" factor.

Invariably, the recruits that cannot swim in boot camp are inner city kids, and predominantly African American. You don't have to like the non=PC fact, but I had cause to observe it firsthand.

However, it is not that blacks cannot swim, it's that a much larger percentage of them don't than whites.

It's also a fact that blacks cana jump better than whites. That is another issue I had cause to observe first hand, having played basketball for 20-something years.

I can't understand why people cannot just accept the simple truth that people are different, and in many cases, it IS an ethnic and/or gender thing. It boggles the mind why that is so hard to accept.

 

[no1tovote4]

so does this mean that blacks are good swimmers then?

Often blacks living in Africa near beaches or other bodies of water are excellent swimmers. It's a cultural thing, not an inability...

 

[Mr. P]

Often blacks living in Africa near beaches or other bodies of water are excellent swimmers. It's a cultural thing, not an inability...

Yeah, they can run fast as hell too, I think that has something to do with being chased by lions.

 

[Gem]

Actually...I think I read somewhere once that black peoples' calves are longer, or their calf muscles are higher on their leg or something like that - which allows them to run faster, jump higher, etc. Not to say of course that there are not exceptions from all sides.