Study: Black children 3 times more likely to drown

[Gunny]

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 60% of African-American children can't swim, almost twice the figure for white children, according to a first-of-its-kind survey which USA Swimming hopes will strengthen its efforts to lower minority drowning rates and draw more blacks into the sport.

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% of USA Swimming's nearly 252,000 members who swim competitively year-round are black.

more ... http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-05-01-swimming-minorities_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Parents should ensure their children know how to at least dogpaddle. This is unsat.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Parents should ensure their children know how to at least dogpaddle. This is unsat.

I did not learn to swim until I was about 10, my father, being the kind person he was threw me out of the boat on the lake and said swim or drown. Of course my mother saved me, but it was obvious if I intended to fish alone with my father she was not going to be around every time to rescue me.

 

[Gunny]

I did not learn to swim until I was about 10, my father, being the kind person he was threw me out of the boat on the lake and said swim or drown. Of course my mother saved me, but it was obvious if I intended to fish alone with my father she was not going to be around every time to rescue me.

I get left on a reef about 20 yards from shore off Sugarloaf Key when I was 7. That was worse I think. When you get tossed, you have no choice. I had to make a conscious effort on my own.

Even worse, we were at my Little League coach's house and his 3 boys played on the team I did. Needless to say, I just sucked it up and went to it.

Both my daughters could swim by the time they were 2.

 

[William Joyce]

Blacks have denser bones and are less buoyant than whites. That's why there are almost no black competitive swimmers, even in the face of athletic prowess elsewhere, even into previously white sports like golf and tennis. But it doesn't matter. No amount of scientific fact can withstand the most overwhelming force in the universe currently: political correctness. So, black inability to swim = white racism. I say we sink this idea.

 

[Shogun]

 

[Gungnir]

So basically you are saying that Black swimmers are so rare and such an exception that they have to make a Hollywood movie about them?

My city has a couple municipal waterparks and each is a sea of black children.

Take from that what you will.

 

[mattskramer]

Blacks have denser bones and are less buoyant than whites. That's why there are almost no black competitive swimmers, even in the face of athletic prowess elsewhere, even into previously white sports like golf and tennis. But it doesn't matter. No amount of scientific fact can withstand the most overwhelming force in the universe currently: political correctness. So, black inability to swim = white racism. I say we sink this idea.

Oh, if you had just left this part out, you would have had more class in my book.

No amount of scientific fact can withstand the most overwhelming force in the universe currently: political correctness. So, black inability to swim = white racism. I say we sink this idea.

Have you ever chimed into a thread, made a race distinction comment, and not include presumptive political spin like this?

 

[William Joyce]

Have you ever chimed into a thread, made a race distinction comment, and not include presumptive political spin like this?

Matt, that's my job. Here, it's apropos. The thread's about the lack of blacks in swimming. The article linked blames whites for this. I provided my response.

Love the Hollywood movie about black swimmers. Yes, if there's an area where blacks are oppressed, it's sports. What the flying butterfly? That's like an Onion parody or something.

 

[Gunny]

Blacks have denser bones and are less buoyant than whites. That's why there are almost no black competitive swimmers, even in the face of athletic prowess elsewhere, even into previously white sports like golf and tennis. But it doesn't matter. No amount of scientific fact can withstand the most overwhelming force in the universe currently: political correctness. So, black inability to swim = white racism. I say we sink this idea.

Blacks have denser bones and are less buoyant, huh?

No amount of racist propaganda can withstand teaching people to swim.

Got news for you, WJ .. I sink like a rock if my lungs aren't full of air because I have almost no BODYFAT. And I'm Water Survival Qualified. Because I learned how to swim.

As in every other argument, look at the facts. It clearly states the cause in environment.

 

[William Joyce]

It clearly states the cause in environment.

I see. So dolphins are better swimmers than monkeys because of environment. If only the monkeys were given swimming lessons, they'd swim like dolphins. It's so easy, I can't believe we aren't getting to work right now!

 

[Gungnir]

Dolphins are an aquatic mammalian species, monkeys are an arboreal mammalian species.

I think there are only a handful of monkeys capable of swimming at that. The most notable being in Japan.

A more apt comparison is that between Cheetahs and Lions in the speed contest.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

I see. So dolphins are better swimmers than monkeys because of environment. If only the monkeys were given swimming lessons, they'd swim like dolphins. It's so easy, I can't believe we aren't getting to work right now!

Most monkeys have no little fat, they can not float. They have little reason to have learned to swim in most cases so when they fall in they sink and drowned.

 

[William Joyce]

Wait -- I just had another idea!

Water is racist.

 

[bennylava]

Just because kids play in the water doesn't mean that they know how to swim.
It seems like more of a class issue to me than anything else. It takes more money to pay for swimming lessons than it does to spend a day at the pool.
Also more schools in poor areas don't have pools or swim teams.

 

[Gungnir]

I can only speak for the High School I was bussed to in the "economically challenged" side of town. We had no pool but a swim team that met at the local Community College.

Nye all were of the Nordic persuasion. I got most of my swimming training when the Cub Scout Summer Camp coach said "You want a badge? Jump in. This is timed."

Sink or swim boy!

 

[BrianH]

Just an observation, you rarely see black people at the beach...where I come from anyway. That's an ongoing stereotype down here...(about blacks and lack of ability to swim.) IMO, they were made for running. Just a sports observation.

 

[William Joyce]

Just an observation, you rarely see black people at the beach...where I come from anyway. That's an ongoing stereotype down here...(about blacks and lack of ability to swim.) IMO, they were made for running. Just a sports observation.

More than just an observation:

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Taboo-Athletes-Dominate-Sports-Afraid/dp/1891620398[/ame]

From a review:

The first thing to note is that this is an excellent book, well-written, well-researched, balanced and fair without even a hint of racism anywhere.

The second thing to note is that a taboo is irrational to the point where it doesn't matter what the evidence is one way or the other. The taboo holds simply because it is a taboo, a combination of instinctive and learned behavior that will not and cannot yield to reason or evidence. Consequently it doesn't matter how well Entine's book is written, how rational his arguments are or how well supported by evidence. The taboo won't change because a taboo is the ultimate expression of the kind of behavior we call politically and socially correct; that is, behavior that is judged from the standpoint of whether it is in agreement with the tribal view. It has nothing to do with objectivity or scientific truth. Taboos are beliefs that the tribe deliberately holds regardless of the evidence. That is the whole point.