Swimming Lessons Are Definitely On My To-Do List

by snowbird 123 Replies latest social physical

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  blondie

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24411271/

  Nearly 60 percent of black children can't swim

  New study underlies efforts to prevent drowning, boost sports participation

  Daniel Johnson / ASSOCIATED PRESS USA Swimmer Cullen Jones helps Tavion Traynham with the kick board while giving swim lessons to six eight-year-olds in Nebraska. Jones was giving a lesson as part of USA Swimming's Make A Splash program, which aims to boost water safety and sports participation among African Americans. updated 5/1/2008 4:37:29 PM ET http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-05-01-swimming-minorities_N.htm
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  snowbird

  There it is - in living color!

  Thanks, Blondie.

  Syl
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  FlyingHighNow

  What are the statistics on white kids who can and can't swim? I'm just curious. I know white adults who never have learned to swim.
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  blondie

  I do believe the article says 31%.

  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
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  snowbird

  From the USA Swimming study:

  The study found the overwhelming reason minority children are not given swimming lessons isn't high cost or lack of access to pools, but their parents' fear of the water. This, The Wall Street Journal suggests, could be rooted in the fact that their parents or grandparents were banned from pools, or they bought into the bogus science that was around until the 1970s that blacks were biologically disadvantaged in the water. The current U.S. record holder in the 50-meter freestyle is Cullen Jones, an African American and Olympic gold medal winner.

  So much interesting and thought-provoking stuff out there.

  Syl
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  snowbird

  Lee Elder and Tiger Woods.

  Lord, have mercy.

  Syl
• 

  undercover

  Since when has listing the whys of something excusing it?

  When you list the whys of Southerners' reverence for the Confederate flag, are you excusing racism?

  The whys you list are speculative at best. Just 'cause you think plantation owners have something to do with the rate of blacks today not knowing how to swim doesn't make it so.

  What the Confederate flag has to do with this, I ain't figgered yet. I have supported the use of the flag though I have reservations against it because so many have mis-used it and hate groups (both sides) have chosen it for a symbol of their cause.

  It used to be you saw the flag and you thought of the South as a whole. Good, bad and ugly. We lost the war, but our spirit wasn't broken and we showed that through the flag. Yankees laughed because they saw a bunch of people who couldn't accept that they lost the war, but not being from here, they didn't get it.

  Over time people have managed to change the perception of the flag. Now when you see it, most people think racism. That's why I have reservactions against the use the Battle flag/Navy Jack. I prefer the Stars and Bars. Here's the rub... Most people that are offended at the popular flag can't even identify the S&B. They're offended because they've been conditioned to hate the symbol, yet they don't really know that much about it.
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  MsDucky

  It doesn't look like that little boy's trunks (In the pic above) are saggin'. I know my grandson doesn't wear saggy pants or swim trunks. Just because some do it doesn't mean that ALL do it.

  ...and most of all what does saggin' pants have to do with this tragedy? I don't care if they had them on or not. It is still a tragedy. Mkr acts like it's okay because, he thinks, that they were "Blacks wearing saggy pants".
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  MsDucky

  I prefer the Stars and Bars. Here's the rub... Most people that are offended at the popular flag can't even identify the S&B. They're offended because they've been conditioned to hate the symbol, yet they don't really know that much about it.

  Kind of like the Swastika. They don't know much about it. . .
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  snowbird

  We lost the war, but our spirit wasn't broken and we showed that through the flag. Yankees laughed because they saw a bunch of people who couldn't accept that they lost the war, but not being from here, they didn't get it.

  Just as you and others don't get it when I make the assertion that fear-conditioning by slavery and Jim Crow in part accounts for the fact that very few Black people know how to swim.

  We've still got a long way to go, Bro.

  Syl