It's a remnant of a long history of blacks being denied access to pools.

When my father was a kid, he attended a day camp in which, each Friday, the white kids were taken for swimming lessons while the black kids were taken on "nature hikes" because the pool didn't allow blacks. One of his friends drowned at a church picnic because he didn't know how to swim and neither did any of his playmates, so no one could rescue him.

Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP sued more than one city over this kind of discrimination.

Control-Z

(15,682 posts)

3. I just posted in another thread about the funeral

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Sat Sep 7, 2019, 06:40 PM

Sep 2019

of my son's best friend. This was when they were still in HS. His best friend was black and drowned. Drugs were involved and were the cause of him diving into the lake. But he couldn't swim and was afraid of water.

There are few things sadder than a funeral that is attended by mostly children.

Lucid Dreamer

(584 posts)

4. Here is a link for some raw data from CDC on drownings.

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Sat Sep 7, 2019, 11:16 PM

Sep 2019

The CDC report referenced in OP is from 2014 covering data from 1999-2010

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6319a2.htm

Headlines that includes words like "some percent more likely" or "increased by some percent" don't mean too much, especially when the sample population is low or the base numbers are small or comparing percentages without knowing the base numbers.

Read the digest and conclusions for enlightenment.

bluecollar2

(3,622 posts)

5. Boot camp in 1979

Reply to demmiblue (Original post)

Sat Sep 7, 2019, 11:41 PM

Sep 2019

I was surprised how many black recruits couldn't pass the swim test.

Never occurred to me that the Navy would recruit non-swimmers or that people who didn't know how to swim would join the Navy...Air Force or Army maybe...

Spent 3 weeks in basic helping teach swimming to the guys in my company. Got me out of a lot of crappy details.

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