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To: Hot Tabasco
Because the majority of blacks live in areas where swimming facilities are not available to them

Not really. Most black folks are urban, and there are plenty of pools around. On hot days, they're packed.

The problem is that learning to swim takes practice, and that usually means a parent who can teach you, or a parent who gets you to lessons regularly. If the parents grew up swimming themselves, they will take that in stride. If they didn't, it's another story.

Then subtract dad from the equation, and add a couple of siblings to occupy the time of a single mom, who as a non-swimmer herself doesn't see it as a priority. The kids don't learn because they're not taught.

The lack of parental support is glaring. We see it in soccer. I live in a gentrifying but still quite diverse neighborhood. There is no particular reason youth soccer should be a white sport, but it is. In the early years, it's a cattle call. The fields are convenient (that changes when the kids get a little older and actually need a regular field and real goals) and the cost is low. But the black kids are few and far between. A lot show up initially, but they don't stay. The reason is simply the logistical burden on single moms.

145 posted on 04/07/2012 4:16:18 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: sphinx
Most black folks are urban, and there are plenty of pools around

If you say so......Maybe in your URBAN area but not in URBAN DETROIT.........

166 posted on 04/07/2012 4:38:10 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: sphinx
It's one thing to hang out and splash around in a public pool, it's a totally different thing to learn how to swim while you are there........parental guidance has nothing to do with it.

And while you cite the public pools being filled, those numbers of splashers are just a fraction of the population who don't even bother to use them.........

175 posted on 04/07/2012 4:42:41 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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