[CaptainK]

There’s the fear of the water, yes, but there’s also the legacy of Jim Crow laws that kept pools segregated in the South. Court-mandated integration only led to the closing of public pools, and the opening of fancy country clubs and private pools that were out of reach of poor black people.

I didn't learn to swim in a public pool. I leaned to swim in a small pool in my backyard.

And how does she explain the blacks in the North? As far as I know public pools have been opened for longer than my lifetime to blacks.

[bk1000]

I had heard it had something to do with body fat ( yes, I know there are folks of all races with plenty of that). I have seen blacks in the Caribbean playing in shallow water, but a friend who was a scuba instructor told me that from his experience, blacks do not float well.

[Col Freeper]

There’s the fear of the water, yes, but there’s also the legacy of Jim Crow laws that kept pools segregated in the South. Court-mandated integration only led to the closing of public pools, and the opening of fancy country clubs and private pools that were out of reach of poor black people.

[achilles2000]

It may be because training is long and monotonous, and the competition doesn’t have the glamour and prestige of one of the big 3 sports. Even very few whites want to spend the kind of time in the pool that is required for world-class competitions (more than 8 hours a day). I know I didn’t.