You caught this, right?
An amazing race, especially considering where third leg swimmer, Cullen Jones was almost 20 years ago. As a 5 year old, the only African American swimmer on the US Olympic team, almost drown at a Pennsylvania amusements park.
Jones almost added to the statistic he now is on a public mission to fight. A recent New York Times article looked at the race divider in the pool.
Why is there such a drastic racial difference when it comes to water safety? The issue is addressed in a Wall Street Journal article profiling Cullen Jones and his unusual choice of sport.But the most worrisome statistics involve black children and teens ages 5 to 19, who are 2.3 times more likely to drown than whites in this age group. For children 10 to 14, the rate is five times higher.
Nearly 6 out of 10 African-American and Hispanic children are unable to swim, nearly twice as many as their Caucasian counterparts.
This New York Times article looks at reasons why African Americans are less likely to be involved in water sports than other races. Segregation at public beaches and pools in the 1950's played into the current stereotype that Cullen's family still plays into....Mr. Jones will provide the African-American community with a champion swimmer it can hold up as a symbol of the absurdity of old biases about blacks and swimming. Anthony Ervin's gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle race in Sydney didn't resonate in that way; he is one-quarter African-American.
The outdated stereotype remains powerful. Mr. Jones said members of his own family still ask him why he chose the sport.
"They'll say, 'Don't you know blacks don't swim?'" Mr. Jones says.
Why does race play a role at all in athletics? It's apparent outside the pool as well. Table tennis, track and field and swimming are a few sports that carry stereotypical ideas of participants. What do you think? Is the NYT article's reasons for lack of African Americans in swimming true?
