Does it matter in any way? Is it even a fact worth observing?
> Disparities were greatest in swimming pools, with swimming pool drowning rates among blacks aged 5–19 years 5.5 times higher than those among whites in the same age group.
The reason it matters is because it is a fact. If you are a lifeguard at a swimming pool, research shows that you should spend MORE time watching after the black kids than the white kids. It's not about being PC, it is about keeping kids alive. If one group is more likely to drown, then you should know about it and spend more effort on it. Not pretend to be colorblind and increase the risk of causing deaths.
Theorises that segregation meant many POC never learnt to swim and then their fear of drowning (along with socioeconomic factors, of course) has lead them to keeping their children away from swimming lessons.
>A month ago, six African-American teenagers drowned in a single incident in Louisiana, prompting soul-searching about why so many young black Americans can't swim.
>When 15-year-old DeKendrix Warner accidentally stepped into deeper water while wading in the Red River in Shreveport, he panicked.
>JaTavious Warner, 17, Takeitha Warner, 13, JaMarcus Warner, 14, Litrelle Stewart, 18, Latevin Stewart, 15, and LaDarius Stewart, 17, rushed to help him and each other.
>None of them could swim. All six drowned. DeKendrix was rescued by a passer-by.
>Maude Warner, mother of three of the victims, and the other adults present also couldn't swim.
Then amazingly
>"Fear of drowning or fear of injury was really the major variable," says Prof Carol Irwin, a sociologist from the University of Memphis, who led the study for USA Swimming.
>In focus groups for the study, Prof Irwin said many black parents who could not swim evinced sentiments like: "My children are never going to learn to swim because I'm scared they would drown."
> Adjusted bone density at various skeletal sites was 4.5-16.1% higher for black than for white men and was 1.2-7.3% higher for black than for white women
Initially I thought that a bone-density increase of 16% would not significantly affect buoyancy, but the human body has relative-density of 0.98 compared to water... with a margin that narrow I can imagine that a 16% increase in bone density would tip someone to have a >1.0 relative-density compared to water - which then makes swimming difficult.
For almost any statistic you care to break down by gender or ethnicity there is greater variation within the group than between groups. By way of example, there is a greater variation of intelligence within men as a group than between men and women. That makes any statements about the intelligence of men vs women almost completely useless garbage. It certainly says nothing about individuals.
Perhaps someone may, at some point, attempt to use such a fact to justify their own subjective value judgment about something, and then you can address any potential racism associated with that.
People should not be discouraged from exploring, sharing, or understanding anatomical realities just because someone somewhere may use those realities to draw unfair conclusions. Address the unfair conclusion instead of trying to stop people from understanding themselves and their world.
Maybe nature will prevent a black person from reaching Michael Phelps-levels of swimming proficiency but I don't think it would prevent anybody from learning natation 101.
I don't think I'll ever win the 100m sprint at the olympics but I can definitely run 100m and probably faster than the average black person too.
I think you may be confusing fast twitch muscle density, as in the ratio of fast twitch to slow twitch muscles, with density as a physical property. As far as I know fast twitch muscles aren't any more dense than slow twitch muscles.
If the discussion were about a physiological distinction [+] sure. But this discussion was about social/cultural issues that specifically distinguish swimming ability rates among African Americans in the USA versus whites in the USA.
Which is interesting, because you can also see these distinctions, without racial differentiation, in groups world wide who do / do not live near large/deep bodies of water. But in the US case race is a larger determiner regardless of the physical environment. That distinction is interesting.
[+] A black friend of mine once said, "I can't swim -- I sink", a reference to the belief that people of African origin have less subcutaneous fat and therefore higher density, so swimming is harder. I have no idea if this physiological property is true or not but the belief is widespread. I have one white parent and swim like a fish. Everyone on that side of my family loves to swim. Hmm...
It's vestiges of jim crow era laws and mentality.
Edit to add: statistics apparently show that black children are more at risk to water fatalities.
A colleague from Senegal (who didn't know how to swim himself) told me there were biological reasons as well (bone structure or something) but I'm highly dubious of that. I can believe that genetics can play a role in swimming proficiency but I doubt that it would prevent anybody from reaching very basic swimming skill levels.
It's like saying that black people run faster than whites, looking at the olympics it appears to be true but that doesn't mean that white people fall over when we attempt a brisk stroll.