In the Minority - Aquatech Society

In the Minority
Every year, minorities make up a disproportionately large number of
drownings in the United States. Here, Pool & Spa News examines the scope
of the problem.
November 2006
By Shabnam Mogharabi, Pool & Spa News
n May 17, 2005, the city
pool in Bridgeport,
b e y a s , was packed with
seventh graders celebrating
ihe end of the school year.
were eniovinn
- the
others were
plashing around in the
ater.
kame
w
.
Luis Gonzalez, a friendly
Hispanic boy with a sweet smile, was one of the revelers. The 13year-old was standing at the edge of the pool near the deep end
when a classmate reportedly pushed Gonzalez in and watched him
sink to the bottom, arms flailing. The student said nothing, and
lifeguards found Gonzalez unconscious minutes later on the floor of
the pool.
Despite prayers by family and friends, he died 12 days later.
The truth is, this tragedy would never have happened had Luis
Gonzalez known one basic skill: how to swim. Unfortunately, like
far too many minorities, he never learned.
Minorities make up a disproportionate number of drownings in the
United States. In 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are
available, nearly 650 children between the ages of 5 and 19
drowned. More than 40 percent of the victims were minorities.
The problem is even worse among black children, who are 2.6
times more likely to drown than whites.
Such high water-mortality rates among minorities, who make up
less than one- quarter of the U.S. population, signal a systemic
problem in the aquatics industry.
Experts say that minority kids are not learning to swim as often or
as well as their white counterparts. They blame a number of thorny
issues for the problem - race, class, culture, privilege, poverty that make it difficult.for the industry and minority groups to attack
the issue head on.
Meanwhile, few lifeguards or role models of color exist in the world
of swimming. Though some industry professionals have taken
steps to address the minority drowning problem, experts say not
enough has been done. And every year, children such as Luis
Gonzalez suffer the deadly consequences.
Dying for attention
No one contests that drowning rates among minority groups are
higher than they are for whites: The statistics place Native
Americans with the highest rates, and blacks are not far behind.
Still, the number of deaths is not large enough to demand action.
"Not enough people are dying and not enough people are saying
it's a problem," says Gail H. Ito, an assistant professor in the
College of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Chicago
State University. "This isn't an issue that has claimed a lot of lives.
It sounds terrible, but that's the reality - it hasn't become a public
safety issue at all."
That's partly because research about minorities and drowning is
incomplete or simply nonexistent. For instance, Hispanics, who are
considered an ethnic group, face a serious drowning risk. But
because ethnic groups can be any race, the evidence is mainly
anecdotal.
"There are huge holes [in the research]. It's like Swiss cheese,"
says Kaky McPeak, assistant professor of physical education at
North Carolina Central University in Durham. "Drowning prevention
is in the details. We simply don't know the extent of the problem.
It's very difficult to go to a grieving family that lost a boy to drowning
and ask, 'Do you think he overestimated his swimming abilities?' or
'What kind of swimming lessons did you provide to him?"'
McPeak and a colleague, Thornton C. Draper, director of aquatics
at the university, began delving into minority drownings last year
and were surprised by the lack of consistent, quality research. They
are among many experts who point out that statistics don't tell the
whole story: Existing drowning rates are based on the number of
deaths per population. What they don't factor in is the "privilege"
factor, the amount of time that groups spend around recreational
water. In the case of minorities, this amount of time is much less
than it is for whites, experts say. That means minorities are not only
drowning more frequently than whites, but also may have a higher
likelihood of drowning the few times they do enter the water.
"I think the key for minimizing drowning in any culture goes to
exposure and then to access," says Valerie Rawls, presidenffCE0
of Hill Rawls Marketing Consultants, LLC, in Schaumburg, Ill.
Rawls has investigated drowning rates for some of her clients,
which include large suburban Chicago park districts. "Even
community pools aren't in operation. Some of the facilities need to
be closed completely or rehabbed," she says.
Living dangerously
That leads to another difficult subject in the debate about minority
drowning: class. Many minorities don't learn how to swim simply
because they can't afford the lessons.
Safe Kids Worldwide reports that more than 40 percent of Native
American children are poor, three times the poverty rate of white
kids; more than 30 percent of black children live below poverty
level, twice that of whites. Their families do not own pools, and
these kids rarely learn how to swim. But they still find their way to
water and that's where many take their last breath.
-
"Every year, at every pool, there's a near-drowning or a drowning,
and usually these occur on a hot day, after work hours, when kids
sneak into pools that they can't afford to go into," says Sabir
Muhammad, a black competitive swimmer from Atlanta and founder
of Swim for Life, a nonprofit group that helps teach innercity kids to
swim.
"Kids in urban areas drown more than kids in suburban areas," he
says. "We all know it's true, but it's difficult to address.
Unfortunately, water safety is something that is not very high on a
lot of people's list of things to teach their children in urban, minority
communities."
Take Kadarius Wagner. On a particularly warm day last May, the
13-year-old and a group of friends slipped into a closed YMCA pool
in Oak Cliff, Texas, to cool off. Wagner didn't know how to swim
and got stuck in the deep end. He became another black drowning
statistic.
But it doesn't just happen to children who sneak into pools. Public
pools and waterparks pose a danger to minorities at all times.
"One of my fears has always been with the water slides," says Sue
Nelson, aquatics program specialist at USA Swimming, the sport's
governing body. "How many children go on those and don't know
how to recover in the heaviness of the water? And many people
don't even know how to walk in the wave pools without being
knocked down by the current. That again goes back to learning to
swim."
Indeed, inexperienced swimmers strain the already tight resources
at many public pools and waterparks, which sometimes beef up
their staffs during visits by large numbers of minorities.
"Some waterparks in this area hire more lifeguards when they know
that minority groups from the inner-city schools are coming in,"
says Ito of Chicago State University. "They understand that these
kids can't swim, so they train their staffs on what to watch out for
and where to look. This is counter-intuitive. We need to act
preventively.
We need to make it a priority to teach kids this skill."
Understanding history
A variety of historical and cultural issues surround minorities and
swimming, extending all the way back to slavery days.
At that time, slave owners kept blacks from learning to swim to
prevent them from escaping. In addition, some groups used water
as a torture device, drowning blacks and Native Americans as
punishment for poor behavior. During the Civil Rights Era, Jim
Crow laws kept many blacks out of public swimming pools.
One of the most unshakable remnants of that history is the myth
that black people simply can't swim. To this day, parents in some
communities still buy into the belief. This incongruous notion is
based on a I969 study called "The Negro and Learning to Swim." It
concluded that blacks were biologically less buoyant than whites
because of higher density in their bones and body mass.
Even some individuals in the aquatics industry continue to give this
theory credence, despite dozens of studies since then that prove
the premise false. Most coaches, however, laugh at the thought,
saying it's a study that needs to be discredited in the public
dialogue.
"It's a common stereotype among black people," says Lee Pitts,
founder of the Lee Pitts Swim School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "So
many people buy into that myth. The reality is that swimming ability
has absolutely nothing to do with biological or anatomical
differences between the racial groups.
"Blacks are more muscular people as adults," continues Pitt, who is
black and the creator of one of the only instructional swim videos
by a minority teacher for minority kids. "That doesn't mean that
blacks can't learn to swim well. We need to start dismissing these
stereotypes and give them no credence so they can slowly erode."
Still, other issues are more reality than fiction. For many black
women, more than three-fourths of whom say they are
nonswimmers, hair care is one of the issues that keeps them out of
the water. Some white swim instructors don't realize the time and
money black women spend to maintain their hair. Chemically
treated water tends to undo styles quickly, and causes frizziness
and other problems.
"It can help to acknowledge the hair issue," says Christine M.
Branche, Ph.D., director of the Unintentional Injury Prevention
Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta.
"Maybe it's time to adopt a different hairstyle, a 'lower' maintenance
hairstyle like braids or corn rows," says Branche, who is black.
"Keep in mind, you still have to acknowledge that's not 'low'
maintenance, but it is 'lower' maintenance."
Closing doors
But even if industry professionals can convince minority children
and their families that swimming is a valuable skill, it won't mean
anything unless there's a place for them to learn.
The fact is, for most disadvantaged (that is, minority) swimmers,
clubs and schools are out of financial reach, with some rates
starting at $50 a month. Public school systems, too, have turned
their backs on swimming. Physical education budgets nationwide
are being slashed by up to half, and aquatics programs often are
the first casualties.
Meanwhile, public pools - the only viable option for swim lessons
-are at a crossroads. As city budgets shrink, many outdated
pools are being replaced with either splash parks that cost a
fraction to maintain or by revenue-generating waterparks.
What's more, transportation often is one of the biggest hindrances
to getting minority kids into swimming. "Some of these kids who
would give absolutely anything to be on a swim team just can't get
to the practice," says Kathy Baldwin, executive director of The Gift
of Swimming Inc. in Gotha, Fla., a nonprofit organization that
provides swimming scholarships to disadvantaged children. "They
don't have an adult who can get them to every lesson, and you
can't teach someone to swim if they only show up one time a
week."
Unfortunately, missing out on swimming closes a multitude of doors
for minorities that whites take for granted. At Chicago State
University, for instance, would-be P.E. teachers must know how to
swim, and many black students can't, which forces them out of the
profession. In the 1980s and early '90s, too, Army recruiters had a
hard time getting blacks into the Special Forces because large
numbers failed their swimming drills.
"There are so many careers that will forever be closed if you don't
learn that skill," says Alison Terry, a biracial competitive swimmer
and ocean lifeguard for the San Diego Lifeguard Service. "From
being a swim or diving coach to managing an aquatics facility,
being in the Navy, being a lifeguard or a marine biologist, or even
learning to scuba dive, there are all these healthy opportunities that
are being missed."
Lacking role models
The injuries caused by missing these opportunities can affect an
entire generation.
The only way to combat this phenomenon is to find a black athlete
or role model who can relate to today's youth, experts say. Yet the
sport lacks such individuals. Everyone is asking the same question:
Where is the Michael Jordan of swimming?
"We need heroes who can inspire kids," says Bruce Wigo, CEO of
the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"Why has it become so uncool to go into swimming, especially
when it offers so many opportunities? It's tragic."
It's not that there aren't options. NBA superstar Tim Duncan was a
competitive swimmer as a teenager and continues to swim today.
And singerlsongwriter Sean Paul participates in national swimming
and water polo competitions for his native Jamaica. But these
luminaries don't talk about their swimming, and nobody in the
aquatics community has tried to tap them.
"I would like to be able to reach out to Tim Duncan," Wigo says. "If
we, as an organization, can get someone like him, Ithink we can
generate that interest. 1 want people who can bring relevancy and
focus to our organization and get the message out that swimming is
fun."
That attitude, however, simply doesn't exist in the pop culture mindset -at least, not in America.
"If you're an African-American male, and you're a good athlete
trying to decide what sport to play, you can turn on N and see
basketball, football and maybe baseball," says Lee Willing,
assistant head coach of the Lone Star Aquatic Club in Austin,
Texas. "The only time you'll see swimming is on ESPN 2 at 3 a.m.,
and the only time you'll see African-Americans in swimming is if
you're looking for it."
Willing has conducted research on recruiting minorities to the sport.
By comparing data on minority swimmers from USA Swimming to
statistics from the NCAA, he found that minority males were staying
in the sport at a higher rate than white males.
'We're retaining them at a higher level, but we're not getting in at a
higher level," he says. "If I tell kids about how great swimming is,
they will want proof. I'm just a middle-aged white guy. I'm not their
proof."
Some believe Hollywood may help launch swimming into the
mainstream. "PDR," a film currently in production, tells the true
story of Jim Ellis, the head coach of the Philadelphia Department of
Recreation swim team. Ellis, who will be played by Academy Award
nominee Terrence Howard, was able to attract young, black
swimmers to the sport, and by the early 1990s, Ellis' team was
nearly 100 percent black and winning meets. It is hoped the film's
inspirational story line will attract more people of color to swimming.
Searching for answers
The bottom line, however, is that more must be done. So far,
success has only been achieved at local levels, and many experts
say a national group must step up.
But which group? And when?
Despite propagating a number of minority-related initiatives,
representativesfrom the American Red Cross and the Boys & Girls
Clubs of America say it is not part of their mandates to target
specific minority groups.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Lifesaving Association and the American
Swimming Coaches Association view themselves as ancillary to the
aquatics industry. And the International Swimming Hall of Fame
does not have the resources to "be everything to everyone," says
CEO Wigo.
What's left is the sport's national body, USA Swimming, which is
currently revitalizing its outreach program.
"When we first started outreach, we felt that it was such an
ultrawhite sport that it would be good to include more minorities and
access a huge talent base that's being missed right now," says
Donald Walker, director of the Alamo Area Aquatic Association, a
USA Swimming club in San Antonio.
At a meeting in June 2005, a special task force established a new
diversity vision. This past April, they hired John Cruzat, a diversity
specialist who is charged with rethinking past unsuccessful
outreach efforts.
"Our first step is diagnostics," says Cruzat, who is black. "We're
trying to find out what's happening out there in terms of
programming, what models currently exist, who are the players in
the field, and then try to find creative ways to assist them in those
efforts."
Cruzat says USA Swimming plans to raise funds to sponsor
minority athletes, help develop inner-city swim programming and
train facility management to improve their cultural competency. "It's
going to be like tennis and golf: You're going to see some
breakthrough athletes and then you'll see movement to the sport in
communities," he says.
Walking the talk
Critics say that for this to happen, the USA Swimming board itself
has to change. "The people who run swimming are 'old school,"'
says a source familiar with USA Swimming Outreach, who prefers
to remain anonymous. "This is what I've heard behind closed
doors. It's struggling to break out of this country club, exclusive
mentality and become an equal-opportunity sport. It needs to start
at the top, not at the bottom."
That means people of color need to be in leadership positions.
"People [are] frustrated," the individual says. "They want someone
of color put on the USA Swimming board. That's when you know an
organization is serious about its intentions."
Cruzat promises that minority representation at the leadership level
is one of his first objectives. "This organization has been talking for
a long time," he says. "Now they're starting to mobilize, and
hopefully I will be able to help them do that."
Yet many say that USA Swimming's leadership is only part of the
solution. Truly addressing the issue will take a combination of
national guidance and local cooperation.
"I think it needs to come from the top down and also from grass
roots," says lifeguard Terry, who serves on the Outreach task force.
"The seeds are being planted. When those start being watered and
have the opportunity to grow, we'll see the fruits develop. It's going
to take time and a collective effort, but it will happen."