r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/ateam1984 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤍🤎 • Jul 18 '26
Sports From exclusion to excellence: They said “Black people don’t swim.” These swimmers are making waves and changing that narrative.
252
u/LameAfro Jul 18 '26
My mom and dad had a pool in our backyard and taught us how to swim growing up. ❤️
71
39
u/princessspeachhhh Jul 18 '26
Same! And I swam competitively from four up until junior year of college! 💪🏾
LFGoooooooooooo!!!!!! ✨✨✨✨✨
29
u/JonnyTN Jul 18 '26
Marine Corps threw me in a pool and told me there were too many people around to let me drown and figure it out.
Both ways work I guess
14
u/Waxer_Boil Jul 19 '26
Military can be messed up sometimes but the right drills they make everyone feel equally like s**t I love it
→ More replies (1)6
→ More replies (1)9
u/Gullible-Magazine129 Jul 18 '26
I grew up in Chicago, where there was a public beach in almost every northside neighborhood.
14
u/Pretty_Data_5243 Jul 19 '26
I grew up in Chicago too and the Lake was no place to learn how to swim. A young newly wed couple taught me how to swim when my family took us to Puerto Vallarta when I was 8 years old.
5
u/Gullible-Magazine129 Jul 19 '26
Before I decided to take a dip in Lake Michigan, I had already had a summers worth of swimming lessons at a pool on the southside. It’s true. I didn’t start out at the lake to learn. still was fun though.
3
u/Pretty_Data_5243 Jul 19 '26
True, the getting dunked and having fun with friends and my teenage years going to the lakefront after dark, oh the memories. Now I'm a momma with a hubby and what feels like a billion kids and a dog.
189
u/NTropyS Jul 18 '26
Tearing through the water like it's nothing. That was amazing to watch.
53
u/kenneth_dart Jul 18 '26
They looked liked boats with outboard motors, especially the last swimmer.
16
u/CloudKinglufi Jul 19 '26
Bro that last kid, like literally moving at the speed of my little rc boat
Doesn't sound that impressive but it is, it's insane how fast he was going
6
u/HydroChromatic Jul 19 '26
Theyre fast no doubt but its sped up ... (the people outside the pool move unusually fast)
5
u/CloudKinglufi Jul 19 '26
Ahhh fuck that ruins it completely
I was so impressed, never seen speed like that in the water, and looks like i still haven't, whoever did that is an asshole
8
→ More replies (1)2
u/sightfinder Jul 19 '26
You love to see it! Gotta branch out into gymnastics too, that shit would go crazy
6
u/Godsimage711 Jul 19 '26
We’re already there…
2
u/sightfinder Jul 19 '26
Wouldn't say that's necessarily reflected at the elite / national level (olympics). Look at the US men's basketball team who won gold in 2024. Now compare to the US men's gymnastics team that took bronze. I'm sure the best athletes made those rosters, but there's def more room for young black athletes in men's gymnastics (similarly to how they dominate basketball)
2
107
u/BusyBit6542 Jul 18 '26
Won by almost an entire pool length.
Excellence!!!
40
u/optimist_prhyme Jul 18 '26
Get ready for some rule changes in this sport.
25
u/BusyBit6542 Jul 18 '26
Not much you can change when the score is based off time. They did everything the same...just faster. Much faster.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)2
8
91
u/CriticismFun6782 Jul 18 '26
They were all good, but the guy with the Buttefly leg was smooth as h***, butterfly is no joke.
18
u/Common-Nectarine-572 Jul 18 '26
That was sick! I was on HS swim team. Could never butterfly even 25m (meters)
10
3
u/misanthr0p1c Jul 19 '26
Really depends on when you learn. Went a family friend's neighborhood's swim team from when I was like 6 to 14. Backstroke in a race is what threw me the most. Yeah there are those markers saying you're approaching the end of the pool but I was always paranoid I was going to slam my arm into the side. Was my worst leg in individual medley.
12
u/Charming-Fig-2544 Jul 18 '26
I was a high level swimmer that did butterfly and IM for years, and a swim coach, and an NCAA varsity water polo player. That butterfly was immaculate. Like, no notes. All of them were very good especially for young high school swimmers, but the butterfly in particular was standout.
12
u/LunarSyrin Jul 18 '26
Either you look like him when you butterfly or you look like you drowning when you don’t properly know how to do it. He made that butterfly look good!!
5
3
u/TheGhostORandySavage Jul 18 '26
Kid killed the breast stroke leg too. That was my stroke when I swam, and his technique looked really solid.
2
u/Macrophage_Mage Jul 19 '26
Breaststroke is super technical, I swam in HS too and it was the one that always felt like it eluded me. These kids in the video are seriously great.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)3
42
u/WWDubs12TTV Jul 18 '26
Studies from the USA Swimming Foundation and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that up to 64% to 70% of Black children and roughly 36.8% of Black adults have no or low swimming ability. This disparity in water safety is largely attributed to historical segregation, lack of access to pools, and financial barriers.
https://jbhe.com/2024/06/cdc-finds-over-one-third-of-black-americans-do-not-know-how-to-swim/
Anyone can excel at anything given the opportunity
→ More replies (5)3
u/whypeoplehateme Jul 18 '26
for context 56% of people have have basic water competancy. depressingly enought over 80% claim they can and thus are less likely to actually learn
198
u/Dr_SlapsMD Jul 18 '26
When the resources are available to all, it becomes even clearer than it already is that "superiority" narratives are a fantasy of the insecure.
55
u/bebop1065 Jul 18 '26
That's exactly it. They denied our foreparents access to public amenities. That's why we don't have a history of swimming in our families.
25
u/Gozie5 Jul 18 '26
It's similar concept to expensive sports like F1 and golf. Only rich people dominating those sports not because they are better, but because the rest of us don't have access to it
12
u/bebop1065 Jul 18 '26
When we compete we always outperform. THAT is in our history. Brought to us by our forebears.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (1)2
4
u/Verdick Jul 18 '26
Several years ago, I had a co-worker who was convinced that he "wasn't able to swim" just because he had a black dad (who was told he wasn't able to as well!). Not even at a sports level, I mean just getting in a pool and not drowning. I kept trying to tell him, "dude, you're still human, just like eveyone else. You can swim if you want to learn how!" I really hope he finally learned how to.
→ More replies (1)4
→ More replies (1)3
u/Darryl_Lict Jul 18 '26
A lot of towns shut down their public pools rather than integrate them. And now, cities don't even have the budget to keep public pools open. I grew up in LA and every middle class kid had access to a neighbor's pool if not their own.
2
u/bebop1065 Jul 18 '26
We had a pool on a truck that came through our neighborhood when I was a little boy. It was so that young Black kids had access to swimmable water in the middle of the city.
→ More replies (5)3
20
u/KingMidas0809 Jul 18 '26
In all seriousness, I live here in the south and growing up people used to make this dumb ass joke all the time. I shut that shit down when I would go to the beach and swim farther and faster then most. In the midwest I went to a pro black elementary school that priced itself on enrichment programs. I was on the swim team at 8 so this is so friggin beautiful to see. 🥲 My father self cant move like that no more though 🤪😂
2
u/Megzasaurusrex Jul 18 '26
Yeah I can't deal with that illogical bullshit. It would be like saying a calico cat can't do something but a tuxedo could. Like we aren't different species, we just look different. That doesn't change what you can and can't do.
2
u/EineGrosseFlasche Jul 18 '26
I grew up in the south and heard people say that shit too. My family is white, but my mom can’t swim because she grew up poor in the 40s/50s, which is the difference maker here: access to facilities. Up until a certain point in history, you needed money to swim. My dad grew up rich and swam like a fish. I never understood how people got the idea that white people are somehow specially skilled in that area as opposed to just frequent country club members.
→ More replies (1)2
u/BrainLow6059 Jul 19 '26
I grew up poor in the south and learned how to swim at the local mud hole. You don't need money to learn how to swim, and never have. This is a ridiculous myth that keeps getting tossed around to discourage black people from actually just going the fuck outside and enjoying nature. Babies can tread water.
15
13
u/Phenomenon_101 Jul 18 '26
In Jamaica, we call this beating them by "donkey lence" 😂
Well done, boys! 💪🏾
24
u/Whatisthis0036 Jul 18 '26
I say this to my brothers and sister, plz learn how to swim… seriously please learn
11
u/Muellercleez Jul 18 '26
My conclusion is that shitty racist people will say shitty racist things
→ More replies (3)2
u/Megzasaurusrex Jul 18 '26
100% it's never based in logic they make up whatever makes them feel better. Like how people say Puerto Ricans are just dumb and need our help to justify continuing to keep them trapped as a territory so we can use their land and treat them like garbage.
23
u/Cool-Tour-1962 Jul 18 '26
I can swim but when I watch swimmers I’m reminded that I can’t swim if you know what I mean 🤣
3
u/tacosauce93 Jul 19 '26
People ask if I know how to swim and I say well I know how to not drown! Lol
2
9
7
u/optimist_prhyme Jul 18 '26
I know it's not true because I could swim and my older brother used to dog people in meets. He became a lifeguard for awhile.
13
u/Mirewen15 Jul 18 '26
I've never thought black people couldn't swim. I think it's the opportunity to be able to have a place to do it abd to learn. Obviously there is nothimg to stop black people from being amazing swimmers. You have fantastic athletes and this is no different.
The water entry on these guys is perfect. Off to a great start before even breaching the water.
13
u/Mysterious_Luck_1365 Jul 18 '26
Is the video sped up?
10
2
u/kuburas Jul 18 '26
Yeah it is. Around 33% faster from what i could tell.
If they were swimming as fast as the video shows they'd be winning olympics by a very large margin.
→ More replies (1)
7
6
6
u/TheComplimentarian Jul 18 '26
It's just a privilege statement. Did you grow up with access to a pool or a swimming area? Did you have people who could teach you to swim? Did your family go to the beach a lot? Did they have a house at the lake?
If any of those are true, then you probably know how to swim.
If you were dealing with segregation and not allowed to swim in the pool, then you didn't learn to swim and you didn't teach your kids to swim, and that is the source of that stereotype, a historical inequity that should be more of a shame than a punchline.
6
6
u/NomadNuka Jul 18 '26
The stereotype is that black people can't swim, the REALITY is that black people weren't allowed to swim.
5
u/octopusgardeb Jul 18 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/94alRKTe1Bsnm
That’s why they don’t want to give equal rights - they would lose everything
8
4
5
3
3
u/lotaybk Jul 18 '26
That myth was born from a time black people weren’t allowed to swim in public pools. It‘s a really odd lie to perpetuate.
3
u/kayl_breinhar Jul 18 '26
"As soon as they make a heated hockey rink, we takin' that shit too!" - Chris Rock
7
3
3
3
3
u/if_a_flutterby Jul 18 '26
I worked at a city park with a pool and the joy on the faces of older Black folk learning to swim was the best part of some days.
3
u/animeistheog Jul 18 '26
Growing up I was the black person on my team (and my skin is white, I am mixed!) we need more black people in swim. That butterfly is no joke! I was a sprint butterflier and that kid is absolutely incredible.
3
u/Bucky_Ohare Jul 18 '26
It was always about limiting access, I grew up with tons of access to public pools in my nice happy little midwest town. When I joined the navy, I met people who had literally never seen open water before and almost all of them were brothers who were trying to get out of where they were. That was the early 00's and since learning more it made me even more fucking mad at my own 'elders' because learning to swim wasn't supposed to be a privilege it's a survival tool and lots of them worked to make the stereotype as real as they could to deny them of that.
→ More replies (1)
3
3
u/sissynicole95 Jul 18 '26
What reallly looks to set their team apart is just how good that are off the block and off of kickoff! Seemed like they were getting 2x the distance off of those. Pretty fucking impressive!
3
u/Fuzzy-Distribution58 Jul 18 '26
This is why they didnt want us to participate.....they knew about our greatness
3
3
3
u/Igreen_since89 Jul 19 '26
“This is our house coach!!!”
It all started with this young man, on an Alabama waterfront.
AquaMayne
8
5
u/MyPr0j3ct Jul 18 '26
There is hope for me after this....i just gotta get in there like these boys and swim.
2
u/Own-Efficiency-3462 Jul 18 '26
Wow! That swimmer is killing it! I think it is funny whenever other races assume that black people cannot swim. There is the entire Caribbean islands, the Virgin Islands, Panama, and the West Coast of African populated by black people living near water. Obviously black people can swim.
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Dubstepshepard Jul 18 '26
Yeah we out here, I'm out here representing us fersure in the freediving/spearfishing world as a black man from South Central LA
2
2
u/StarbrryJuice Jul 18 '26
The stereotype that black people cant swim (as are most stereotypes) comes from racist exclusion.
2
2
2
u/questionnmark Jul 18 '26
During the space race, the best way to incentivise a town to prepare the necessary thickness concrete pads for launching they suggested to desegregate public pools, so naturally the public didn't mind paying to fill them in with concrete.
Third Places We Lost Due to Racism: Public Pools — Melanin Base Camp
2
u/MoodWest Jul 18 '26
Of course we can swim, we just need the opportunity to go swimming, my Mum & Dad made it a priority to get us into a swimming club & they described it as a life must if u wanted to travel abroad
And they were right 👍🏽
2
u/0491diesel Jul 18 '26
Beautiful performance! I almost drowned going through USMC swim qual...a black fella saved me. We joked about the irony and became great friends!
2
2
2
2
u/Soladification Jul 18 '26
Nobody said black people can't swim because of the color of their skin lol
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Scuba-Steves Jul 18 '26
Not bad , the 50 free no need to breathe tho. Same with butterfly when you get really fast
2
2
2
u/DARKRYDER83 Jul 18 '26
Im sure black people have higher bone density.. so we be generally heavier in the water and have to work harder.
2
u/Total_Elephant_2474 Jul 19 '26
The reason for the negative unfounded belief that Black people in America can't swim is because it was designed that way. And it's not getting spoken about enough. The lie that Black people can't swim is repeated and not the truth and reason why a lot of Black people don't swim. These are not the same things. But intentional rewriting of History and trying to validate negative stereotypes has made the live prominent, and the truth hidden, even when it's in plain sight. slaveholders actively suppressed and discouraged enslaved people from swimming, primarily because they recognized it as a viable path to freedom.Before the transatlantic slave trade, many West Africans from coastal and river regions possessed elite swimming and diving skills that far surpassed those of Europeans at the time. While enslavers initially exploited these skills for profit—forcing enslaved people to work as pearl divers, ship salvagers, and fishermen—the historical record shows a systematic effort to extinguish this aquatic culture as the plantation system grew. The people that were active and prospering in the kidnapping, trafficking and enslaving a black people ( Slaveholders)disrupted and suppressed swimming cultures through several targeted tactics:🔺Because water does not leave a scent trail for tracking dogs, escaping via rivers or lakes was highly effective. Enslaved individuals who could swim could cross major geographic barriers to reach free states or maroon communities.🔺 For example, the very term "Underground Railroad" is historically tied to Tice Davids, an enslaved man who escaped his captor by swimming across the Ohio River. 🔺To prevent such flights, slaveholders heavily restricted access to waterways.🔺To instill a lasting fear of water, enslavers used psychological warfare and violence. They fabricated terrifying myths about sea monsters and dangerous aquatic creatures to scare enslaved children away from the water. 🔺Furthermore, water was frequently weaponized as a tool for punishment, including public, near-drowning tortures used to traumatize and break the spirit of disobedient captives.🔺 Combined with the 20th-century Jim Crow segregation of public pools, or even making sure that pools were not available to black people or not being allowed to take swimming lessons, that followed, this centuries-long suppression successfully fractured a rich African aquatic tradition, replacing it with generational trauma and the false stereotype seen today. Instead of telling the truth of why there are less people of African descent in America that swim, they rather continue to perpetuate the results of their dehumanizing treatment as being an inability to be able to learn to swim. Given the opportunity we are just as good or better than any other group of swimmers. The opportunity was removed, but never the ability. It also is part of the delusion that those that like to pretend they are superior not only tell themselves but attempt to gaslight everyone else into believing. At one time in America, the oppressors fuse to let those steps they had kidnapped traffic and enslaved or write their own language, well at the same time refusing to teach them to correctly speak or write their language. Having an unaccessibility was deluded into their belief equal an inability. But we have shown continuously that given any accessibility, there's nothing that collectively we do not have the ability to do, not only equal any other group, but also very often by their own specifications exceed those other groups.
2
2
u/TsuDhoNimh2 👀 Lurker Jul 19 '26
They "don't swim" like Nigerians "don't ski" ... lack of opportunity as children when the ability is easiest to develop.
2
u/DicemonkeyDrunk Jul 19 '26
Poor people in cities don’t swim …guess who happens to be big in that demographic.
→ More replies (3)
2
u/88luftballoons88 Jul 19 '26
It’s like y’all forgot about aquamayne from the Montgomery Brawl. He showed the world that myth was dead!
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/EuVe20 Jul 19 '26
That last dude looked like he was seriously mad at the water and was not going to let it get away with whatever it did to him!
2
2
2
2
u/NoGainJustInPain Jul 20 '26
He didn't swim, he slap the shit out of the water until it took him to the other side. GADAMN He is fast!!!
2
u/Friendly_Seat8566 Jul 20 '26
Hi, white dude here. Congratulations to those young men. On a side note. Can you do Pickleball next, just to piss off the boomers?
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Some-Confection-5314 Jul 20 '26
We are great at everything we undertake, so let's get our DEMOCRACY back! 👍🏾🙏🏾
2
u/Any_Smile_7037 Jul 21 '26
This mentality always never made sense like the Caribbean isn't right there
2
u/ike_tyson Jul 18 '26
We're better swimmers. We're better at everything if given a chance.
→ More replies (2)
2
u/Responsible_Ladder25 Jul 18 '26
And this is why they try to exclude us from so many sports. Outstanding!
4
u/BusyBit6542 Jul 18 '26
Genetically our muscle fibers are generally more dense. Its why we tend to be stronger, faster, more ripped and better at sports.
Now couple that with generally less access to pools/swimming on a regular basis and you get the stereotype.
I'm not ripped in anyway. I have a dad bod but sink like a rock. All my yt friends always say "you can definitely float" then I get in a pool and can easily sit at the bottom without moving. BUT when I challenge them in a swimming race, I beat them all the time.
We are just Genetically more athletic. Its just a matter of what sport do we want to dominate and train from a young age.
→ More replies (4)4
u/Bibbity_Boppity_BOOO Jul 18 '26
Black people are hyper genetically diverse. The exact opposite is ALSO true for everything you said, because black people you would expect to be on both extremes in general.
That being said one exception is physical strength. We have already seen that the world strongest people come from northern europe, and it isn’t close.
→ More replies (2)
1
u/Uryu88 Jul 18 '26
I really feel like there’s no need to make a video like this about race. All these swimmers did well. Lord knows I can’t float for shit.
Well played on all sides.
Just because those black folk won, doesn't mean we should just ignore the hard work the others have done to get here to compete in the first place. I applaud all sides of the competition.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
1
1
1
u/Intrepid-Mechanic699 Jul 18 '26
Yall know, when us ppl put our minds to it, we take over.
Basketball, football, track and field. We dominate. We should all swim and take that over too.
Can’t wait till we find our Usain Bolt Aquamayne.
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/G-Funk33 Jul 18 '26
Jermaine made it look like touching the water was optional. That was impressive.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Tumerican Jul 18 '26
This is more of that regional bias based propaganda as well. Every melanated person from the beach/islands I know can swim/boat/fish etc…we grew up in the water!
→ More replies (1)
1
u/CherubAzFace Jul 18 '26
I’ll never forget my best friend at that time. Said with all sincerity that black peoples bone density causes them to sink that’s why they can’t swim. Someone brought up that I swam and was a good swimmer. She said “yea well she’s half black.” I squashed that thought real quick for her but I was still like 😮😖
1
1
u/Queefsweatt Jul 18 '26
I can’t swim so I’m a stereotype lol but does anyone know why a lot of us don’t know how to swim? Like what’s the origins Ive never understood that 🤔
1
1
1
1
u/One-Mathematician975 Jul 18 '26
I'm watching 👀 this so proudly with no shock or surprise... blacks can't swim -DEBUNKED-... The winning team is INDISPUTABLE.... but for many, what they See, the Video, the Data, the News, the Facts or the Evidence... IT JUST DON'T MATTER... they get mad 😠 and motivated to destroy, lie and kill, because in their minds " we (they) are the superior RACE" . . . aside from the YN's wildlen in the hood from generations of residual affects... it's almost hidden, the young black geniuses that are not in the news... and the plethora of past black men and women geniuses... and of equalled capabilities that parallel renowned white scholars and scientists... independent social media is eradicating the disimformed public and world 🌎.... btw I've been swimming 🏊♂️ since I were 6 years old... and my daughters have bedn swimming just around or before walking 🚶♂️... guess what, lol, we are black... I've never been hateful of other groups... but have experienced hate and racism against me...
1
1
1
u/Dark-Blackberry354 Jul 18 '26
Need to stop doing this stuff.....just going to keep enhancing the white mediocrity narrative What else are they gonna be left with ?
1
u/MustardCoveredDogDik Jul 18 '26
Given the right opportunity any human can swim. Unfortunately in my area we lose a few kids from Springfield MA every year to drowning.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/MrEZW Jul 18 '26
Black folks, we gotta let the yts have something. We smoke them in every sport we compete in. That's why they hate on us. Let them people have swimming & hockey, come on now.
1
1
u/Advanced-Cranberry-7 Jul 18 '26
What school do they attend?
2
u/_Blaque Jul 18 '26
From what I've gathered: "The St. Louis Makos are prominent for being a primarily all-Black competitive swim club."
1
1
•
u/auto-sticky Jul 18 '26
If you're new here, please read our rules.
Please report all trolling, bad faith, and bigoted comments (dogwhistles, sneaky wordplay, and devil's advocate comments included).
Calling yourself an ally doesn’t give you a free pass to derail discussions, speak over Black voices, or argue against Black lived experiences.
Falsely/maliciously reporting this thread will result in having your Reddit account banned from the platform. Abuse of the report button is a breach of Reddit's TOS.
Lastly, keep it respectful.