Racism or observation?

When does observation become racism? Browsing around some websites, I happened across video of someone named Tramm Hudson running for political office somewhere who is now being vilified across the internet for making supposedly racist remarks: he said that in his experience blacks weren't 'the greatest swimmers or may not even know how to swim.'

I've heard other servicemen make similar statements with reference to swimming in boot camp. Is it racist if it's based on observation? Hudson didn't give a reason, but what he hinted at was lack of experience. If for whatever cultural or socio-economic reasons blacks are less likely to have learned to swim, is it racist to say that many blacks may not know how to swim?

I did some Google searches for phrases like 'blacks don't know how to swim' and 'blacks can't swim' and the results revealed two things: (1) that racist organizations absolutely do use and promote the idea, offering the ugliest kinds of reasoning to explain it, and (2) that many other people are concerned with the question as a legitimate social phenomenon that has nothing to do with questions of racial superiority, but with opportunities and the effects of stereotypes.

For example, Maritza Correia, the first black woman to make the U.S. Olympic swim team (born in 1981!), says (according to a CNN transcript) that swimming is an expensive sport and that inner city kids don't have access to the facilities. That sounds logical. As do a number of other things mentioned there, such as the effects of segregation, when blacks would have been forbidden to swim with whites.

When I was a kid I lived in an apartment complex in the city with a very diverse population including many familes that had recently emigrated from Russia and India. We had a large pool open to all residents, and it was conspicuous that members of each group within the community used the pool except blacks. I often heard then that black people didn't like to swim. I never thought much about it after that. Now it seems entirely likely that social forces over several decades led to that state of affairs.

Twenty years ago I never saw one of my black neighbors in the pool, and today I can say by personal observation that this has changed completely. Am I a racist for stating what my neighbors didn't do twenty years ago, but do today?

I don't think so, and I'm supported by the U.S. Olympic Committee, Howard University (cited in the CNN transcript above), and several concerned activists who see the origins of the lack of interest and experience in swimming going back to the period of slavery in America. Consider this (and read the rest):

Stay out of the water.

That's the message about swimming that many African-Americans have heard for generations ? from slave owners, from segregationists, even from their own parents.

The price they pay can be counted in deaths.

Black children drown 2.3 times more often than their white peers, according to studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among 10- to 14-year-olds, black children drown at five times the rate of white children.

"A lot of African-Americans can't just hop over to a friend's house with a pool and go swimming in the afternoon," said Dr. Jeanine Downie, a black dermatologist in Montclair who grew up swimming and life guarding in Teaneck.

"It's not just a matter of recreation, it's a matter of life and death," she said.

As awareness of the "swimming gap" has spread, swim clubs are reaching out to minorities.

Now let's return to Tramm Hudson. Where is the racism in what he said? I can look back twenty years and see a sea of white faces in the swimming pool, doubtless the result of many social and economic factors. But when was Hudson commanding troops and conducting a river exercise? And when was he a child in Alabama, observing that black didn't know how to swim? Certainly more than twenty years ago. Is it reasonable to assume that his observations were accurate? Did he offer racist reasons for what he observed?

The snippet of the video being circulated seems to be part of a description of a unit that worked together as a team to complete a goal despite the limitations of some members, without ever expressing those limitations as anything but a lack of experience.

It's a shame when political opportunists use easily combustible issues like racism where they don't exist.

THE QUOTE TRANSCRIBED: Tramm Hudson:

'... training down there. I was commander of an infantry comapny, and we were practicing crossing a river. And, you know, an infantry company, 140 some odd soldiers, what have you, a large number were black. I grew up in Alabama, and I understand--I know this from my own experience--that blacks are not the greatest swimmers or may not even know how to swim. But when we were crossing this river, we wanted to make sure that every soldier either could swim, or if they couldn't, we ....'

Not racist by any stretch of the imagination.

posted by Dennis on 08.19.06 at 12:50 PM





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Comments

I think it depends on exactly what Hudson said, in context. If he said that most of his friends when he was a kid that were black had, on average, a harder time swimming than white kids, its odd but not really racist. If he said "blacks can't swim" it is racist.

Adam   ·  August 19, 2006 02:14 PM

The question is what if he did say "blacks can't swim" and it turns out to be true? Is it still racist?

Mick   ·  August 19, 2006 05:02 PM

We have had two spectacular tragedies in Milwaukee in the last couple of years in which black kids drowned. One involved a rushing river and the other involved falling thru ice, but swimm training, and the related safety instruction, would have made both less likely.

triticale   ·  August 19, 2006 06:36 PM

My wife and I are fans of the show "Survivor," which I suppose makes us very declasse in some eyes, but one thing I can tell you from watching every episode from every season of that show is that nearly every black contestant they've had on has been a poor swimmer.

I don't claim to know the reasons for that, but they're most likely socioeconomic. I've heard it said, but have no substantiation of this, that blacks are in general less buoyant, but I find that a little far-fetched. Whatever the reasons, you can tell that they're just not comfortable in the water, and if there's a challenge or a task that requires diving down and getting something, sometimes they simply fail to do it completely, because they're on the verge of panic and are afraid of drowning.

So, in answer to the original question, of course it isn't racist to make a true observation that isn't meant to malign. The way I would put it is that blacks don't seem to have spent as much time in the water and therefore haven't acquired as many water skills as others.

It's also historically true that there have been fewer outstanding black golfers and tennis players than there have been black basketball and football players. We all know there are major exceptions, but they tend to prove the rule. I suspect that is for many of the same social and cultural reasons.

Richard   ·  August 20, 2006 03:10 AM

I agree with Richard. I think it'd be like saying "women can't run a business." 50 years ago it would be true because women lacked business training at a much higher rate than men did.

I think that even if blacks on average were at a genetic disadvantage with swimming, it still wouldn't be a fair statement because it sterotypes a whole group of people based on what their average is.

Adam   ·  August 20, 2006 12:23 PM

I entered the Air Force Academy in 1965 in a class of 1152 [all male back then](cranking up for the Vietnam War) which included some 20 or so black cadets. At the end of the summer we had to pass a swimming test that included swimming a half mile in a given time, etc, *and* being able to float unaided, on your back, without moving, for five minutes. We had all had four weeks of swimming lessons. Everyone passed the swimming part, six failed the floating part -- me and five black guys. We had one thing in common -- we were all tall and very skinny. I was 6 feet tall and weighed in at 148 -- all wire and rawhide as we'd say at home. They had very similar appearance. Fundamentally, we were too dense to float.

Later, for another project, I had my body fat measured. It clocked in at less than 1% which would have been unhealthy had I not been 19 and in peak condition.

I grew up next to a river and had been swimming since I was 3. Four of the other guys had never swum before our training. Guess which ones were most panicky when trying to float?

We were then allowed to 'jellyfish' float, and when I tried I sank to the bottom. Finally, all of us passed by floating on our backs and moving our hands/arms just enough to stay afloat.

I suspect a combination of lack of exposure to routine chances to swim and the body shape of young men, perhaps particularly those who are a bit malnutrited and/or perform as athletes, combines to make swimming more difficult fir some. It;s probably just that, on average, more blacks than whites fit that description.

JorgXMcKie   ·  August 20, 2006 12:28 PM

Wait, I'm curious. What do racist organizations say about black swimming ability? Do they say that blacks lack the bone in their foot that lets them swim, so whites are the master race? Why use SWIMMING as propaganda? I'm confused.

Jon Thompson   ·  August 20, 2006 03:03 PM

i beleive it depends on how things are said and the meaning behind what is said determines if it is racist or not. If he has a valid point the African American people are less likely to be able to swim, perhaps now that it has been brought up things can be done about it. For instance lessons at the local ymca/ywca or the local swimming pools that were in neiborhoods when i grew up. quite a few schools have pools so work that into the PE lessons.

autumn   ·  August 20, 2006 06:42 PM

It is a commonplace that white men can't jump. However, it is never blamed on socio/economics. It is assumed to be racial. Why is swimming different? Is it because the one who can't do is black?

Ken Harkins   ·  August 20, 2006 08:25 PM

White men can jump. That's just the title of a dumb movie. But while we're on the subject, why do you think more and more players are making it into the NBA from eastern Europe?

The fact is that professional sports have become a way out of poverty for people in that part of the world they way it has been in America's urban centers for a long time. Eastern European kids are hungry and see an opportunity.

So there are socio-economic reasons for excellence in sports. If you value something, you do well at it. Period.

Dennis   ·  August 20, 2006 09:17 PM

"i beleive it depends on how things are said and the meaning behind what is said determines if it is racist or not."

Thats the whole problem with the ever present Race Card. A percieved 'racist statement' no longer depends on the speakers intentended meaning but on the listeners sensitivities.

Cynthia McKinney is a prime example. She did her best to insinuate that she was stopped because she was black, and that she had every right to act like a complete ass and hit a cop. The fact that race had nothing to do with it whatsoever didn't stop her from trying to turn it into a racial issue.

My point is that the ever increasing cries of racism at any percieved slight are getting absurd to the point that if you make a completely honest observation about blacks and swimming, we have to have a discourse on socioeconomics, corrective plans to increase black participation in water sports, possible methods to close the Swimming Gap (if it exists), anecdotes about how the observation is wrong because "I knew a black guy who could swim better than anyone", etc.

They guy saw something, and told it like he saw it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Mick   ·  August 21, 2006 09:46 AM

Editor, an excellent and powerful book suggestion for your readers: 3rd ed. of: Race and the Rise of the Republican Party, 1848-1865. Backed by 18 years of research this is a serious treatment of US racism/ethnocentrism and is not for the timid. Dr. James D. Bilotta/raceandrepublicans.com

James D. Bilotta   ·  August 22, 2006 02:08 PM

Sad and unrealistic to point to slavery.
Does this also explain the high number of black basketball players?

I remember a time swimming with a black coworker who tried and tried, but could not even float, much less swim. I attributed it to his body not being boyant.

I don't have answers, but please quit tying slavery to this. Why not ask a few black people?

James   ·  August 23, 2006 02:24 AM

Absolutely body fat has something to do with it. My father used to not swim because he'd sink (though he's since remedied the situation by gaining weight.) Whether this has anything to do with race is another question.

Incidentally, the category of "black" is more racially diverse than any other group on the planet. What is true for one group may very well not be true for another. (I am fairly sure that those black athletes who do well at sprints tend to NOT come from the same genetic heritage as the distance runners that perenially stomp all over the competition in marathons.) So it seems fairly implausible that there is something inherent in the black "race" (in quotes because it's only accurate in the plural) that makes it difficult for them to swim.

I throw my weight towards the opportunity and cultural aspects. When you don't have an option readily available, you tend not to explore it... and when it has potentially deadly penalties, such as drowning, you'll avoid casual experimentation.

B. Durbin   ·  August 23, 2006 11:43 PM

Well I can remember my sister putting a shower cap on and swearing not to go underwater when we would swim (I'm black by the way) which I guess didn't give her the chance to learn to swim very well. When you have the hair that we have (and when you just got your hair done) it makes it a little hard to learn to swim.
Plus it isn't seen as a necessity when you live in the inner city. That first reason may seem a little superficial but ultimately it isn't seen as a necessity in the black community. I understand that the world is at least 75 percent water (I'm sure someone will correct me as to what it really is) but I don't know, someone said ask a Black person so I responded....
Ultimately, It's not genetic and not racist to make an observation... No one will argue that White people turn red when in the sun for too long... And most Black people will laugh when White people think we're very sensitive

Jim   ·  August 24, 2006 11:23 AM

Editor, an excellent and powerful book suggestion for your readers: 3rd ed. of: Race and the Rise of the Republican Party, 1848-1865. Backed by 18 years of research this is a serious yet at times humerous treatment of US racism/ethnocentrism and is not for the timid. Dr. James D. Bilotta/raceandrepublicans.com

James D. Bilotta   ·  September 5, 2006 02:53 PM


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