Can you swim? If you are African American, the chances of you drowning are up some 30 percent or more over your white counterparts. Is this another achievement gap?
In early August, six African-American teen-agers from Louisiana drowned when they fell into an 18-foot sinkhole while wading in the Red River.
Some readers may recall my column last summer regarding campers not being allowed to swim at a private country club. A lawsuit was filed and the club later filed bankruptcy. I bring this up because most of the campers were Hispanic and African American.
The six Louisiana teenagers did not know how to swim. They were wading in waist deep water when the sand shelf underneath them gave way. The family members on the shore could do nothing to assist them since they could not swim either.
One of the eyewitnesses stated that it was like watching a nightmare unfold before her eyes. I don't know if you have ever witnessed a person in trouble in the water. People who cannot swim and find themselves in a precarious predicament panic very easily. Can you imagine the panic six teens would create? Victims of the water are true victims indeed.
So, why don't enough African Americans know how to swim? Cullen Jones was asked that question after the Louisiana drownings. You may remember Jones as the only African American on the men's Olympic relay team that added the gold medals for Michael Phelps.
Jones' answer: fear. This fear has been passed on from generation to generation. African-American children learn to fear the water from their parents. Six of every 10 African-American children do not know how to swim.
Nine people drown in the United States every day, but African Americans drown at twice that rate. This is alarming.
I remember losing a college classmate to drowning. Upon graduating from medical school, she and her classmates went to a beach to celebrate graduation. A vacationer yelled for help and Claire jumped in the water. That's the kind of person she was. In a panic, the vacationer overpowered her and there were two victims that day.
It is so important to know how to swim -- at least to the point of saving yourself. We are coming up on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Too many people died of drowning because of fear. The school district had just put a component in place to teach swimming to all students one month before the storm hit New Orleans, but for too many, it was too late.
Parents must get involved. It is imperative that African-American parents break the stigma and engage in water safety instruction for their children.
Olympian Cullen Jones recently started an initiative to increase awareness of water safety and to provide swim lessons, in particular for African-American children. He works with the U.S. Swim Foundation's Making a Splash Swim Program (swimfoundation.org).
On the site, Jones notes that African Americans are in deep trouble when it comes to knowing how to swim.
I have often asked myself why this is the case? Why fear the water? Where does this generational "thing" come from?
When I reflect on these questions, I recall hearing as a young girl (on a radio program in the car) that African Americans do not and cannot swim because "our" lungs are different. I asked my father, "What's wrong with my lungs?" He was perplexed. He said, "Nothing's wrong with your lungs. Why?" I said, "Because that man just said that I couldn't swim because my lungs are different." My father reassured me that the talk was false and not to listen to that nonsense.
Obviously, there are too many people listening to "that nonsense." My hope is that this achievement gap narrows soon. The steps to water safety involve a great deal of common sense. This knowledge helps to remove fear and panic from the equation.
I feel confident that we can get every pool in this city opened so that all children can learn the basics of swimming and assisting in a rescue.
May the families of this recent tragedy receive the comfort they need and may these deaths motivate us to closing this achievement gap. Learn how to swim.
* Charlese Brown is an author and teacher In Bryan.
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