Watch Season2/Episode 1 For Doc Series 'Black Folk Don't' ('Swim')

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• Ladybug | June 26, 2012 8:47 PMReply

  Everyone in my family swims with the exception of my Mother . . . who actually recently made an effort to sign up to learn.

• Adam Scott Thompson | June 26, 2012 8:11 PMReply

  My parents made take a swimming class at the YMCA when I was little. I jumped in the car after Day 1 and told my dad, "I don't wanna go anymore." He deftly replied, "You're going every day until you graduate." In order to graduate, you had to jump off a diving board; might as well have been the world's tallest building in Dubai. But I graduated, and now it's like riding a bike. I recently bought a season pass at the local natatorium, some of those "young" swimming trunks and goggles, and I've been a fixture there -- the only "aquatic Negro" -- ever since. The instructors have really taken a shine to me. Every time I go they give me a new piece of advice for swimming faster laps, then marvel at how quickly I learn (this produces ambiguous feelings -- am I a mascot now?) Anyway, I take black folks swimming (or not) very seriously. Every summer the news is awash in stories of drownings in inner city areas -- almost always us. That's unacceptable. However, I am aware of the history. Not only did we not have access to pools that were kept up in our own neighborhoods, but whites didn't want us in their pools. If you were willful enough to jump in a white pool you might get arrested -- AND they'd drain the entire pool. So I think that kind of climate forced us to decide, "That ain't for us." Sad. Full disclosure: I have a very real fear (and nightmares) of drowning. I think that's why I keep diving in like I do; each time it's like slaying a dragon.