Fact: Almost eight times more black children drown in swimming pools in the USA than white children. This is a legacy of American racial segregation.
Sadly, you are less likely to see black people enjoy swimming than white people. Across the USA, many black people live by oceans and other bodies of water. But, a relatively short few decades ago, American segregation and racism allowed white people the privilege of using swimming pools, while black people were generally banned. Black people did not have the liberty or opportunity to learn to swim simply because of the color of their skin. With what audacity do we convince Americans and the world that the USA was built on the ideals of equality and liberty?
Swimming pools were segregated in the North and South. Even after desegregation, pools were built in predominantly white or black neighborhoods to encourage segregation. At locations where black people were allowed to swim on specific days, pools were often cleaned afterwards.
The phobia of water and swimming is more prominent among black people due to government negligence of the effects of years of bans and racial segregation without access to pools. What is the American government doing to prevent unnecessary drownings, especially among those communities the nation historically marginalized? The statistic is also a general figure, not taking into consideration a per capita count of the effect of swimming bans and segregation. Almost eight times as many black children than white children drown each year in the USA, even though white people account for 76% of the population.
The people must push the government to reverse and to reduce the inequality of such dreadful statistics. A secular repentance is necessary to, at least, correct historical wrongs. Repentance is not merely an act or vow of a religious nature. Everyone can repent. Repentance is a two-tiered practice. The first consists of feeling regret or remorse for actions of the past. The second is the effort by which we seek to correct the original action that we are remorseful for. In a sense, it is an apology that attempts to correct the suffering caused by the act. If I bump into someone due to my inattentiveness and spill their coffee, I will apologize profusely. I will beg for forgiveness. The second part of my action would be to offer to get them a new cup of coffee to replace that which I spilled. If they agree and are not too bothered by the spilled coffee, I get them the new cup and everyone is on their way almost without a trace of the incident. But this gets complicated if we change certain elements of the interaction. We can now suggest that I intentionally bumped into the person so as to spill the coffee. We can change the spillage to have soiled the person’s outfit. We can even go further and state that they were burned by very hot coffee that spilled on them. As for the coffee itself, it cannot be replaced if there are no coffee shops nearby. Myriad changes are available to cause unlimited scenarios of this eventful interaction.
The critical element of this exchange for the purpose of understanding morality and compassion is whether we repent or not. In this case, the US government is choosing not to repent. A government cannot suggest that this happened in the past and therefore it cannot be a concern of current administrations when the effects of past actions still affect people today! Reparations for certain historical wrongs are often raised in discourse. Most of the wrongs of history, committed almost entirely for capitalist reasons of some sort, have never been addressed. Belgium does not seem too concerned with repentance today regarding its historic position as a leading inhumane empire. In a sense, it did happen in the past and under the leadership of a brutal king. However, repentance does not necessarily require us to be reflective of our personal actions. If a wrong was committed, we can collectively feel remorseful of this and its effects many years in the future, even generations later.
Black people were detrimentally affected by segregation and slavery in American history. Naturally, this history also implicates the US government. The inequality in the USA’s drowning statistics are testament to the consequences of American government institutions of slavery (pre-USA), segregation (post-USA), and racism (current USA).
The Red Cross, on its own website, recently pledged to double its Aquatics Centennial Campaign by the end of 2023. This campaign aims to reduce drowning in the USA, and much of its education can be used globally. But the government of the USA is not directly involved in these activities. The current US government is responsible for measures that equitably promote safety in swimming pools and around bodies of water to black people. The equal promotion of such will target the smallest population of drowning people in the USA: white people. Measures that are implemented must be performed equitably to allow black people to receive free life-saving education.
When the government does not initiate such support structures across the nation, organizations are going to provide the service in a capitalist manner. Most NGOs and charities involved in this space will set up shop in places that provide high donations in return for social and communal services. Rarely do children knock on doors in the poorest neighborhoods raising money for a cause. Everyone understands that model! We live in a world shamelessly rife with racism. We are living in delusion, for we cannot recognize the social pandemic we support and spread when we stay silent.
