... Launched the aquatics concentration last semester at Hampton University in Hampton, Va. Beginning swimming is one of 13 classes in the concentration, the equivalent of a minor and one of the first of its kind at a historically black college. The program prepares students for careers in aquatics, but on a deeper level, by developing black swimmers who can serve as role models, it is also aimed at overcoming barriers that have kept many blacks from learning to swim.
Black children are three times more likely to drown than whites, and 60 percent of black children can't swim, according to a 2008 survey commissioned by USA Swimming, the governing body for the sport that trains teams for the Olympics. The statistics are attributable largely to cultural and economic obstacles. Swimming is considered by many blacks to be a white, elitist sport -- or, at the very least, a white suburban pursuit -- and it's typically not free. So while many black children growing up in cities can play football or basketball just by going outside, a pool might as well be a polo field. Also, "You can't have access to a pool without supervision," Jensen says, "and then if the parents don't know how to swim, you start getting into factors like segregation." In other words, it's quite possible that many of today's black college students have grandparents who were once barred from public pools or beaches, and thus were unable to swim and help their offspring learn to swim.
