I can see why Tom wanted to get rid of her.  Listening to brain dead liberal race whining would do it.

"Historically, swimming in America is very racist, and usually when you look at drowning statistics, it usually affects children of color because of lack of access," she claimed.
Soooooo "children of color " drown more ''because of lack of access''  to a pool ? 
Must be drowning at fire hydrants.

    And speaking of racism, yes not a lot of  POC on swim teams.
Or hockey teams, Wrestling and MMA
Should be 50/50
Make POC participate !

   Also less Whites on football and basketball teams and more POC.
Should be 50/50
Gotta fix that too.
Fire POC till equality on both sides

    

My college was a Liberal Arts (mainly) school.  One thing they did I really liked was their PE credit requirement.

Every Freshman had to take a swimming test at the beginning of their PE class.  All those who passed were allowed to pick the activity they participated in.  All who failed or chose not to be tested were automatically enrolled in the swimming class.

I chose archery.   

This policy made sure every student had the skills to survive in water and possibly discover they really liked  swimming  enough to maybe join the swim team or engage in other water sports.

 I didn't notice a disproportionate number of Blacks taking the mandatory swimming classes compared to Whites.  in my experience, after the 60s when municipal pools were opened to everyone, nobody was excluded -- plenty of "access".

Before the civil rights act, of course pool owners could keep Blacks out.  Lots of people were afraid of Blacks being "dirty" and messing up the water for everyone.  I personally know of, and my grandmother worked for, a man who closed his very lucrative manmade lake because he was forced to let "them" in.

This is not that time, however.  To use the word "historically" to justify why something needs to change today is ludicrous. 

For instance, it's true that for < 1 year old toddlers who drown, the rate of Black drowning victims exceeds White victims.  However, in a swimming pool setting, White toddlers were much more likely to drown in a pool than Black toddlers.  in contrast, Blacks of all ages tend to drown more often in natural water settings -- rivers, lakes, oceans and so on.  That's possibly due to lack of visibility in the water, unknown depths, currents and undertows not found in pools, lifeguards on duty, shorter distances required to get to safety, flotation devices not readily at hand, and, of course, the greater chance the victims were intoxicated or ate before going in the water.

The stats do show that lack of basic skills needed to survive in water is a factor, but that applies to all races.  I think it comes down to culture, as do most things.  If the family is not into water sports or recreation (boating, fishing, swimming, canoeing), then the children will have fewer opportunities to learn basic swimming skills.  Does that require a pool in the backyard?  Absolutely not.  Friends with pools, community pools, lakes, schools, ... so many pools exist, it's not likely someone is without "access." 

We sent our kids to the Mililani Town Association's swimming classes at the recreation centers.  Now my granddaughter is going, too.  Cost is so cheap, it's almost free.

Anyway, racializing a problem isn't going to solve it, nor is it going to make us "understand" the problem better.  Once we go down that road, we start affording more access and opportunity to certain groups based solely on skin color. 

Maybe we need to fund remedial basketball workshops for White kids ....   

Did this stupid lady ever entertain the thought that culturally, POC were not interested in swimming or water activities?

That even if access were available, these POC would opt out and do other things?

WTF is going on with people nowadays.  They are saying things and acting as if they are retarded.

Did this stupid lady ever entertain the thought that culturally, POC were not interested in swimming or water activities?

Grew up by the beach in SoCal.  In summer, the beach would get a smattering of negro families escaping the inland heat.

Almost without exception, they would not go in the ocean past knee deep.  Sometimes to the waist.   
It was quite clear that swimming, let alone body surfing, was of no interest to them.

OTOH, saw a few on scuba dive trips off the SoCal coast, all from the Caribbean it turned out.

Buddy at the gym here is black as coal, a scuba divemaster from Fiji.

It is not racial, but cultural.

Grew up by the beach in SoCal.  In summer, the beach would get a smattering of negro families escaping the inland heat.

Being from the inner city, municipal public pool was open and used by all.
It was hot and all utilized the facility.
Not enough room to swim much less do laps, but there sure was a lot of floundering by some individuals.

Being from the inner city, municipal public pool was open and used by all.

Yeah, supervised pool should have been no danger.

The open ocean seemed to freak them out.

Jellyfish visitations were always hilarious.

We have to consider the source before taking this seriously.

Grew up by the beach in SoCal.  In summer, the beach would get a smattering of negro families escaping the inland heat.

Almost without exception, they would not go in the ocean past knee deep.  Sometimes to the waist.   
It was quite clear that swimming, let alone body surfing, was of no interest to them.

OTOH, saw a few on scuba dive trips off the SoCal coast, all from the Caribbean it turned out.

Buddy at the gym here is black as coal, a scuba divemaster from Fiji.

It is not racial, but cultural.

"It is not racial, but cultural."
I too grew up on the beaches of So Cal,
and you are right it is purely cultural.

Like in the military at a Northern-tier  base Blacks could not handle the cold very well.
-40C  and 100 kph winds were a little too much for them.

 

It's their default explanation for everything...