Dispelling the myths of Blacks and swimming

Another View

The age-old myths about Blacks and swimming are historically centered on three main things. A 2023 article in Blavity by Aria Bell dissected the three most popular myths about Blacks and swimming: 

1) Blacks don’t like swimming. “The root of this commonality stems from slavery and racism…and other roadblocks that were put in place that contributed to [Blacks] not being able to partake in water activities,” wrote Bell.

2) Black women don’t swim because of their hair. Bell quoted Kendra Rubin, a talent and leadership development specialist: “Getting [hair] messed up is often costly and time [consuming].”

3) Blacks are afraid to swim. Of this Bell wrote,” There is only a 19% chance that a child in their household would learn to swim.”

A 2022 Northwestern University study found that 28% of Black parents reported they are comfortable swimming compared to 56% of white parents, and less than 33% of Black parents “affirmed their children’s swimming competence” compared to nearly 60% of white parents. 

The study also found that many Black parents (over 26%) never learned to swim compared to less than 4% of White parents.

Dr. Ayanna Rakhu also studied Black women in swimming. Her mother and grandmother strongly encouraged her and her siblings to swim. As a result, Rakhu became an avid swimmer, swam competitively, and became a lifeguard, swim coach, and certified scuba diver. She founded Sankofa Swim International in 2022, based in Minneapolis, to provide culturally specific swimming training and aquatic programs. 

Last month, Rakhu spoke at the U of M’s Tucker Center’s annual Women’s Coaches Symposium on April 19. “It was almost 500 pages of data,” admitted Rakhu of her study. “I interviewed and did focus groups with 40 African American mothers. They told their stories on all different levels of swim ability, and they talked a lot about the same thing. 

“There were issues around access to water. There were issues around being disconnected generationally from water,” she pointed out. “There was a lot of commonality, and those focus groups ended up being almost like just really deep share sessions.

“There were tears, stories of trauma… The depth of their individual stories, there was a lot of intimacy,” noted Rakhu.

During her session, “Beyond The Pool: Applying the Swim-Efficacy Reclamation (SER) Model in Diverse Sports,” Rakhu introduced her SER model and said it can be applied to all sports. It involves five stages: reflect, reconcile, reassess, respond, and reform. She said it is specifically designed to help participants “overcome water-related fear and trauma.” 

Afterward, Rakhu told MSR that the myths surrounding Blacks and swimming are just that—myths. Blacks have a long-standing history of water skills.

“We were the best boaters, swimmers, surfers—all of that stuff was African people and people of African descent,” said Rakhu. “We were the best and always have been, so we can get back to that.