Study: Young Black Children Drown At Far Higher Rates

[Gingersnap]

Study: Young Black Children Drown At Far Higher Rates
May 16, 2014 7:48 AM

NEW YORK (AP) — Swimming pools are a much greater danger to black children and teens than they are to other kids, a new government study shows.

Black children ages 5 to 19 drown in swimming pools at a rate more than five times that of white children, the research found. That suggests a lot of blacks are not learning to swim, said the lead author, Dr. Julie Gilchrist of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Swimming is a life-saving skill, not just another sport, she said.

The racial differences were smaller for drownings in lakes or other bodies of water. Experts think that’s because relatively few blacks go boating or participate in other water activities.

Drowning is a major cause of death in children and young adults, and researchers have long observed a higher rate in African-Americans. The report released Thursday looked at racial differences in far greater detail, by age and by where youths drown.
Among whites, drowning rates peak in toddlers but then decline dramatically around age 5 and stay down. Experts think that’s a result of swimming lessons kicking in.

Among blacks, the drowning rate for toddlers is lower, but it doesn’t drop off the same way as children get older.
An earlier study showed that nearly 60 percent of black children surveyed were unable to swim or felt uncomfortable in the deep end of a pool, compared to 31 percent of white kids.

That stems from cultural differences, experts believe. Generally, more white families spend recreation time at pools or beaches, and more white parents make sure their kids can swim, Gilchrist said.

I dunno. Some white kids probably learn to swim from Mom or Dad but a lot of us learned through the school. The school didn't have a pool, of course, but they partnered with the high school to offer swimming classes. We'd meet at the school and take a school bus the high school. Parents were not encouraged to attend.

Kids were pretty motivated to take and pass the classes since you couldn't do any "free swim" in the summer without your little card.

CBS

[Frostbit]

We all learned (poorly when compared to good athletic swimmers) at a community pool that required you to pass a "swimming test" before you could get in the water without direct adult supervision. They also had lifeguards on duty.

When we lived in the bush drowning among Natives was fairly high. ETOH would be a factor with adults but mostly it was river drownings for lack of PFD's and no swimming knowledge.

The local Native Hospital would host "swimming lessons" every summer with a large inflatable pool and instructors from the lower 48. Grant money at work!!

[Gramps]

This comes as no shock to me.

Every summer we get instances of Black kids drowning in a pool at some second rate motel where a family reunion was being held.

No lifeguard.

Kids generally unsupervised.

[gary m]

Swimming pools are a plan by racist white Republicans to impose genocide on minorities.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Swimming pools are a plan by racist white Republicans to impose genocide on minorities.

No, but swimming pools were off-limits to blacks in many places as recently as when I was a teenager, which means the parents and grandparents of these kids have neither the skills nor the cultural value that causes white parents to either teach their kids to swim or pay for swimming lessons. In the culture I grew up in, a white kid who couldn't swim (like my dorky cousin, whose mother was the proto-helicopter parent) was at a serious social disadvantage. It was comparable to not knowing how to ride a bike or roller skate. To this day, when I was living in Florida (child drowning capitol of the country), I did not see the same stigma attach to black kids - or - adults who can't swim.

As for learning in school, I think it's a great idea, but I've never met anyone who did. My parents taught me to swim, and I taught HRH. I also taught swim lessons when I was a lifeguard, usually to kids whose parents either didn't have time or didn't have the skills to teach their own children, but that was at the apartment pool, not a school. I can't imagine public schools taking time away from teaching for the tests to teach swimming.

[Gingersnap]

No, but swimming pools were off-limits to blacks in many places as recently as when I was a teenager, which means the parents and grandparents of these kids have neither the skills nor the cultural value that causes white parents to either teach their kids to swim or pay for swimming lessons. In the culture I grew up in, a white kid who couldn't swim (like my dorky cousin, whose mother was the proto-helicopter parent) was at a serious social disadvantage. It was comparable to not knowing how to ride a bike or roller skate. To this day, when I was living in Florida (child drowning capitol of the country), I did not see the same stigma attach to black kids - or - adults who can't swim.

As for learning in school, I think it's a great idea, but I've never met anyone who did. My parents taught me to swim, and I taught HRH. I also taught swim lessons when I was a lifeguard, usually to kids whose parents either didn't have time or didn't have the skills to teach their own children, but that was at the apartment pool, not a school. I can't imagine public schools taking time away from teaching for the tests to teach swimming.

I think your experience is regional and maybe unusual. My parents spent zero time swimming (there were simply almost no swimming places where we lived). The school thing was very inexpensive; it had to be in our area. They weren't breaking even on the effort but it gave kids a skill and gave lifeguards a higher skill. When I matriculated into that experience, we volunteered to teach swimming because we also got certified to teach which came in handy for private lessons.

There were no segregated pools in my lifetime unless it happened in some backwater.

One of the barriers black children have is that their mothers don't swim and swimming is incompatible with some ethnic hairstyles. This is also a barrier to gym-style exercise. It's difficult to sweat a lot or get your head wet when your hair requires a lot of effort.

I think a way around this is to just do it like we did it when I was a kid and have the lessons taught as a school partnership without any parental effort. Mom doesn't have to negotiate the bathing suit/hair/exposure thing and the kid can screw up without parental cheering or critiques.

[phillygirl]

My mom couldn't swim...and we had a pool. She could doggie paddle, but that was it. Neither of her parents could swim either. I have no idea if her brother could swim. In their are, there simply weren't really facilities for it in their time.

We learned at the Y. It was important to my mom, as she didn't want us to not have those skills, and to consequently have the fears she had.

[Gramps]

I think your experience is regional and maybe unusual.

I grew up in the central mid west.

In the 50's I lived in Tulsa Ok. At that time, Tulsa had a number of city parks that had, at the least, a pool that was round, and at the deepest, probably 2.5'.

There was zero implementation of racial bias at those parks.

If anything, at that time, the race that was held in the lowest regard were the 'Injuns' native americans.

No one was kept from using those park pools.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

I think your experience is regional and maybe unusual. My parents spent zero time swimming (there were simply almost no swimming places where we lived). The school thing was very inexpensive; it had to be in our area. They weren't breaking even on the effort but it gave kids a skill and gave lifeguards a higher skill. When I matriculated into that experience, we volunteered to teach swimming because we also got certified to teach which came in handy for private lessons.

There were no segregated pools in my lifetime unless it happened in some backwater.

One of the barriers black children have is that their mothers don't swim and swimming is incompatible with some ethnic hairstyles. This is also a barrier to gym-style exercise. It's difficult to sweat a lot or get your head wet when your hair requires a lot of effort.

I think a way around this is to just do it like we did it when I was a kid and have the lessons taught as a school partnership without any parental effort. Mom doesn't have to negotiate the bathing suit/hair/exposure thing and the kid can screw up without parental cheering or critiques.

I don't know what your lifetime is or where you grew up, but the Washington, DC suburbs were not a "backwater" in 1968 or in fact, at any time in the past 100 years. That is the last place and time I experienced a whites-only swimming pool. I am aware that it was not so in the District itself (at least not officially). It changed in the Maryland suburbs over the course of the early 1970s. Not so much in the Virginia suburbs until later.People from other places on the Eastern Seaboard are welcome to chime in, but I know of no public schools systems there then or now that offer(ed) swimming lessons. They were offered (but you had to pay) at the YMCA.

[Michele]

Out of eight kids in our family, two learned how to swim..they were the oldest who also happened to be boys. They taught themselves. As for us six girls, I guess it just wasn't that important to us until later.

When I was in 5th grade they opened a new man-made lake around the capitol building and downtown. The city offered swim lessons starting the last week of June and my mom signed all of us girls up. Sadly, my oldest brother drowned in the lake a week before the lessons began and my mom not only withdrew us from the lessons but forbid us from being around water of any kind for many years.

Our kids went to the rec center to learn how to swim when they were quite young and are both wonderfully strong swimmers. All of our grandkids swim except our three year old but she still tries and will take lessons next Fall.

Kids need to learn how to swim but their parents have to be the ones to help that happen.

[phillygirl]

Out of eight kids in our family, two learned how to swim..they were the oldest who also happened to be boys. They taught themselves. As for us six girls, I guess it just wasn't that important to us until later.

When I was in 5th grade they opened a new man-made lake around the capitol building and downtown. The city offered swim lessons starting the last week of June and my mom signed all of us girls up. Sadly, my oldest brother drowned in the lake a week before the lessons began and my mom not only withdrew us from the lessons but forbid us from being around water of any kind for many years.

Our kids went to the rec center to learn how to swim when they were quite young and are both wonderfully strong swimmers. All of our grandkids swim except our three year old but she still tries and will take lessons next Fall.

Kids need to learn how to swim but their parents have to be the ones to help that happen.

I'm so sorry, Michele.

[Novaheart]

Around here, IT SEEMS (by which I mean I have no study other than reading the newspaper) that if a child under twelve drowns in natural water, he is probably male and black. If a child under twelve drowns in a pool, he is probably male and white.

I don't read a lot about black teenagers drowning, probably because by the time they are teens, they start going to the more popular beaches, and the girls don't swim because of their hair. For their part, white teenaged girls don't swim as much (meaning head under water) as the guys do, probably because of hair and make-up though there are more white girls in the water than black girls.

On the Eastern Shore, when I read about kids drowning in natural water they tend to be black. This is probably because they have fewer swimming pools available to them.

Florida's drowning problem is attributable to lots of backyard swimming pools, unguarded apartment and motel pools, and an incredible amount of accessible natural water.

[Gingersnap]

I don't know what your lifetime is or where you grew up, but the Washington, DC suburbs were not a "backwater" in 1968 or in fact, at any time in the past 100 years. That is the last place and time I experienced a whites-only swimming pool. I am aware that it was not so in the District itself (at least not officially). It changed in the Maryland suburbs over the course of the early 1970s. Not so much in the Virginia suburbs until later.People from other places on the Eastern Seaboard are welcome to chime in, but I know of no public schools systems there then or now that offer(ed) swimming lessons. They were offered (but you had to pay) at the YMCA.

Racially, D.C. was and is a "backwater". The type of segregation and discrimination that was common to the Northeast and Eastern seaboard simply wasn't that kind of an issue in the West. We had no legacy of black slaves/servants.

So your experience is regional.

[Celeste Chalfonte]

Racially, D.C. was and is a "backwater". The type of segregation and discrimination that was common to the Northeast and Eastern seaboard simply wasn't that kind of an issue in the West. We had no legacy of black slaves/servants.

So your experience is regional.

Well, yes, in the same way that there was no racial problem per se in the Scandinavian countries until recently.

[Gingersnap]

Well, yes, in the same way that there was no racial problem per se in the Scandinavian countries until recently.

LOL! You are probably unaware that Colorado was one of several Western states that actively advertised and assisted former slaves who wished to be a part of mainly black farming communities. These communities were run by black citizens and their produce/cattle were handled by black brokers. The influx of blacks also affected Denver where more urban-oriented blacks set up law practices, medical practices, built small factories, and owned many businesses such as groceries stores, dry goods concerns, day stables (later car dealerships), etc.

You might also be unaware that the Five Points area of Denver had a number of nationally known jazz clubs which hosted an amazing number of black musicians and singers. These performers regularly appeared in Denver because there were no Jim Crow laws and a sizable number of both black and white audience members made Denver a lucrative venue.

It's okay. Most Americans have no education about "flyover country". No need to perpetuate the coastal myth-making, though.