Swim Team

In the car on the way to the pool, Bree and Etta talk about swimming. Bree comments that “Black people aren’t good at swimming” (78). Etta says that she, like all Black people, comes from a tradition of swimming. As the graphics transition to look like a completed jigsaw puzzle showing Black people around the world swimming, boating, and diving, Etta explains that Black folks have swum in every body of water.

When Bree asks why so many of her friends can’t swim, Etta notes that it’s complicated, and the illustration shifts to an unfinished puzzle. Etta explains that in the United States, laws restricted African Americans’ access to pools, beaches, and lakes. This meant that fewer people went swimming, so fewer children learned, making it harder to pass the skill down from generation to generation. When people resisted the racist laws, violence occurred. A Black man was killed on a Chicago beach in 1919, and someone poured acid in a pool of protesters in Florida. People like John Lewis and David Isom continued to protest, even as fewer and fewer people learned how to swim. Pools in Black neighborhoods were often small or not cleaned regularly, and discrimination continued in other neighborhoods.