Serena's Celebratory Dance

I was reading what her mom said....and what her coach said to her mom...and it had me wondering....I know Gymnastics is expensive (her mom said this and I did it in H.S, yes it is!) but I wonder why more AA girls aren't in the sport? Its 2012 and Gabby is MAKING history. What is keeping them from partaking in this wondrous sport also...? Are they directed instead to track and field? Why are some sports dominated while others aren't. Interesting dichotomy.

 

And think....Gabby did this at 16!!! How many in this world earn greatness sooo young? Amazing, and her life has hardly begun!

 

Track is cheap. Thats why you dont see tgat many AA in swimming or Hockey. Those sports are pretty expensive. Track only requires some running shoes. Same can be said for football and basketball. Cheap sports to get involved in

 

I think you are forgetting those who came before her.

http://jezebel.com/5932134/black-gymnasts-who-kicked-ass-for-team-usa/gallery/

Dominique Dawes has a gold medal from Atlanta Olympics.

 

Football? No way is it cheap. Unless you mean Soccer.
Swimming? Perhaps. Maybe.
Hockey...can be as as expensive as football. So yes. I agree.

 

Oh yes! True! Of course, Dominique! So what is the history Gabby is making I keep hearing... Is it her age, or the event in particular?

Still though....history or not, 2 is not much, just from a AA vantage, when there could/would def be many more. Talent/ability isn't the reason why, I feel in my gut.

I will say too, figure type could also be a factor. I remember developing at a younger age than my gymnast peers and my gymnastic instructor would get pissed (I would see her expressions and her huffs) every time she had to extend the parallel bars to accommodate my height, or catch me off the vault.
I still see her bitchy face so clear, lol.

 

She won individual in addition to team so I guess that is why?

 

Ah, ok thanks.

 

Nah its pretty cheap. In my area your pads, jersey, and helmets are provided for you by the school so the only thing you might have to pay for is your shoes and cup. Like I said there's a reason why athletes of African decent excel where they do. Everything we attempt we usually dominate. Basketball, baseball, track and field, football, soccer, mma, boxing, and I'm sure a few more that I can't think of right now. The thing these sports have in common is they are relatively cheap sports to participate in.

 

And Hockey equipment isn't? Enlighten me here, lol.
How much is a bathing suit @ swimming?

 

Well I know the skates are really expensive. Funny enough one my good friend's dads was in the olympics in 64 and 68 for swimming and made the whole family get into it. You'd think it would be cheap but you have to pay for a lot of private coaching since workouts include morning and evenings. Actually I'm gonna get specifics for you on that one when I get a chance. Because now that I think about it only wealthy kids around my area did the sport and like you said how much do speedos actually cost.

 

I read an article a while back and it said a lot of inner cities can't afford to keep up swim pools. So it's access to pools not the suits.

Cullen Jones is trying to gain interest in teaching swimming to minorities. I was looking for a pic of him a few weeks ago and came across this.




Cullen Jones is competing in the 50-meter freestyle. He is the third African American swimmer to make the U.S. Olympic Swim Team (the first was Anthony Ervin in 2000 at the Sydney Olympic Games). Jones tells Glamour.com, “I want to erase the belief that black people don’t swim. I see swimming as a life skill rather than just a sport.” When he was 5, Jones almost drowned at a water park. Now, he travels the country with the USA Swimming Foundation as the spokesperson for Make a Splash, a nationwide water safety campaign educating communities on the importance of learning to swim. The initiative offers free or low-cost swimming lessons to hundreds of cities.

 

So fricking weird that you mentioned him because just went on fb and one of my friends posted this (she's a bm lover and IR supporter as well)
No big deal, but Anthony Ervin followed AND tweeted me on Twitter today. I'm so freakin' hyped on myself right now, LOL. I promised I'd write him a song. Looks like I am writing a swim song.

 

I factored that in in my question -- because I know there's a Y in every or most inner cities. I live in the inner city and there is always a public pool available. I hear the same argument about "baseball fields" but I see them as I drive through my inner city.

So which are we talking here? TDK is mentioning certain sports costing too much, then he says schools pay for equipment, you're speaking inner cities keeping up swim pools?

 

Ok so you are speaking just ice- hockey, not field hockey or Lacrosse? I was considering all.
BTW, I am at almost every Annual National Lacrosse Championship and I can tell you there are barely AA kids on the teams and in the stands. 1 in 1000 if that. It is strangely a White dominated and supported sport. Very Abercrombie and Fitch crowd at that.

 

Like she said maybe its the upkeep. If you have a private pool the pool guy has to come by at least once a week and that's a family pool used every so often. I'd assume one used multiple times daily requires a lot more and that has to add up. Purely my speculation though. As for baseball I don't know but one thing I remember from little league is the gloves are cheap. A good mitt cost around 50 bucks and that was back in the early 90s God knows how much they are now not including shoes and bats. A couple hundred bucks might not be much to us but a lot of families that's a month's worth of food or some other expense.

 

That actually IS a big deal. Good stuff! :smt023

 

Oh ok fair enough I should have been more clear. Lacrosse and field hockey seem like another rich man's sport to me. I only noticed them in private schools or well to do public schools in my area. Its also about space. A lot of inner city schools don't have the space to entertain all those sports and in this country football always wins.

 

The chick is really inspirational and she prefers black dudes. I've posted her on here before. She's incredibly talented. She did a track on Justin Beiber's Christmas Album

 

Upkeep is correct. Liability and lifeguards. I wouldn't be able to find the original article I read but you can find the stats all over. Here is one:

http://innergymagazine.com/2012/05/07/why-black-kids-cant-swim/


The USA Swimming Commission and University of Memphis reports 70% of black kids can’t swim. While the numbers are horrific, there are several reasons the figures are so high. For starters, black kids are not exposed to swimming.

Hardly any homes in the minority community have pools. Without pools on private property it forces the need for public swimming facilities. These facilities have become more and more scarce due to insurance and lifeguard availabilities. If blacks never learn to swim not many will become professional lifeguards.

In 1933, the National Recreation Association reported more people swam in Municipal Facilities than went to the movies. Neighbors crowded the public pools until the 1950s, when private pools became popular in suburban areas of the cities. Private pools declared a retreat from the public swimming arenas. As whites built pools in their backyards, public facilities would be left for the poor.

By the 70s almost every city pool was integrated but used mostly by blacks. In the early 80s city run pools begin disappearing in inner city neighborhoods. The upkeep and management of the facilities became costly as well as insurance. One by one, they begin shutting down.

By the late 80s, a new generation of black children would populate the same neighborhoods yet with no swimming outlets. Organizations such as Boy Scouts of America, The Boys & Girls Club, and the YMCA became the outlets that would teach swimming lessons to inner city youth. But by the early 90s, even the presence of these organizations in the black community begin to decrease. As the price to join venues such as the YMCA increased, the opportunity for black kids to learn decreased.

At one point schools used to teach swim lessons and offer swim team as an elective. Today hardly any schools in the black community have access to pools, offer swimming courses, or even a swim team. Since the late 90s children actually grow up in the black community and never learn to swim.

Unless you live in an area where there are beaches, most black kids are only exposed to large bodies of water at water parks. Even these opportunities aren’t frequent enough to sustain a healthy swimming development.

To make matters even worse black parents, especially black mothers, seldom get in pools. Chlorine has been known to harm the texture of black hair. Because hair products and beauty appointments are so expensive for black mothers many choose not to get in swimming pools. Many black mothers never thoroughly learned to swim themselves.

Orange County, CA Fire Authority claims of all preschoolers who drown, 70% are in the care of one or both parents at the time of the drowning. Their records prove the rising number of kids who can’t swim is generally due to the large number of parents who haven’t learned to swim either.

A solution for this growing epidemic is to provide a budget within the city’s operation that will allocate funds for more public swimming outlets. Many of the programs that teach swimming aren’t as visible in the black community as they were 20 years ago. Perhaps it would be important for these organizations to receive the necessary funding to host swim lessons for minority youth free of charge. Swimming lessons in most venues usually range from $100-200. A figure too high for most minority families to afford.

Maybe you’re familiar with the three year old in Houston, Texas who drowned in 2011. Her brother let her in the next door neighbor’s gate. She jumped in their pool and drowned.

In 2010, one case shook the country and hovered national news for weeks. Six teenagers in Shreveport, LA all drowned in a lake at the same time and their parents were watching. None of the kids could swim and unfortunately neither could the adults.

According to Drowning Prevention Foundation, 19% of kids who drown in public pool facilities drown with a lifeguard present. This percentage simply means even with a lifeguard on duty, it only takes seconds for a child to drown. The ability to swim should be a high priority in every family.

The CDC reports African-American kids between the ages of 5 to 14 drown 3.1 times that of white children in the same age range. It’s even worse for American Indian children. They also report, among racial groups, African-American kids are easily the most limited race with swimming ability, much higher than all other races.

If a child can’t swim it’s not necessarily due to ignorance but rather due to the lack of opportunity. If it becomes the very activity to save your child’s life then every father needs to take his son swimming regularly. Every mother at some point will have to ‘get her hair wet.