"Race doesn't exist," and the myth is drowning blacks

[ApostateAbe]

Whites can swim and blacks cannot. It is a crude racist stereotype that must be corrected.

Not so fast. The false dogma of biological racial equivalence is actually costing black lives. In spite of being only 13% of America, the victims of 47% of all swimming pool deaths were black, per Saluja et al's "Swimming Pool Drownings Among US Residents Aged 5–24 Years: Understanding Racial/Ethnic Disparities," 2010. The racial differences reported by the CDC are not as stark but still significant: 24% of all swimming pool deaths are among blacks per the CDC.

And these values are in the context of the black race being much less likely to swim! Blacks drown at a much higher rate, but why? The conventional explanation--blacks are poor therefore blacks don't learn to swim--is unlikely, because Hispanics are similarly poor, but they account for only 13% of the drownings (18% according the CDC data) in spite of being 17% of America. The more likely explanation is physiology. With a body denser than water, you sink. The denser you are, the quicker you sink and the more difficult it is to swim. You may know from your own experience that you can float on the top of the water just by taking in a breath of air and laying back--that is if you have a buoyant body. Typically not so easy for blacks. As far as I am aware, there have been no studies that measure body buoyancies by race. However, there are known physiological racial differences that would lead us to expect that blacks have greater body density on average. At least three, as follows:

(1) Blacks have greater bone density on average than whites (http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/6/1392.long).
(2) Blacks have greater muscle mass on average than whites (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11505469).
(3) Blacks have lower lung volume on average than whites (http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/9/893.full.pdf).

It could be mainly just one of these explanations, or it could be a combination of all three. I favor the explanation that it is mainly about lung size. A study by Cordain et al titled, "Lung volumes and maximal respiratory pressures in collegiate swimmers and runners," 1990, found that college swimmers had significantly larger lung sizes than the lung sizes of both the control group and college runners.

Over four thousand blacks have drowned from 1999 to 2010 in all aquatic settings per the CDC. The racial drowning gap is a well-known problem, and the common way for authorities to solve this problem is to encourage blacks to learn how to swim. I take this to be akin to encouraging the public to learn how to juggle chainsaws, to make it a safe hobby. No. If you are buoyant, then it is plausibly safe to learn how to swim. Maybe you can be both black and buoyant. But, if you sink like a rock, then don't learn how to swim. Just trust your instincts and stay the hell away from the water.

The drowning risk is even worse for Native Americans, but fortunately no authority figures are actively telling Native American to learn to juggle chainsaws.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Blacks disproportionately live in areas with swimming pools.

 

[Bronzeage]

I suppose the child of one black parent and one white parent should be at least able to dog paddle.

Are there any studies which show lighter skinned black people are more buoyant?

 

[Keith&Co.]

One of my wife's students was going on and on in class about how blacks are poor swimmers.

My wife found this amusing, as one of the students in that classroom was on the swim team. She even got a swimming scholarship. Jenny was in the newspaper a lot more than her team mates. She wasn't that much better a swimmer, but I suspect that the editor picked her pics because it was very easy to be sure they'd properly identify the black team member in the caption.

In boot camp, about one third of my company was black. And the three guys that failed the swim tests and had to go back for remedial not-drowning were all white guys. Tom was so bad at it, the instructors finally said that if his boat sinks, he should take a deep breath, sink to the bottom and run for shore.
Which makes me wonder about the success rate of blacks trying for special forces. ARE there any black SEALS? Do the entry/graduation figures for SEALS show a marked difference along racial lines?

 

[Keith&Co.]

It could be mainly just one of these explanations, or it could be a combination of all three. I favor the explanation that it is mainly about lung size.

But that doesn't make any sense.

If you know how to swim, you know how to take breaths when you need them.

If you don't know how to swim, even if you're a white college athlete, then a superior lung capacity just lengthens the drowning event.

 

[thebeave]

It is a bit odd. Blacks so dominate track and field events, but are pretty rare in water sports.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Are there any studies which show lighter skinned black people are more buoyant?

Duh! Black is heavy! Of course those without black float better!

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In boot camp, about one third of my company was black. And the three guys that failed the swim tests and had to go back for remedial not-drowning were all white guys. Tom was so bad at it, the instructors finally said that if his boat sinks, he should take a deep breath, sink to the bottom and run for shore.
Which makes me wonder about the success rate of blacks trying for special forces. ARE there any black SEALS? Do the entry/graduation figures for SEALS show a marked difference along racial lines?

Seals are cold-adapted creatures. Why do you think those of tropical origin wouldn't just freeze?!

 

[ApostateAbe]

Blacks disproportionately live in areas with swimming pools.

Then why do Hispanics drown at merely the expected rate?

- - - Updated - - -

I suppose the child of one black parent and one white parent should be at least able to dog paddle.

Are there any studies which show lighter skinned black people are more buoyant?

Not that I am aware of. Just a set of studies that make the conclusion of racial differences in body density probable, as listed.

- - - Updated - - -

It could be mainly just one of these explanations, or it could be a combination of all three. I favor the explanation that it is mainly about lung size.

But that doesn't make any sense.

If you know how to swim, you know how to take breaths when you need them.

If you don't know how to swim, even if you're a white college athlete, then a superior lung capacity just lengthens the drowning event.

If you have a buoyant body, then all it takes to prevent yourself from drowning is to take in a breath of air. You just float to the top. For some people, taking in a breath of air is not enough. They still sink.

 

[ApostateAbe]

Which makes me wonder about the success rate of blacks trying for special forces. ARE there any black SEALS? Do the entry/graduation figures for SEALS show a marked difference along racial lines?

Blacks are reportedly less than 2% of the Navy Seals, while 17% of the Navy (not that swimming ability is the deciding variant).

 

[Tom Sawyer]

It is a bit odd. Blacks so dominate track and field events, but are pretty rare in water sports.

Hockey injuries are a form of reverse racism which disproportionally targets white men.

 

[ApostateAbe]

Are there any studies which show lighter skinned black people are more buoyant?

Duh! Black is heavy! Of course those without black float better!

Blacks have greater bone density, more muscle mass, and less lung. These are confirmed facts. You heard that race was no more than skin color--turns out that is bullshit.

 

[Bronzeage]

I suppose the child of one black parent and one white parent should be at least able to dog paddle.

Are there any studies which show lighter skinned black people are more buoyant?

Not that I am aware of. Just a set of studies that make the conclusion of racial differences in body density probable, as listed.

This is really too silly for words. Once again you take an issue that is culturally and sociological in nature and try to attribute it to some factor of biology, which you call race.

You seem oblivious to the absurdity.

 

[ApostateAbe]

Not that I am aware of. Just a set of studies that make the conclusion of racial differences in body density probable, as listed.

This is really too silly for words. Once again you take an issue that is culturally and sociological in nature and try to attribute it to some factor of biology, which you call race.

You seem oblivious to the absurdity.

I know you perceive it as absurd, but the thing that makes it seem absurd to you is the moral standing of the conclusion. For me, it is a matter of data.

 

[Bronzeage]

This is really too silly for words. Once again you take an issue that is culturally and sociological in nature and try to attribute it to some factor of biology, which you call race.

You seem oblivious to the absurdity.

I know you perceive it as absurd, but the thing that makes it seem absurd to you is the moral standing of the conclusion. For me, it is a matter of data.

There is no moral factor here. It is simple common sense. You misapply data and arrive at bogus conclusions.

 

[ApostateAbe]

I know you perceive it as absurd, but the thing that makes it seem absurd to you is the moral standing of the conclusion. For me, it is a matter of data.

There is no moral factor here. It is simple common sense. You misapply data and arrive at bogus conclusions.

Which part of the data am I misapplying? For example, if blacks have greater bone density on average, then it is more probable that they greater body density on average--yes or no? If no, then why?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Which makes me wonder about the success rate of blacks trying for special forces. ARE there any black SEALS? Do the entry/graduation figures for SEALS show a marked difference along racial lines?

Blacks are reportedly less than 2% of the Navy Seals, while 17% of the Navy (not that swimming ability is the deciding variant).

No, but the swim test for the SEALS is strikingly more stringent than the one in boot camp. They all have to swim and swim well.
But black participation in the SEALS is not what I was asking about. There's a remarkably small population of blacks in submarines, too, but to the best of my knowledge, it's not because blacks fail Basic Enlisted Sub School at a different rate than any other race.
I was wondering if there's an outrageous failure rate for blacks trying to become SEALS. From that, we could maybe find out if the hard part is the SEALS criteria for swimming. For all we know right now, only 2% of the applicants are black in the first place, so the number of graduates compared to the number of sailors overall is a meaningless ratio.

 

[Derec]

One of my wife's students was going on and on in class about how blacks are poor swimmers.

Well whites (I assume the student was white?) are not the only ones perpetuating that stereotype. Some years ago, a biracial coworker was regaling us with the tale of her beach vacation where she didn't dare go deeper than waist-high and her Indian(?) friend jokingly called her out on her black half being responsible or something like that. To which a male black coworker replied that sure, blacks didn't swim but that it was a good thing because not going into the water also means they do not drown either. That happened only weeks before this tragic story came out though:
Six teens drown in Shreveport's Red River
Point of the story: it's stupid being proud of not being able to do something and if you don't know how to swim, stay out of the water.

 

[Bronzeage]

There is no moral factor here. It is simple common sense. You misapply data and arrive at bogus conclusions.

Which part of the data am I misapplying? For example, if blacks have greater bone density on average, then it is more probable that they greater body density on average--yes or no? If no, then why?

Are there any studies which show bone density to be a factor in learning to swim to a skill level sufficient to prevent drowning?

Which is more important to swimming ability, bone density or muscle mass? Is the difference in bone density shown in the studies you cite a great enough difference to make the average black person significantly less buoyant?

 

[Derec]

For all we know right now, only 2% of the applicants are black in the first place, so the number of graduates compared to the number of sailors overall is a meaningless ratio.

Presumably the non-swimmers would be weeded out well before the formal application process.