Swim caps matter for Singleton, a 30-year-old black swim coach in Georgia with a thick, full-moon-shaped afro. Known on her AfroSwimmers Instagram account as Coach With the Fro, she has been offering swim lessons that target the black community for 16 years. The first question she always gets from female clients, she says, is: “What do I do with my hair?” She gives them tips, including which swim caps to buy. But, “I tell them up front: Please expect your hair to get wet,” Singleton says.
Historically, swimming pools have played a murky part in racial segregation and disparity in the United States. Despite a public-pool boom in the 1950s and ’60s, generations of black people have not learned how to swim. In 2017, a report from the USA Swimming Foundation found that 64.2 percent of black adults said they had no or low swimming abilities, versus 39.7 percent of white people. Among the black parents in that group, 78 percent said their children had no or low swimming abilities, too.
Numerous factors contribute to why blacks are less likely to swim: a lack of lap pools to learn in, a lack of representation in water sports, a fear of drowning, and a lack of affordable swim lessons. But one thing that’s often overlooked is that swim caps aren’t designed to protect common hairstyles among black women, adding yet another barrier to their participation in swimming, kayaking, water polo, diving, and other aquatic activities. “It’s an epidemic,” Singleton says of their exclusion.
They want a white man to invent a cap for black people, right?
Fuck off.
Connor Hill
MAYBE SHE SHOULD FUCKING MAKE SOME AND MARKET IT. HOLY SHIT I FUCKING HATE YOU PEOPLE.
William Cruz
I only create business opportunity for Jow Forums, see you space cowboys..
Wyatt Lewis
>They want a white man to invent a cap for black people, right? Just so they can bitch about it.
Fpbp /thread
Aaron Turner
Its because during their evolution they had to stay away from dangerous waters. Thats why they can't swim as well. Their bodies evolved differently as a result.
Jack Reed
>“I tell them up front: Please expect your hair to get wet' Your hair might get wet while swimming. The wisdom of the negro is astounding in it's insight and accuracy.
They want to swim in dry water. This wet water is plot made by the white men to oppress blacks with hygiene.
Easton Davis
Hahaha beat me to it
Henry Reed
Winner
Jaxson Robinson
THEN FUCKING INNOVATE ONE FOR YOURSELF LIKE EVERYONE ELSE DOES
FUCK
Brayden Turner
God fucking dammit binland
Hudson Lee
former olympic swimmer here, we all shaved our heads to minimize water drag, can't imagine what swimming with a fucking afro must be like but its obviously retarded to try
>invent swim cap 4 niggers >go broke
Thomas Perry
That's just a fancy shower cap.
Adam Foster
Based.
Jayden Rogers
>a lack of representation in water sports, a fear of drowning
>black to stupid to wear an afro wig next shes going to ask them to level the playing field by making everybody have afros when swimming
Wyatt Ramirez
Literally bitching about nothing.
Jason Baker
>Please expect your hair to get wet >We are unwilling to make a temporary sacrifice like shaving our heads to excel in this sport >We don't have big pools, enough representation in sports, we are cowards and we can't afford to pay for lessons therefore racism Christs sake swim lessons are for small children. When I turned 8 I was tossed into a murky lake and figured it out pretty damn quick. Every single day I think to myself there is no way blacks can possibly be bigger children but every day they go and outdo themselves. I'm done with these people and their whining.
