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Swimming Pools (Drank): Why Black Folks Can’t Swim: Racism.
“Backstroke every day in Chicago
Some people like the way it feels
Some people wanna kill their sorrows
Some people wanna fit in with the popular, that was my problem” — Swimming Pools (Drank) by Kendrick Lamar.
The jokes about black people not being able to swim ain’t funny, they are tragic reminders of the bitterness and caustic sting of racism. It is a perceptive commentary on the toll of racist policies and actions: generations of black people who cannot swim. I too used to laugh at what seemed like an innocent observation of American life: black people can’t swim. Yet, these purveyors of jokes never explore why. They only search for a punchline and not for the cause of this occurrence. These comedians seek financial gain from black pain. A generation of black people in America can’t swim because of racism.
My parents can’t swim because of racist cowards. These hate-filled white men decided to fill the public swimming pools with concrete than allow black and white people to enjoy the same refreshing cool chlorinated water at the same time. My parents grew up in a desert and they were poor. Not black people poor but white people poor. They were improvised. They lived in the…
