My town (in the South) chose to fill the public pool with cement rather than be forced to allow black residents to use it. For many decades, we didn’t have a public pool at all and it’s only been fairly recently that a new one was opened. I’m not surprised that black Americans have a reportedly lower rate of swimming proficiency!
I point out this shameful bit of our town history often, because the place has grown tremendously in the last 20 years and become more diverse, and folks here don’t appreciate how bad it was within living memory and why we need to keep pushing.
“I point out this shameful bit of our town history often…”
People who are “anti-woke” often say stuff like “they’re teaching kids to be ashamed of themselves for what their ancestors did”, and I think they don’t understand how healing and healthy it is to call out shameful parts of history. For me, acknowledging shameful parts of history is how I distance myself from those things, by subtextually saying “this is no longer the case, AND ALSO we intend to keep pushing forward”.
My town (in the South) chose to fill the public pool with cement rather than be forced to allow black residents to use it. For many decades, we didn’t have a public pool at all and it’s only been fairly recently that a new one was opened. I’m not surprised that black Americans have a reportedly lower rate of swimming proficiency!
I point out this shameful bit of our town history often, because the place has grown tremendously in the last 20 years and become more diverse, and folks here don’t appreciate how bad it was within living memory and why we need to keep pushing.
People who are “anti-woke” often say stuff like “they’re teaching kids to be ashamed of themselves for what their ancestors did”, and I think they don’t understand how healing and healthy it is to call out shameful parts of history. For me, acknowledging shameful parts of history is how I distance myself from those things, by subtextually saying “this is no longer the case, AND ALSO we intend to keep pushing forward”.