I remember P Mulins the author maybe I missed spelled his name talking about swimming being a white upper-middle class sport and the country club set. I guess he had not met Shirley Bashashoff that came from a blue collar background. Anyway, swimmers in elite circles tend to be more from upper-middle families than the non-elite. In high school programs, their are plenty of them from the barrio and the ghetto. Also, he seems to think swimming is divided between whites and blacks. In his state, both Latinos and Asians outnumber blacks. And Latinos are the group lowest on the income level in that state and Arizona mainly done to immirgation. I think the swimming world is seeing that in the states, its not a black and white world anymore,even in the south asians and latins have increase.
Parents
Former Member
I'm more of a reader than a poster on this forum, but I figured I'd toss in my two cents on this one (well not really on the topic but read on...) It seems that a lot of threads on this forum are hijacked (or started) to discuss race and socio-economic issues in swimming. I'm not sure this is really fair or relevant. If we are suppossed to be a more color-blind society, I don't think constantly drawing race/socio-economic lines in swimming is helping that. I know that USA-Swimming has made efforts to bring swimming to inner-cities and minorities but their attempts have not really changed a lot. So, I don't think dwelling on it in a forum and forcing it into every thread will change much either.
I'm more of a reader than a poster on this forum, but I figured I'd toss in my two cents on this one (well not really on the topic but read on...) It seems that a lot of threads on this forum are hijacked (or started) to discuss race and socio-economic issues in swimming. I'm not sure this is really fair or relevant. If we are suppossed to be a more color-blind society, I don't think constantly drawing race/socio-economic lines in swimming is helping that. I know that USA-Swimming has made efforts to bring swimming to inner-cities and minorities but their attempts have not really changed a lot. So, I don't think dwelling on it in a forum and forcing it into every thread will change much either.
