Comments by "A A Q" (@AuroraBoarder1) on "VICE News"
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I'm a black woman. I had loads of swimming lessons as a child, but I was one of those klutzes who couldn't learn. I never even heard of this stereotype until I was an adult, so it never occurred to me that race was a factor, because in one of my swim classes, they finished with a type of recital, and only one student could do the butterfly stroke; it was a black boy.
I finally figured out what I was doing wrong, 2 weeks before my 35th birthday. It was my breathing. I was swallowing the air, rather than having it go down my windpipe. So I practiced by running or cycling as hard as I could until I was gasping for air, then stopping and paying attention to how I was breathing. After I could do that without exercising, I got back into the water and picked it right up. Now I can do all the strokes, including the butterfly. I can also swim over a mile!
A friend of mine who grew up in the Jim Crow South turned out to have the same problem. She could do only the backstroke, because she could breathe through her nose that way.
While race may be a factor, I think it involves a lot more than that. I understand the late great Ann Landers also had a hard time learning to swim.
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