A short documentary has resurfaced about African Americans and swimming– a loaded topic in the Black community– and is coinciding with the July 26 start of the 2024 U.S. Summer Olympics in Paris. “Black Folk Don’t…Swim” examines the myth that Black people don’t swim. Writer, television personality and podcaster Touré and writer, educator and media figure Melissa Harris-Perry are in the mix for this conversation that begins with person-on-the-street interviews in New Orleans.
The film is now streaming (for free) on the Black Public Media YouTube Channel.
Presented by Black Public Media (BPM) on their AfroPop Digital Shorts series, the film is a part of its earlier series “Black Folk Don’t” featured in Time Magazine’s “10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life.”This was a comic examination of some of the biggest myths and stereotypes about Black people. On thoughts about Black people and swimming, Toure admitted that he can’t swim.
Black Public Media is a Harlem-based national nonprofit that has funded and distributed films about the Black experience since 1979.
Black People and Swimming Is Still a Thing
The film has people recalling being traumatized by seeing someone drown and feeling helpless because they could not save a life. Others loved swimming and never had a problem jumping into the water.
“We definitely joke about it,” Touré says. “I don’t think there’s any natural, human biological thing of melanin and buoyancy.”
“Black Folk Don’t…Swim” was directed by Angela Tucker, an Emmy and Webby award-winning filmmaker who has worked in scripted and unscripted film and television. Her newest film, “The Inquisitor,” about political icon Barbara Jordan, will be broadcast on PBS. Tucker is the founder of TuckerGurl Inc., a boutique production company where her street interview film about swimming was produced.
But will Black folks who don’t swim be moved to jump in a pool when seeing Anthony Nesty at the Olympics in Paris as the first Black head coach for the U.S. men’s swimming team? He was a 1988 Olympic gold medal winner in the 100-meter butterfly representing Suriname, a country in northern South America. He has also worked with Katie Ledecky from Bethesda, Maryland, the top woman in Olympic swimming who has a chance to surpass Michael Phelps in medal wins.
How about returning Olympian Simone Ashley Manuel, who competed in Rio during the 2016 Olympics? This American swimmer won two gold and two silver medals, including gold in the 100-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter medley and silver in the 50-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
Then there is first-time Olympian Shaine Casas, an American professional swimmer. He is an American record holder in the short course 4×50 meter medley relay, swimming the butterfly leg of the relay.
There will be a lot of excitement in the water through “Black Folk Don’t…Swim” and the Olympics in Paris.
For more information andto see the movie trailer visit: youtu.be.
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