All White Swim Meet Celebrates 8 Years of Excellence

National White Heritage Swim Meet held since 2003 near Raleigh, Durham North Carolina. This year nearly 750 swimmers have come from as far away as Florida and Illinois to compete.

“Look at all the people,” said Kenny Cross of Raleigh. “This is where champions are born.”

The all white swim teams were created in an effort to raise interest in swimming in white people. Of course, everyone is welcome….

Wait. Does this make you uncomfortable? Does an all white swim meet make you uneasy and raise the specter of racism? Is it wrong to have an all white swim meet?

Only they aren’t… all white, I mean. They are instead all black.

Still feel the same way?

If not, why?

It never ceases to amaze me that we can have all black things without raising anyone’s ire. We can have all black colleges, all black beauty contests, all black sports venues, all black political caucuses, all black… well, all black anything. Yet the second a white group tries to practice such racial segregation suddenly we are rehashing the Civil War.

It is a never ending source of fascination that blacks can practice all the racism they want in America but if anyone else tries it we get news vans parked outside their building and politicians racing to be first on TV to sternly denounce such abominations.

Yet, I don’t have any interest at all in condemning an all black swim meet. These are all free citizens and if they want to compete at a venue of their own creation, why should anyone mind?

Of course, it isn’t like blacks have been prevented from joining swim teams since all the way back in 2003 and this is sensible redress, either. But, whatever.

I do have a major problem with this story, though, and it was the above quote from young Kenny Cross of Raleigh. He said, “This is where champions are born.”

That they have fooled this young man into imagining that “champions” can come from a segregated event that is not filled with the best and brightest from every walk of life is a shame. Does this young man really think that only his black friends amount to “champions”? Does he think no other races could become champions?

The thing is, these kids are not competing against the best of all swimmers, they are merely competing with the best from their own small racial block. This is NOT how champions are made. Champions are made through wide spread competition and limiting yourselves to only specific blocks of people is not the way to create champions.

Still, the story is an interesting dichotomy in America today. The fact is, racism is bad… except when it isn’t.

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