Racist Swimming Pools

Once upon a time, progressives were truly progressive. They had people like Dr Martin Luther King Jr., who believed sensible and decent things such as it is best to judge a person by the content of his or her character rather than by his or her skin colour. Ignore the late New Atheist Christopher Hitchens’ incredible claim that King was at best a nominal Christian. King’s anti-racism emanated from his Christian faith, which has taught for two thousand years that all humans are made in the image of God and that God loves all people of all ethnicities. This is one of the reasons why Christianity became the world’s first global religion. Its message was and is for all people. A Christian racist (or a racist Christian if you will) is an oxymoron.

Another wise belief of the once upon a time progressives, was that segregating people on the basis of their ethnicity is a very bad idea. Segregation denies the common humanity of people, sets up a hierarchy of races in which Black people are apportioned the poorest districts to live in, and prevents the personal and professional relationships that otherwise would have flourished among diverse communities.

But the cycle of history has turned full circle and puked up neo-segregation. Now it is not racists from Montgomery or Pretoria who are dividing people along racial lines, but so-called progressives here in the UK – or Leicester to be more specific. As a consequence of their view that non-whites are forever victims and need to be treated differently and preferentially, Leicester University and the Unity Swimming organisation are together organising segregated swimming sessions at the university’s pool for Black and ethnic minority students only.

The reason for this is explained by Unity Swimming. According to their website’s statistics, 95% of Black adults and 93 % of Asian adults in the UK do not swim. The figures are better for children, but not by much: 80% of Black children and 78% of Asian children do not swim (https://www.unityswimming.co.uk/). Does this mean that these are the figures of those who cannot swim, or who can but do not anymore, or a combination of both? The expression is ambiguous. Perhaps it was written by a year ten on work experience. Whatever the meaning, it is clearly not ideal that so many people either cannot swim or do not keep up their swimming skills, for swimming is a life-saving ability. However, their view is that to encourage more non-whites to learn to swim without feeling awkward in the presence of white people, they must have their own swimming lessons and sessions. In other words, a ‘safe space’.

This would mean, Unity Swimming claim, that Black students do not have to worry that they might be stereotyped as less buoyant because of alleged high bone density or low levels of body fat. It means too that female Muslim students can swim without being embarrassed because they choose to swim in ample costumes adapted to their faith’s emphasis on modest dress. While I do not dismiss these concerns, the solution is not to deny white students access at certain times to what should be a shared, public space. Would only-white swimming slots be tolerated? Absolutely not, and neither should they be. Segregated swimming hours are no solution. What then are the alternatives?

To get more non-whites into the water, swimming pool authorities ought to be more vigilant regarding discriminatory comments and behaviour. Those who behave like this ought to be told to leave the pool. Memberships can be cancelled for any persistent offenders. Any swimming pool that denies access to Muslim women in ‘burkinis’ must cease to do so. If Sikh men do not have to wear crash helmets, then I am sure the same understanding of religious sensibilities can be extended to Muslim women whose swimming costumes resemble those women used to wear in this country during 19th century.

Unity Swimming ought also to live up to its name. Rather than dividing people, they should be advertising the importance of learning to swim to Black and Asian communities in lessons at which all can attend. Those learning to swim should only be segregated according to ability. In their zealous attempt to be inclusive, Leicester University and Unity Swimming have ended up being exclusivist, which is an all too familiar paradox in these weird, wacky days of woke.

Peter Harris is the author of two books, The Rage Against the Light: Why Christopher Hitchens Was

This article (Racist Swimming Pools) was published by The New Conservative and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Peter Harris