There was a big uproar within my family about one of my previous posts, where I commented that black people are typically not good swimmers or good in the water. The clamor was not because they disagreed with this point, but because I said it. In writing. On the internet. They were shocked, and for weeks they thought there would be some sort of backlash against me. Just today, my sister asked me if I deleted this post because I feared for my safety. Ha. As if I’d worry about that. We all know black people don’t know how to use computers!
KIDDING!
Seriously, though, they were surprised that I would write that, but in my experience it is generally (although not always) true. There are very few, if any, black scuba instructors on island, and 99% of the Caymanians (Caymaninas are black) do not dive (which is strange, since they live on an island famous for scuba diving). Even the Caymanian fishermen who make their living on the water do not swim. And whenever black people come off the cruise ships and go snorkeling at our site, it is always a disaster. Granted, it is a disaster the majority of the time white cruise shippers come snorkeling as well, but I don’t think that invalidates my point. Even TV supports this stereotype of black people. One of my favorite TV shows is Survivor, and any time they have a black contestant, that person is not a good swimmer and he usually lets his team down in the water challenges. And we all know that TV doesn’t lie, so there must be some truth to the stereotype.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure there are some black people out there who can swim, and who are in fact excellent swimmers and comfortable in the water. Just like there are some white guys out there who can dunk a basketball. Or some women who can do math and science. These are stereotypes, but they are obviously not absolute truths.
Today I’d like to add to the list of stereotypically bad swimmers.
My co-worker Chris gave me some advice when I started working. His words of wisdom were, “If you get an Asian person that wants to sign up for a dive course, the first thing you do is ask him if he can swim, because most of them can’t. If he says yes, give him the swim test before you do anything else in the course, because even if he thinks he can, he probably can’t.”
Now, I’m not going to go as far as Chris in stereotyping all Asians as bad swimmers. There are a lot of Asians out there, and many of them are decent swimmers. Even on Survivor, the Asians are not complete train-wrecks in the swimming challenges; sometimes they do quite well. But there are a few groups within the broad category of Asians who do deserve to be singled out for their stereotypically poor swimming abilities: Filipinos and Indonesians.
Right now your irony meter should be going crazy, because the Philippines and Indonesia are both island nations (as is the Cayman Islands, where the locals also can’t swim). How it can be that an entire people can grow up and live on an island and all be poor swimmers is totally beyond me. It’s especially shocking of Indonesia, which consists of over 17,500 islands and has over 222 million people. The Philippines doesn’t fall far behind, though, as an island nation of over 7,000 islands and 87 million people. In nations with such a big population covering so many islands, you’d think that just about all of them would be able to swim and swim well. You would be very wrong. They are HORRIBLE swimmers! I’ve taught classes with Filipinos and Indonesians, and I’ve had to drag them through the water because the concept of kicking with their feet was too complex to handle. Of course, just getting them in the water is an accomplishment, as most are afraid of it. An even bigger mystery than why they can’t swim is why they come sign up for a scuba diving course in the first place!! Somehow they think that you don’t need to be able to swim because you have a tank with air on your back. They forget that you still need to move around through the water!
As I’ve said, these are just broad generalizations. Stereotypes derive from some truth somewhere, but are not 100% accurate. In this case, combined there are over 300 million Filipinos and Indonesians. Out of that number, I’m sure at least a few hundred are very good swimmers. And I feel for them. I really do. They have to live with the stereotype because the other 299 million plus enforce my stereotypical perceptions.
I’m sure that as my family reads this they are in shock, thinking that there are now 300 million people who want to come strike me down for writing this. But they need not worry. Indonesia is a Muslim nation, and so they already want to strike me down because I’m Jewish. So rest easy, Mom — I’ve only added 87 million enemies with this post. The other 222 million hated me already.
Speaking of being Jewish, let’s not forget that I’ve faced plenty of stereotypes myself. There’s a very well known stereotype out there about Jews being cheap, although I can say that amongst the Jews I know this is not true at all. But the image persists, and if you’re Jewish all you can do is either get upset about it or have a laugh about it. I choose to laugh. Just last week, in fact, Andrea and I bought a new (used) car. We bought a 1995 Audi. The guy selling the car had it listed for $3,200, and after some smooth negotiating on my part, I ended up buying the car for a mere $1,000. A real bargain! When I came home and told Andrea what I paid for it, she was thrilled, and so was I. I gave myself a big pat on the back, saying, “Yeah, I really us-ed him down, huh?”