Swimming in Privilege
I was thinking about Gordon Park's "Segregation Story" and, specifically, segregated swimming pools while I was swimming laps. Among about 50 people at the YMCA pool I was the only black person in the pool area. I am often the only black person in the pool area and almost always the only one swimming laps. Being the "only" is not an unusual experience for me but it has always felt more salient when I am swimming. My parents were approached about becoming members of the University City Swim Club in Philadelphia soon after moving to the surrounding neighborhood in the late 60s. To quote the UCSC website, "Imagine the audacity of these people! In the early 1960s, in the heart of an urban area, they proposed to create an integrated swim club." And, it wasn't perfect but IT WAS racially integrated. I grew up among other black people swimming on the summer swim team. I also grew up knowing I was privileged and that many blacks did not have access to pools. In part highlighted by the black kids who lived in the apartment buildings that overlooked the pool who wanted access to the club. I grew up knowing that my parents sacrificed so I had this opportunity. They scraped and saved every year so we could afford to be members. They continue to be members today! But I also grew up knowing that things could be different. We could lead racially integrated lives and the world would not come to an end. In fact, it was a good thing and the world would get better. So, when I am swimming while black, I am reminded of how racial inequality and oppression is made and how it can be unmade.
This post really made me think about how privilege can be invisible until you notice it. I tried merge infinity and it helped me reflect on hidden advantages.
An essay like this works because it leaves a photograph in the reader's head: Gordon Parks's Segregation Story, the pool, the water. Moving that from a citation to something a reader can actually watch is usually where a personal piece stops and a video would begin. We build Reference to Video (Reference to Video): give it a reference image or a piece of footage plus a prompt and it generates a coherent clip, which is how a still and a few seconds of archive footage can carry the central image of a piece.
I really appreciated how you connect a personal experience of swimming with the larger history of racial inequality and access. The contrast between growing up in an integrated swim club and recognizing that other children nearby did not have the same opportunity makes the idea of privilege especially tangible. Your point that integrated spaces can exist and positively shape people’s lives is thought-provoking. It also reminded me how education can encourage us to recognize opportunities and barriers that are often invisible. Even something as simple as working through ALEKS Answers Keys can highlight how access to academic resources differs from one student to another, making your broader point about opportunity feel relevant beyond the swimming pool.
I like how you explain privilege as something we swim in so much that we forget it is even there until someone points it out. In college I once hired online exam takers for an easy course, which I could afford only because I had family support and extra money. Your post made me sit with that and notice how many quiet doors are open for me that others never see.
I like how this post explains privilege as something we swim in and barely notice until someone points it out. It reminded me of a sociology class where I could afford to stay enrolled because I used to take my online class cheap for a summer credit. Back then I never saw how that choice came from safety and support in my life, but now I feel that noticing those hidden advantages is the first step to any real change.