Kin: First Responders by Tameka Cage Conley

[conuly]

Link to poem

The drowning event this poem is about is actually why I insisted the kids had to learn to swim. I read an article about this, complete with statistics for swimming among various demographics in the USA (did you know that when integration became the law a lot of towns closed and even destroyed their town pools, paving them over so they couldn't be reopened?) and I called up my sister that same hour and said "Your kids have to learn to swim, so you're going to sign them up".

Comments

[lilysea]

I read a graphic novel aimed at kids/teens which mentioned US pool integration

and was horrified by some of the things that happened

apparently, there were instances of people POURING ACID into public swimming pools full of swimmers to hurt the swimmers! :(

That story aside, it's a more light hearted graphic novel overall, since it's set in the modern day (the horrific stories are what an older woman tells a young girl she is coaching to swim while explaining the disparity in ability to swim)

https://www.amazon.com/Swim-Team-Johnnie-Christmas/dp/0063056763

[conuly]

Also I think a few "race riots" aka "massacres".

[kaffy_r]

That poem hits hard, and the reality is terrifying.

[conuly]

I am apparently not the only one hard hit by the news story - I brought it up a few weeks ago on... I think the crabgrass_comics_rss_feed gocomics page? - and somebody else replied that they knew exactly what incident I meant.

[adafrog]

Okay, that is shitty about paving over the pools.

[conuly]

It really encapsulates American racism in a nutshell.

[minoanmiss]

did you know that when integration became the law a lot of towns closed and even destroyed their town pools, paving them over so they couldn't be reopened?

it has amazed me time and again how many White Americans will deny themselves so much just to make sure Black people can't have it too.

[conuly]

It's so fucking stupid.