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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is confusing. Why would Fairfax integrate everything else, but draw the line at pools.  And, if private pools only allowed white people to join, I think we'd be hearing about this in the real estate forum.   [/quote]

Many of the pools your kids swam in this summer were built in the 50s and 60s, when black people were systematically prevented from living in your neighborhood.  Literally not allowed, and it was legal to exclude them.  DC had some public pools, and white people didn’t want to share them.  They moved out to VA and built private pools. This is not controversial, it’s just history.

Today, yes, we have fair housing laws and our neighborhoods and pool memberships are more diverse.  However, some neighborhoods and pools have old policies that might have had discriminatory impact even after desegregation if you were to look closely.

For example, there was a discussion in the sports forum on the differences between MCSL and NVSL swim team practices and policies. Did you know that NVSL recommends that teams NOT share seed times for competitive duel meets? MCSL makes that information available.  Why the lack of transparency in NVSL?  Why is it that swimming has such low participation by black families in NoVA? How many families tried to get their kids into swimming but were harmed by racist coaches and leagues?

Obviously, the kind of discrimination I’m talking about would have been more rampant in the late 60’s and 70’s. Today, we just operate old systems without looking too closely at why they exist.  But thinking a little more critically about this won’t hurt, I promise.[/quote]

Explain the connection between seed times and racism-- why black families would say to themselves, well, if I don't know what another swimmer's previous record for this event is, it's not worth participating.

Racism was rampant in the 1970s. But you've not addressed any of my points at all, so please rebut them so we can be on the same page about why neither climate, nor the actual rate of swim team participation, should matter. Otherwise we are just talking about racism that existed 50 years ago. [/quote]

It is easy for a coach to hold back a fast swimmer from the “wrong” family, if their times are secret. If you are involved with competitive swimming, you would have some idea about how conteoversial seeding decisions (who swims what strokes at which meets) can be.[/quote]

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