In Rainier Beach, community breaks down racial barriers in swimming

Growing up in Rainier Valley, Monique Franklin was one of five children in a single-parent household. Going to the neighborhood pool in the summer was simply not financially feasible, she said. 

Instead, Franklin learned to swim as a child in Lake Washington through free community classes. 

“I don’t know if I would’ve learned if I had to go to the pool,” Franklin said. “The barriers to swimming are real, and it does have impacts on Black families and Black adults.” 

During Seattle’s increasingly hot summer days, families and friends flock to neighborhood pools and local beaches to cool off. But disparities in who can swim, and who can swim safely, persist. 

Across the United States, low-income residents and residents of color are more likely to be unable to swim, a reflection of a host of factors — a lack of access to affordable swim lessons, the legacy of racial discrimination at public pools, the perpetuation of racist stereotypes, concerns about protecting natural hair, fears about swimming passed down generationally. 

It’s a trend that community advocates, water safety experts and local recreation agencies hope to turn around in neighborhoods like Rainier Beach, where about 4 in 5 residents identify as a person of color, and the median household income is about $43,000, or roughly 66% of the citywide median, according to a 2019 report by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.

Efforts are slow but promising. Rainier Beach has a lifeguarded beach on Lake Washington and a local aquatic center, but the neighborhood doesn’t have much of a swim culture, said Gregory Davis, managing strategist of the local group Rainier Beach Action Coalition. 

That’s where programs like Dance and Splash, a free dance-jam-meets-pool-party at Rainier Beach Pool and at nearby Pritchard Beach, come in to fill the gap.

Created by Franklin through her nonprofit Inspired Child, the program is designed for Black families “to see themselves reflected and dance together, to get into the pool and be moving together.” 

The summer program also provides a unique opportunity for residents to learn about African cultures and the diaspora, Franklin said. Swimming is a large part of many coastal African cultures, but it’s a fact rarely acknowledged in the United States, she said.

During a Dance and Splash event this month at the Rainier Beach Pool, parents, grandparents and children danced to live bomba music, a Puerto Rican musical style and dance created by enslaved people more than 400 years ago that symbolizes resistance and freedom. Kids twirled, swishing traditional bomba skirts before hopping into the pools for an hour of free swimming.

Children getting acquainted with water — and having a positive association with water — early on helps ensure they become strong swimmers as adults, said Chezik Tsunoda, a local water safety advocate. 

In April, Tsunoda ran a free, five-day swim course for children through her organization No More Under. She founded the group four years ago after her son died in a drowning accident, “not wanting anyone to go through what I went through.” 

In collaboration with Bellwether Housing, Seattle Parks and Recreation and swimming education nonprofit Tankproof, the camp connected low-income families to trained swim teachers. 

It was a program Beza Muluneh was thrilled to learn about. A resident at one of Bellwether’s affordable housing complexes in Rainier Valley, Muluneh has always wanted to put her 5-year-old son in swim lessons, but couldn’t afford the classes or pool passes. 

At the Rainier Beach Pool, Muluneh’s son learned to open his eyes underwater and how to dunk his head below the surface safely. But he’s nowhere near ready to swim on his own, Muluneh said. 

“It was a good experience, but I wish he had more classes,” Muluneh said of the No More Under program. “I have no way to make that happen for him so I’m waiting for another chance.”

A 2017 study from the USA Swimming Foundation and the University of Memphis found that 64% of Black children and 45% of Hispanic children have no or low swimming ability, compared with 40% of white children. About 4 in 5 children in families with a household income less than $50,000 have no or low swimming ability, the study also found. 

The stakes of a persistent gap in swim ability are high. People of color are more likely to die by drowning than white people. 

In King County, Black residents accounted for about 15% of preventable drowning deaths in the last five years, but make up only 6% of the county’s population, according to county medical examiner records. 

“That’s the danger with water, it’s constant, it’s beautiful, it’s life-giving, and it’s also something we have to respect and have our sensors up and eyes out for,” Tsunoda said. 

YMCA Greater Seattle CEO Loria Yeadon has always been afraid of swimming in open water. For much of her life, that fear stemmed from not being able to swim.

Growing up in rural Virginia, Black residents like her family and her neighbors were barred from accessing the local pool. Even when it became integrated, “the pool was not the most welcoming place for people of color,” Yeadon said. 

“This was in my lifetime,” Yeadon said. “I think there’s trepidation because people had been denied access for so long. [Swimming] wasn’t a thing people of color pursued, there weren’t swim instructors readily available.” 

It’s a history that’s left some parents and grandparents unable to swim, and fearful of their own children getting into waters, she said. Research shows kids with parents who can’t swim are less likely to have good swimming skills.

When Yeadon had children, she made sure to enroll them in swim classes. But it wasn’t until she became head of the local Y in 2019 that she decided it was time to learn how to swim herself. For Yeadon, it’s a matter of progressing racial justice. 

“There are a lot of issues in the world we can’t do anything about, but water safety, and drowning, we can do something about that if we choose to,” Yeadon said. 

Tony Gomez, the violence and injury prevention manager for Public Health – Seattle & King County, has seen firsthand how investment in marginalized communities can dramatically improve water safety. 

In the early 2000s, Gomez and other community leaders noticed Asian American and Pacific Islander children were drowning at a disproportionately high rate in Washington, particularly Vietnamese American kids. 

Working alongside doctors from Seattle Children’s hospital and community leaders from local Vietnamese churches and businesses, state and local health officials launched a targeted campaign. 

Organizers posted PSA posters in Vietnamese, sponsored free and low-cost swim lessons, boosted the number of lifeguards at parks and beaches, and increased the number of life jacket loaner stands. Their efforts paid off, Gomez said. 

“We were able to almost eliminate that burden,” Gomez said. “It shows what can happen when you have a good wraparound system of education.” 

Comprehensive water safety and swim education programs at schools and day cares are ideal, Tsunoda said. In the short term, however, community-based classes and programs like Dance and Splash can serve as an accessible model for families.

With Dance and Splash, Franklin hopes not just to increase safe swimming opportunities with her program but also to strengthen the bonds of the neighborhood. 

Over the years, Franklin said she’s seen residents of color move away or be displaced from her block. Buildings are being torn down to make way for new development, while other lots remain vacant. Gentrification is creeping in and taking root in Rainier Beach, she said. 

Part of her goal with Dance and Splash is to give families of color who’ve moved away a reason to return for the summer, “like a homecoming.” 

But she imagines in future years she’ll expand the summer program to locations in Renton, Tukwila and Federal Way, where many residents of color and low-income families are relocating in search of more affordable housing. 

“I seek to serve our community where it is, and where they would like to reunion,” Franklin said.