The Swimming Pool As A Symbol Of Civil Rights And Societal Progress - Especially In The South

This is a team picture of a subdivision swim team in the South 2010.

I figured that it would be a good idea to show evidence of Dr Martin Luther King Jr's dream and those of our ancestors have come true based on the preponderance of the evidence of the norm today. 

The exceptions of today are the instances in which some of these children pictured are not allowed to swim in a pool because of their race.  This is the truth despite the desperate attempts by those who also wish to "hold on to the past" by attempting to show that "nothing has changed for Black people in America".

When the little pencil thin Black girl that I see in the picture "swims like a fish" and wins her heat she is awarded the medal that she has earned.   The lane that she swam in has water that has the same H2O content as the White kid to the right and left of her who "ate her bubbles" - a phrase that seemingly 80% of the kids have written on their backs.

When the overweight little boy that always comes in last place gets out of the pool having come in last place yet again I can see that he was denied a medal for no other reason than the physical attributes that are relevant to his performance.

I see other teams that represent other subdivisions on the "conservative southside of Atlanta" with a similar amount of diversity coming and going between their respective home pools.  This serves as further proof that this is not the exception but the norm.  Those who qualify for team membership based on their residency rather than race are allowed to participate equally on the swim team.  The array of parents cheer for them as well.  A victory by that team member is registered as a move toward a victory for the team at the end of the swim meet.

Finally the pool is drained of its water for no other reason than its mid-summer cleaning.  No longer because of the ignorance that had hovered over this land in the South of the past.

My hope is that the only drowning victim of this and any other pool in America will be the bigotry and ignorance held by those who wish to return to the past because they held an unfair advantage AND those who seek to market today's conflicts as being proof than nothing has changed from the past - one ignorant person's actions being proof enough for them to argue their point about the masses of others.   Both of these minds are equally contemptible.

(Yes my own children are interspersed among these children)