Why so many Americans never learned to swim

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.9K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

In the U.S., roughly 8 in 10 kids from lower-income households grow up with few or no swimming skills — and Black and Latino children lag behind their white peers. Those gaps aren't an accident. They trace back to a long history of segregated public pools, and to fears of the water that have been passed down through generations. This week, we follow Jasmine Romero, who in her mid-thirties walked into a room full of four- and five-year-olds to take her first swim class, determined to break the cycle before her own child is born.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Just a heads up, y'all. This episode contains a little salty language and a reference to sexual salt.
0:07.1	What's good, y'all? You are listening to Code Switch from NPR. I'm Gene Demby. And look,
0:12.9	it's not officially, officially summer yet, but around the country, folks are busting out the grills,
0:18.9	the local pools and beaches are officially open.
0:21.2	And so it feels a lot like summer.
0:24.1	And it's in the spirit of those early summer vibes, you know, before it gets all nasty
0:28.2	and muggy out, that we are revisiting a favorite episode of ours from last summer.
0:34.2	It's an episode that will probably hit close to home or, I guess, splash close to home for a lot of y'all because in this episode, our friend Jasmine Romero is going
0:44.4	to her first swim class. You walk in the doors and the humidity and the smell of chlorine
0:50.8	hits you hard. I can't even see the pool and I'm already like in the environment
0:57.1	of it. My hair's frizzing up. And, uh, you know, and I walked in and I was like, hi, I'm here for the
1:01.8	swim classes. And I look around and it's like nothing but like four and five year olds and their
1:07.7	parents. And I'm the only grown-ass adult that's like,
1:11.2	Hi, I'm here for the swim class.
1:14.3	Her instructor said, that was fine.
1:17.2	She was like, okay, yeah, you know, you can go get changed in here.
1:20.5	And I'm literally, like, changing into swim clothes around, like, little kids that are looking at me me like, why are you here?
1:30.1	She's there because she wants to conquer her fear.
1:32.6	Her fear of the water.
1:34.6	She's had it her whole life.
1:36.0	Her older sisters all have it.
1:37.5	And they inherited this fear from their mom.
	...

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