I played basketball growing up. That was my ship, and because the pandemic have not, I hadn't played basketball like a year and a half, and literally on Saturday played for the first time. And now I'm not sure I'm ever gonna touch my toes. You know. It's It's one of them things where you just like, oh, I didn't use these muscles, and I regret every choice I've made. Now listen, but once you get it back, you could always come back. But I'm a bad as a grown man.
You're like, I don't think I can take this chance anymore. It's not worth It's not worth it. Thirty four. I don't know what this these wrists are for anymore. I'm not gonna dump. I never could dump. It ain't happen in the Anemi racists money term stuff. I can't tell me. Yep, yep, yep,
there it is. There it is. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another spectacular episode of My Mama Told Me, the podcast where we got deep, deep into the pockets of black conspiracy theories and we finally worked to prove that Henrietta Lex cured polio and more importantly, cured people from naming their child Henrietta. Nobody wants to name their kids
Henrietta anymore, and it's because of you, Henrietta Lacks. Thank you for your sacrifice, thank you for all the work that you did helping us figure out a bunch of ships with cancer and diseases. And I'm sorry the government treated you the way that they did. But maybe if your mom didn't name you Henrietta, we would have respected you more. Hard to know anyway, I'm your host, Langston Kerman. As always, I'm coming in. I am misbehaving. I am not acting the way that I'm supposed to do. This
is my personality at all times, ladies and gentlemen. I'm not sure how to fix it. But you know who has a lovely personality? You know who shines every time I see it. She's She's just a lovely person, a hilarious person. Most importantly, a hilarious person. Secondly, a lovely person. But she's great. You know her from her work on Comedy Central. So funny. Give it up from my guests, Miss amina E Myne, what's going on? How you I'm doing good? How are you feeling? I'm chilling? You know,
it's the temperatures are changing. Outside, I baby coming. Congratulations. Yeah, yeah, I've been through. My son is he turned seven this year? Oh I know, right, I know. Okay, So seven is that a cool age or is there an age would prefer he would have just like chill that seven seems to be where it's like, oh, this person has an
opinion of voice, so it's challenging. So I mean, I don't I can't say I would just like let him chill through because it's not like when he was little, when he was just you know, messing up around and stuff. But like seven is like an age where I like, oh, you have to get to know your kid because everything pricey. Now it's like that's who you kind of defined him as, and now my child is like I'm defining myself. So that we're in that space. Oh look you you and
you've made the song, but I invented the remake. Here we go. You feel me Winky winky coming through hot You know what I'm saying. Last call might be at two am, it might be three am. It depends on my day. You know that. In so, but congratulations, congratulate love. They always said you would never like people. You're gonna miss the baby and like, no, I'm not because this is this is dumb, but no, I do miss it because that's when it was. It's even as complicated as
it's gonna feel. That's as simple as he gets. Right, Yeah, this person, this little rubber person with a unworking neck, is probably the easiest that I'm telling you is. And you're gonna be like, what the hell this is easy,
and I'm just telling you buckle up. Damn. All right, Well, with a haunting way to start this episode of the podcast, I'm like, relations but congratulations, you're like about to be asked though, all right, we can't bullshit around anymore because you came with a conspiracy theory that I'm so excited, one that one that we have not touched, one that
that I think frankly deserves to be touched. It is such a common conspiracy theory that I I personally know quite a few people who have argued that this is a true to life thing. You said, my mama told me black people can't swim. Yes, tell me more, tell me everything you know. Well, I feel like the irony of the situation is I grew up as a professional swimmer. So yeah, there's a twist to that, but I heard
it so often. It's so common, and that's why I was like, I think this would be perfect for the podcast. But even still to this day, when I tell people I swim professionally, it's like that response like really, what where? And then I'm like, I went to a HBC, you know, not ABCU and swim theme, so and it's always like I didn't know, I didn't know, And it's this common
theme of like black people can't swim. And then now I'm like, this unit for him because I swim my whole life from the age of six competitively up until college twenty two. So if I see where the truth comes from, because statistically, you know where the minority in this sport, just like a lot of sports that you have for that are like I feel like catered to white people, um only because it's like a luxury, you
know what I mean. Like I feel like the sports that we have was like, you know, something you can you can do when your your garage or you know, you're like the driveway, but swimming is like you have you have to have a facility. You probably have to don't car to get the facility. Like I don't know where to buy a polar racket and I'm and I have money, so I don't even know, you know what I mean, Like, this is why I feel like it's stradgy, you know, Like this is why I feel like it's
it's a conspiracy and that right. But yeah, so a lot of black people don't actually know how to swim. And it's often that you'll even travel to a Caribbean you know, country, and they're surrounded by border and they can't even swim, right, So this is this is just a common conversation that people always say and believe and think. So well, let me, let's let's back up a little bit. I think you're getting to a lot of very important truths, but I've got more questions for you at the beginning
of this. So you grew up swimming, you from age six you said you were already somebody threw at the age of six months, So I was. My My dad actually was a swim instructor. So my dad taught me out. Okay, So I was in the pool. I'm the youngest of setting, so my older siblings were already swimming, and then when I was born, we were putting the water immediately. And then from the age of six, we joined the swim team in Atlanta and we competed on ESA and swim
team up into the age of college. And then we went to college on a full scholarship. And I say we because I have a twin sister, So we went to college on a full scholarship for swimming. Was one of you better than the other, So yes, my sister was faster than me, but it was like it was points. It was like point zero of seconds, which is very significant in the sport. But I have to I have to admit gracefully that yes she was testidy damn. So I gotta get her on the podcast because I'm talking.
But this is so big, this is a twist to it. My sister was only fast and two events and one stroke. I was fast and four events and all of the strokes, So I was actually, yes, I was actually more decorated as a swimmer. But you are a more person und yeah, just rounded out swimming exactly. She could nail certain strokes.
She had that one stroke and she would kill it and that would be that that one event for her, and then but for me, like save you were you were doing a relay, I could go I could even do hers or someone else's and it's still be great. You know that I'm saying. So, did y'all ever do some sister sister ship and make it absolutely? I paid
my brilliant to swim some of my events. We would like we had different colors swim caps, and no one could tell us apart, so we would like switch swim caps and and and just doing it was and and sometimes like when we were younger, they actually mixed us up so like it wasn't even strategized for us to swim each other events. They just sucked up, like, oh I thought that was I thought that was Anna. So yeah, yeah, damn, and I have I've seen both of y'all, and it
is tough to tell y'all apart. I listen, I haven't spent enough time around y'all, but it stressed me the funk out when I saw both of you together. Yes, we've done sister sister stuff all the time, especially when it came to swimming, because my coach made sure we swim all the events, so that's even like the long ones, and we didn't want to. So I'd be like, y'all keep swimming to dollars if you take care of this' two hundred breaststrokes from me problem. I love of that. Okay,
let me ask you this. Growing up your swimming, are you competing against white people? Are you competing in predominantly black spaces? Who who is your white all white people? It's nothing but white people. So I swim for the USA A swimming which is like the national you know, like confidence. But they had the organization, and so you would out of the whole organization you have about maybe one to two percent of black and other swimmers, you know what I mean. Like it wasn't even just black,
it was like anybody other than white. It was it feels that two percent out of the whole nation. So um, So swimming is a predominantly or was I should say, a predominantly white sport when I was growing up. So we were like the only black team. And because because of like the height of the competition, like we will go to Junior Olympics, we will go to zone, we will go to like high regional meats, it would it
would get even, it would get worse. It would be like two black people at that meet, you know what I mean. So even in my swim team, like even in the team. You had to be fast enough. And if you were as fast to go to those events, now it will become like it would just be you and your friend there. Damn. Okay. So, so you're going to these predominantly white spaces, you're competing against almost entirely
white people. Is there are part of you at this point because you're growing up with a black dad who's teaching y'all how to swim, who's encouraging you, clearly is coaching you well, because you're competing on the junior Olympic level, is there are part of you that still has the black people can't swim running in your head? Or you like competing like, no, I don't give a funk about none of that, and I'm gonna bust y'all. Ass um. Well, it was more like I see why black people don't swim.
It was more like, I see why we don't do this. It's a lot like, you know, especially as a black woman, you know, you you I'm competing against these white people. And after the swim meeting is over, you know, the white girl cloths in the locker room, she sprinkles water on her hair, put on at eyeliner, and she hops
out of the locker room and it's a new day. Meanwhile, I'm over here saton conditioner, putting a shallow caps over my head, doing a little twist style, trying to and it's still coming out with a little bed to not you know, scar coming out, you know. And so I would say more so because of the response that I will always get because people are like, oh, I didn't know you swim on the black people swim. That's that
was like just a common thing growing up. But also as I was competing and and swimming, I was like, I see, I see why we don't do this. This This is a lot you know. I had eggs and muskin. It's just it wasn't conducive, you know what I mean, Like it just it's you know, it was a lot dry skin on a black person, you know. But things things are different now, especially with the chemicals that they used with the water and especially like hair products and
all of that. But growing up, it was it was tough. Well that's what I was gonna ask because I have to assume, and this is this is me putting my conspiratorial hat on. I have to assume that there's yeah,
I'm a tip. And I have to assume that there's there's an instinct or at least an unwillingness to change the form of the water, of the chemicals, of all the things, because it doesn't negatively affect the people that they're they're most trying to service, right, And there has to be a way to make water with a little bit of lotion in it or just a tad bit of conditioner cooked in that chemical, just that it wouldn't do as many harsh things to black skin and black
hair as as it's done in the past, exactly. And even even just the design of the swimsuit. You know, we're more curty, you feel me like we're they're making these swimsuits for boxes. I mean, you know, no, no disrespect, but respectfully like disrespect. But you guys are shaped like and even like the shower, like the swim cap. You know, usually you know, we have larger hair, Like I'm no. Growing up, I had to wear braids. Well that was just more conducive than wearing my hair out because it
was such a stress. And so now like, are you going to design a swim cap that is great for performance? But I saw something that you know can can keep all of my hair inside. So it was it was definitely little little things like that. But I think it's just yeah, I mean conspiracy. And then also just like we wasn't growing up like I'm about to swim. That wasn't something like do you even know how to swim? Well, I don't like how you said that. I do. I
am uh, I am not a strong swimmer. I'll say that, but that is more as a result of my anxiety. It is not a result of me not being taught. I was taught for years. I went to you know, I was one of them kids that grew up in like after school programs where they would like make you go take swim lessons, and I just could never relax enough in the water to get like the breathing down yeah, and do it correctly. But I plenty of people put
resources behind me. Yeah exactly, that makes sense. That makes sense. So I don't I don't know if you remember this. There was that as you were talking about the swim caps and all that, it reminded me that this past Olympics, I think there was that big controversy of the black woman who had, like I guess, invented a larger swim cap that was meant to be more accommodating for black hair, and then the Olympic committee came down and was like, nah, we don't know that ship, so you gotta get rid
of it. Like it, it does seem like a very intentional effort to at least not be accommodating for the needs of a different type of swimmers. Yeah, and often it's because they never had to They never had to be accommodating. You're you're looking at years of years of years and even now, like we're just now seeing black swimmers in the Olympics, right, Like even so I wanted what was the first year because it was it had to be like around when I was in college, so
it wasn't too long ago. And that's when you saw I don't want to mess up his name, but it was like one black guy in the Olympics, and then we had one more, and then now it was like two. So we're looking like, why would they be accommodating or why would they, you know, even go out their way to do that when we're still looking at a lower number of black swimmers at that level of competition. Yeah, and and to some extent, I I don't even know.
This doesn't justify the decision at all, definitely rationalizes it where I don't even think that Sometimes what they're doing is like an overt malicious racism as it is like black people are like, yo, this would make my swim experience more simple, easy, comfortable, whatever it is, And they're like, yeah, but if we change the rules, the rules are just changed.
And y'all niggas are just here for a week, like your temporary or like or you have these type of organizations where they hold so much weight in the rules that they just they don't want to change it just because of the honor of tradition, you know what I mean, Like you have like you, it's stubbornness too, that energy as well. Um, so yeah, definitely not condoning it, but that that level of understanding can just kind of give
you an idea of where everybody kind of be coming from. Yeah, it's Serena Williams wearing that catsuit and everybody freaked the funk out because they're like this, you can't wear a cat suit. But it's like, but the bitch looked good in the cat suitt suit. But they're like, but tradition says cat suits are not what we wear when we do the thing. It's like, I don't know, man, it go hand in hand and also a level of control too, but that's why you have the different views and depends
on other side. But um, yeah, yeah, so I don't know. Hopefully I haven't really been following too close. But hopefully I know now as I move forward, even as I've liked taught lessons and I see more black people are swimming, So that's that's the good thing. Is your son a swimmer? Does he swim? He is? He is? He actually talked so the same way my dad taught me how to swim.
My dad actually taught him how to swim suit. But the beauty of it was he would bring him to my swimming lessons, so it was like, oh yeah, yeah it was. It was actually really nice. So he was a little baby taking my little mommy and me classes, but mommy was teaching the class and granddad was standing in as the parents. So he's been in the water since he was a small baby, which the Yeah, so
he's a strong swimmer. You are keeping this tradition going. Yeah, when the pandemic kind of hurt us what I will want to tell people. It's like with swimming, just like with any skill, if you don't do it after a while, you lose it. So we actually just was we was on vacation and my cousins was like, he came swim me case swim and I was like, no, we just forgot So I had to kind of just hit him in the water. I had to get an the water with him and we'm him who he was and where
he came from, and then it was good. But you, swimming is like one of those skills where you can't take It's like stand up, like you can't take a week off the thing. You're about to come and just crush it like this is what you gotta keep. You gotta keep using this muscle. So yeah, and I do think into your point, I do think that's something I
want to consider. I want to find myself in the space where I can go like, oh, all right, this is an excuse not only for this person to to begin to break uh a history, right and ugly history of black people either being associated with not swimming or actually not swimming, but on top of that, a chance for me to to now reconsider some of the decisions I've made as an adult of like I don't swim, that's not my thing. Like, no, maybe I could be a swimmer and I can use this baby as a
as an excuse to do that. It's never so great. Have you seen those videos when they just like throw newborns in like a big gas pool. Yes, and then naturally they say, I'm like, I don't know what they I don't know what part of the world this is. But it's so crazy because growing up, that would be the trauma behind all of my friends and swimming. It would be like I was thrown into the pool and that was like the last time they swam, because it
was like swim right. So you have those people who kind of like doing their own stroke and they're like I made it, and then other people like I will never touch the water again because that was trauma sizing so right, and that that's the weird dance that we're I think we're all dealing in. It's like you want to be able to learn to swim, but you don't want trauma attached to it. And unfortunately, for black people, I think very few things that we have are at
least somewhat associated with trauma. Isn't that that's just this and that's the conspiracy right there. They just they just want to kill us mentally. It's crazy. Hey, hold on, that's how they get you, because, oh boy, is there is there not a lot that isn't at least somewhat associated with the destruction of our minds and nothing can't have nothing. All right, We're gonna take a break. We'll be back with more amina and more, my mama told me. And we are back, my god, Oh yeah, we're back
here with more amina, money, more. My mama told me. We're still talking about the possibility that black people can in fact swim, and Amina is proof of that, her and her twin sister proven and there in the sun too, everybody's proving that black people do have the potential to swim. When when you were growing up as a swimmer, were you made fun of? Were you guys picked on for being the weirdos who were excited to be in water when everybody else was like, nah, that'sh it's weird, we
don't do that. No, so we weren't. So we weren't picked on because it wasn't something that everybody saw like we swam but it was always at a distance to school and wherever else we were. So when we were swimming, it was with other people who were swimming. But what we were picked on was about like our appearance. Yeah, the ashy, this your hair, you know. Yeah, like even to down to how we dressed, because swimming is not really the most affordable or it wasn't the most affordable sport.
And it was three of us and so um my mom was a single mom at the time, so it was like we're paying four events, were paying for swimm meets and stuff. So it's just like y'all gonna get sneakers once every you know, blue moon, and so we weren't never the kind of kids who were established or what the end. So we were made fun of, I feel like in indirectly to what it was that we had to pay for with swimming, but it wasn't because
we swam. And actually when it was time for swim fool parties and stuff, that was our time to shine. So it wasn't like you can pick on us because it's like you don't have the skills that I have. So that was actually our time to like be like I was swim we award I'm doing that. Yeah, But like when you would come to school every day looking dry, it was just like, oh, yeah, we're about to be
getting on you, right. These these kids don't know that you're They think you're just crusty, but they don't know you're crusty because you're champions. You feel me say it again? Like I put it like that, and then you just woke up and you didn't wash your ass. But it turns out you've been very wet and wet, wet in the in the coolest way possible that they're not even aware of exactly. Kids had no idea, but you don't listen. I have no student loans now, So who had the
last laugh? You feel me? Well, they had the last laugh, but they locked in your face and now they probably can't hear you because they work at McDonald But that said, good for you for sticking with it and not letting being asked you at school deter you from from following your dreams. Really, Oh my goodness. Yeah, Okay, let's jump into some of this research, because I did find quite a bit on this conversation of whether or not black people can swim, and according to a two thousand and
eight study. It actually showed that more than fifty eight percent, fifty eight percent of black kids in America cannot swim, that is what they reported. And black kids drown it nearly three times the rate of their white counterparts in this country. Yeah. But now, now, now, now, when you dropped the statistics like that, Yes, that sounds like a strategy right there. Not three times wow, three times. That's a lot of fucking drowning black babies, you know what
I mean? That is not good. That is and people need to hear to see, see put your kids in the water, because that's crazy. I didn't know. I didn't know it was like that. That's wild. So I I wanted to look up where the origin of this is, right, like, why is it that all of this is happening? And it seems like the cause is largely related to and you talked about this earlier access. So in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there were almost no pools
being built in predominantly black areas. They're they're like saying emphatically, we are not building swimming pools in places where black people live. Then the twenties and thirties come around and they start to actually build public pools all over UH cities, all over these larger sort of like urban areas. However, it's also kicking into the era where we start to do the separate but equal ship right where they basically say, like you get a swimming pool, you get a swimming pool,
y'all can't swim together. However, the white swimming pools that they're building, these large, white public swimming pools, I'll read you some of the description that they had for them. It's basically some of them were larger than football fields, surrounded by grassy lawns and concrete sun decks. However, the black ones, the pools that black people were assigned to, were often extremely small, indoors and had none of the
comparable amenities. Wow. Yeah, So basically white people get to go lounge on like a fake beach and black people get to go into like a school auditorium with like a bucket in the middle of it. That is ridiculous.
But and and that's all I would think about even growing up, because as it as it gotten down to, like us trying to be as competitive as our counterparts, we just it was really no chance, you know what I mean, Like I was going to a school that was like forty minutes away, and then the pool was
another forty minutes away. So I'm only practicing once out of the day, which is after school, as opposed to my counterparts, the pool is at their school, so they start their warning swimming, they go to classes, and then they go to back to practice in the afternoon. So now I'm competing against someone who's training twice a day is way more convenient for them. And and that's that's
the disadvantage. That was a disadvantage growing up for yeah, the inside of time and even to your earlier point, it also is even if like functionally you and your your mom had figured out some way of transporting you to this space, it's still also is a separate check that needs to be like written out to make sure that you're getting the same amount of practice that it is already cooked into the bill of you know, white education, the white upbringing, like they have the pool already a
part of their daily lives exactly, yep, yep, yep, ye wow. So to that that same point, and this is an example of sort of like the differences in these experiences in the mid nineteen thirties and St. Louis. Black Americans represented fifteen percent of the population in that city, which is surprisingly low for St. Louis. That's the Niggas city.
But the point is they only took one and a half percent of the number of swims in the city one and a half percent because they were only allocated one small indoor pool, whereas the white residents of St. Louis had access to nine pools, two of which were as large and sort of like sprawling as the ones that I described earlier. So it's nothing but but white people with resources and black people with one real sad
chlorine tank. Exactly. I'm just grateful that, you know, I grew up in Atlanta where my coach, My coach didn't play dad, he was. He was just a huge advocate for US swimming, and he also went out of his way to make sure we had access to get to practice, even to the point where he'll pick us up. He also assisted with like our swimming fees. So I'm just yeah,
my shout out to coach Tommy um Tommy Jackson. Uh. He he's been in the game board years years, at minimum five decades of coaching, and he actually took a black Haitian swimmer to the Olympics. The last Olympics, Nicole. I don't want to mess up her last name, um and she she made it to the Olympics. So that was a big deal for him because that was like one of his goals to have a you know, one
of us. Like even now, he's still be trying to get us back in the pool and I'll be like, let let it, let me go, let go, like let it. But you could do Bassard, let it, let it go. I'm not. So he's like a real terror sour typing that. Yeah, swim Boys, I don't know what I think it was called. That's what it was. I called it swim Boys, but it's called Pride. Yeah, that's terrible. Don't do that again.
I never watched that movie. But they they we had jobs too, so it was like when it when it did get difficult, we worked as light guards during the summer, so we were able to train, practice, you know, and and work and make some money. So yeah, shout, I see him but doing that. But as you can see, they was trying to they was trying to hold us back.
And I think I think even more to that point that also and you talked about this earlier that you for you, I assume for a while maybe you still do it, but you were teaching swim classes, and that that is how you create culture. It isn't just put a person in a swimming pool and teach them to swim. It's make it so that not only as are my relationships in the water, but my money is in the water. My community as a whole is connected to this space.
So I always have a reason to go back, which is an essence what white people intentionally were We're making sure wasn't happening for these black people in the twenties and thirties, and I felt like still low key to this day, but people are making it a point to do what they gotta do. Yes, So one of the things that I think is worth addressing because obviously, in in many cities there were actual policies being put in place to ensure that black people were designated to specific pools,
but that wasn't actually an option everywhere. The separate but equal thing wasn't wasn't fully a thing that they could make into law in every single city, in every single state. And so what white people did if they were in a state or a city that didn't allow for separate but laws would. They used violence essentially, So there are
plenty of instances. For example, there's a pool that sort of became infamous during this time in Highland Park, Pittsburgh, where white swimmers weren't encouraged to beat any black people who entered the water at their public pool. That like, they had multiple instances of like black boys like hopping the fence or making it into the swimming pool and then they were told to beat them and dunk them until they ran for their lives out of the water.
What I'm saying, And just imagine if that was your daddy, you ain't never learning to swim ever in your life. Absolutely not. It's traumatic as hell. And you also have to assume that these are young kids, because that's who would break into a swimming pool. I don't know a lot of Like again, I'm thirty four, my knees ain't I'm not hopping fences no more. I'm pretty comfortable. If you don't let me through the door, I will go home.
At sixteen, I would have high the ship out of offense and had a good time in the pool that I wasn't supposed to be in and those kids are then being attacked by grown men who are presuming to protect I guess they're they're innocence by by getting these black people out of the pool. It's because they know we're gonna be them a day own game too. That's that's really, really really when it comes down, you give
it to us be better than you. That's that's and and and even even as we were growing up, it was just like you training twice today, I'm training once a day, and we had the same yet the same block.
What's up if it really boils down, So it's like, because you know I'm gonna be better than you, right, and this you're saying, this is a deep seated fear, like I could take the position you've built so much pride in, and so subsequently you just tried to keep me out there will make people act and show their acts. You got grown men being kids, and it's just like, yeah, yeah it does, because you know, you know what it
is so more to that that conversation of fear. Then in the forties and fifties, so thirties and twenties and thirties, they're beating ass and U and I guess not taking names in the swimming pool. But then in the forties and fifty these segregation laws start to drop away. Right, They're no longer able to to segregate the swimming pools the way that they planned. And so instead what happens
is something called white flight. A bunch of the white swimmers that previously we're going to these public pools decide they no longer want to be a part of these public communities and instead start building private pools in their own communities and or in their own homes. That country club, yeah, golf clubs. All the clubs start to build their ship or I just build one in my backyard, and I avoid any interaction with niggers anywhere, you know what I mean?
Goes back to money, resources, privileges, luxuries, things that are not affording to everyone. And ah that just I love a good tired gas just right, just somebody can't even bring themselves to to finish how frustrated they are in this all experience. And this is where it gets even more insane, because they start to run to these country clubs,
these golf clubs, these private facilities. And then that shift subsequently makes the government stop putting resources into public facilities, which means that the public pools that did exist either get shut down or stop getting the maintenance that they deserve, and black people are once again left without any options for swimming, which is why today we have so few public pools and why so few black people even feel a willingness to go to them. Yes, it's real, tiring,
dog exhausted. Let's let's turn this, uh this fun game for a second, because this part I've always found pretty hysterical and I'm curious to hear your thoughts as a a black swimmer. There's also a conspiracy theory that I think is so funny that white people believe the reason black people can't swim is because we have denser bones than our white counterparts. That we are we are bones are are basically heavier and denser, and it makes us less prone to fractures. But it also means that we
sink when we get in the water. Your thoughts, Boy, why people come up with anything? Who said it doll bad? They got the heavy bones they can Okay, so that is this is what white people made up. Well, it's interesting, and I'm glad you said made up because, as it turns out, and I did some research. I thought I similarly thought this was completely made up. But as it turns out, there is some evidence to suggest that bone to city is higher in black people versus our our
white counterparts. However, the the density that we're talking about is not enough to make a difference in our buoyancy, do you know what I mean? And certainly not the buoyancy of the entire race. This is sort of like an averaging out that basically says that Black people oftentimes require less vitamin D and less calcium than our white counterparts, and we do technically report less fractures than than white people.
And it would go back to the significance because even as you look at babies, as you said, people for wotom in pools, and it's a natural instinct for us to swim, you feel me like just as being as a human. So why would someone now try to dissect that into yeah, yeah, heah, y'all bones too heavy anyway, so let it go, Yes, like that, that's why it sounds made of even if there is some truth around, it's like, it's not about to be that serious for
us not to be able to swim. Exactly, It's not enough to keep us from swimming, and to your your earlier point, it really is just a way of justifying the racism that they already are sort of trying to
see to see through, right. Like another example of the things that they they started to say in order to keep black people from entering public pools back in the twenties and thirties was they argued that black people were dirtier than white people, that they were just say a filthier because you know, like our pink color is gonna come off obviously, Like you put water to this, and I'm telling you, like immediately, just the whole poems and be black, you know, so you look at me and
see that I'm gonna leave a whole lot of black everywhere. Well, they not only did they claim that black people were dirtier, but they also can claim that by allowing them into the water, more transmittable diseases we're going to be spread by our presence, by the physical presence of black people in a public pool. And the dumbest ship ever, it's all dumb. My favorite, second favorite, my favorite of them,
dense ass bones. My second favorite example of why they also were afraid of black people getting in the water is because they were They specifically especially were afraid of the possibility that black men would be swimming in public
spaces with white women. That they thought that black men, We're gonna use this opportunity to take advantage in some form of these white women by either brushing up against them under the water, or seducing them with their their ethnic bodies, just whatever they could do to to get white women attracted to them or uncomfortable around them. This was their way of protecting their precious whites, you know what I mean, the precious white women that are fighting
for the feminism every day. As we see here the arguments that they made, and I think similar to the ones that we were talking about earlier, it is all a justification to make them feel girl. Yeah, stop paying up. You're very mean to them. You don't care for them at all. You just don't want us to be mean to them the way you're mean to them. So the last thing I'll run past you because I do think that this is a an interesting point that I sort
of found myself digging into. You went in all in this. Yeah, you know, this is literally all I have is talking to people over the podcast. It's it's my life now, and I hate my life to end it all someday, but for now, this is all I got, so I don't I'm assuming you're familiar with Simone manuals. She she's the black woman who won gold at the Olympics. She's sort of like a person that keeps getting pointed to as like an exceptional swimmer, this awesome person, blah blah
blah blah blah. And one of the things that I found myself sort of realizing as I was unpacking some of this research, and I'm very curious to hear your thoughts on this, is that I don't actually think that it's good for us anymore to keep sort of like pointing at black people and saying they're the first black person to do this thing, the first black women to win a gold medal in swimming, or black woman to do this or this or this whatever, because it is
now becoming justification for white people to say that the systemic oppression that has been in place for generations is not actually a problem. That like every time we sit around and just over celebrate ourselves for being the first, we're only making a weird sort of exceptionalism in that individual and not actually allowing white people to see the
way that systemic oppression is attacking all of us. Yeah, I think there's always uh a yet in a yang with everything and and and to that point, I honestly understand why it would make sense to not do that. However, Comma growing up, you know, little Kalia, just well, this
is the thing. Presentation does matter, you know, and like growing up you know, you you even have me and my sister in a predominantly white sport with with so much potential, we could have been the first Simone what's her last name manuals manuals, right, But when you don't see that and when it's not common, and then it disconnects that belief. So I know, for a long time, even in being something so great, there was a lack of vision because there was no simone manuals, you understand.
So that's why sometimes that praise is important because you know, you know, the youth need to see it, They need to know that they're capable, and it is an opportunity for them to do this, not to tell right people, not in the same sentence to be like, you're white people, Okay,
now y'all are doing good. But in a sense of Okay, we need to see that this is something that we can accomplished and it needs to continue to be strong for because if if not, it will continue to just be once someone manuals ever so often you understand what I'm saying, And I I like that point because I do think that it in some ways I think I I feel like what I'm hearing is it's more important for us to use representation to show us then that
is to show white people. And maybe that is the danger of the representation that that I'm talking about, and where we can kind of meet in the middle of this ship is saying that, Like, I don't think it's good for us to keep announcing to white people, look how good we can be. I think it's more important to announce to each other, look how good we can be, and ignore whatever the white interpretation of that is, and not even look how good, Look how good you are?
We we are great, we are amazing. We don't and and and we never hear that. We haven't been hearing that for so long, so that that's the whole idea. I'll never I took a trip to Ghana recently and it was three little girls at the resorts swimming, and I had to sit back and be like, damn, I don't even really remember what I looked like as a
little girl in the pool, you know. And so I had the opportunity to go over there and teach, and they was like they were elated to see that I could swim, you know what I mean, And they were like even more excited to show me that they could swim, like and it wasn't as like they were just learning and you know, like look what I could do putting their face of the water. But now they have a vision of like, okay, like even as an adult, this is something I can continue to do and be great at.
And so I think those that's that's just way more important than than you know, clearing white people's conscious or or thinking that these this is where the effort is going into because it's it's so much it's so much greater than that. It's so much greater than and I just I just know what it is to be a little girl, and and it was it just wasn't there. So you had no clue. You you're just painting on
a blank canvas. So just imagine how great your picture will be if you already kind of see how amazing the picture is. It's gonna be even better. So we gotta keep that in mind. And and just just let people know we got the sauce. And no matter how many times they build the pool and take it down, we listen, build your own pool, brot build your own pool. Bro, what you're doing. Go ahead, put your people this sliming license and get your grass in the water. How about that?
All right? Well you're already here first, folks, to get your ass in the water and build your own pool. Bro. We're gonna take a break. We'll be back with more of me. Now your money. More. My mama told me we are that. No, no, no, yeah, we're back here with Moremni Monti more. My mama told me. We're still talking about black people and swimming and Terrence Howard movies. Pride is what it's called. It ain't called black boys, It's called pride. Anyway. I'd love to play a game.
Let's play. Let's play a game. This is a fun game. It's a classic game. It's our most classic game on the show. It's a a fun little game. I like to call white lies ugly. You're disgusting I'm gonna kill you. Give me two d white lies. It's a fun game where I amina am going to introduce to you a classic white conspiracy, one that that white people supposedly have
held onto for quite a while now. And what I would for you to do is just unpack for me why you think white people care about this conspiracy theory so much? What do you think it is inside of this conspiracy theory that they're latching onto. What are these sneaky motherfucker's up to? You know what I mean? Okay, this is this is an interesting one because I had never heard it before, and I had to do a little bit of of research just even make sense of it.
But apparently Queen Elizabeth the First, the Queen Elizabeth the First, not the one that's in there now, not that whole bitch, the one that was from fifteen thirty three. She was born in fifteen thirty three. She died in sixteen oh three. They made a movie about her with sar Sharonan, whose name I just learned to pronounce correctly. She's She's that nice Irish lady that's in all the important films now. Anyway,
Queen Elizabeth the First, very old lady apparently. Uh, some people believe that she was born a man, that she was actually a man, and that she wasn't born a man. Excuse me, that she was replaced, but she died very young and was replaced by a young boy who looked like her and basically held that position for the remainder of Queen Elizabeth the first life. And that's the reason why she never had sex with anybody. She didn't, she didn't bone apparently, she was she was completely like a
virgin apparently. And the reason she was like that is because they claimed that she was a boy. This is a lot for you to take in it. But my question for you, Amina is why do you think white people are holding onto this conspiracy so tightly? I mean, did she not have any kids? Like? What? What? What is it is? The is it the lack of a legacy? Is it she ugly? Like I'm I'm That's all I could think of. She was uh said to have been
a homely woman. And I don't believe that she did Queen Elizabeth have a child because Queen she had no children. So that's yeah, that's that's all I can think of. Because like people come up with reasons especially in those times. It's like she could be out there chopping wood and they're like, oh, yeah, she's definitely a man, you know what I mean, Like like anything that would be out of what a woman was constructed of supposed to be doing. That's why they will come up with this this I
just what this is. This is themb But yeah, so because she ain't had our kids. Yeah, like once once a woman didn't have kids. Now everybody has to come up with reasons like she's a witch or you know what I mean, like like all she got a disease or lights like everything gotta be reasons just to explain
that one little thing. So that's the first thing that that that the patriarchy is so embedded exactly the way that we interpret women, that the fact that she she did not bear children meant that if there wasn't a magical explanation to that behavior it, we couldn't make sense of a woman existing in this way. Exactly. Yes, thank you so eloquent. You know again, that's all I have. I won't have it much longer. I'm gonna end it all. But while I'm here, my job is to repeat back
things that you've already said. In different words. That's the key to good podcast hosting. Yes, yes, yes, it's amazing. Well, I mean I think we did it. I didn't. I think we we nailed this episode. Thank you so much. This was a great time having people. Hell yeah, could you tell the people at home where they can find you and what cool ship you have going on? Yeah? So, um, you can find me on my website, Amina Imani dot com. Um, I'm on social media you a men a money, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
You can look out for my set on Comedy Central that's dropping in November. I'm on Hulu up early tonight a show on there. Yeah, and then if you just yea on my website. I think it's like some articles that spotlight things that I've done and stuff like that. So check me out. Hell yeah, go on that website, check her out late tonight. That's yeah on Hulu. Do all that ship. And as always, you can follow me
at Langston Kerman. And please, if you have any drops, if you have any conspiracy theories of your own, if you have anything that you would like me to see, you can send it to my Mama pod at gmail dot com. I would love to hear from you. Otherwise, by bitch racist the oasto player oosting money actually do any Turkey stuff. I can't tell me that my lo