What do Halle Bailey, a lack of representation of Black swimmers and divers, and Soul Caps have in common?
Liquified Racism.
Liquified racism, coined by Peavy and Shearer (2022), has been used to describe the historic and contemporary ways that water has been used as a tool of anti-Black oppression through racial discrimination. It speaks to the ways that water has been turned against Black protesters, and how clean water is often a scarce commodity within Black communities like Flint, Michigan.
As a Black feminist and scholar of sports, I recognize how liquified racism has served to limit the representation of Black athletes in aquatic sports over time.
Liquid racism precipitated the creation of segregated pools that limited access to swimming lessons and facilities for Black people, which contributed to the lack of Black athletes in competitive water sports.
Similarly, early arguments against the Black-owned swim cap company Soul Cap were also indicative of liquefied racism. Swimming international governing body, FINA, originally rejected their use in competitive competition because the long-hair design of the cap did not “follow the natural form of the head.”
But in September, they reversed their decision. Hopefully, that can be attributed to the realization that these caps had not been needed in the past because Black and Brown individuals in particular, have been systemically barred from aquatic sports and leisure activities.
The Black Swimming Organization, co-founded by Alice Dearing, Britain’s first Black woman to compete in the Olympic Games, notes that “people of African, Caribbean, and Asian heritage have historically been precluded from the world of aquatics,” because of legalized policies and regulations, and later the implementation of informal anti-Black barriers.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the risk of drowning is particularly higher among those who are considered ethnic minorities. The aforementioned actions kept the number of Black swimmers low, yet our deaths by drowning high.
There are ways that liquified racism can be combatted.
Despite representations of Black swimmers and divers being limited currently, their presence and other forms of representation matter. Representation always matters, particularly for those of us from communities across the globe that have continuously been marginalized and stereotyped in ways that contribute to our literal death.
We need representation in the form of Black swimmers and divers in the mainstream.
Seeing America’s Simone Manuel and Alice Dearing compete on the Olympic stage in 2016 and 2022, respectively, has an impact on the lives of prospective young Black swimmers. So does the presence of Kristen Hayden, the first Black woman to win a USA National Championship, and the Howard University swim and diving team.
Howard is the only HBCU with a swimming and diving team, a team that has brought much-needed positive attention to the value and promise of Black swimmers.
On September 30th, Bison head coach Nicholas Askew, was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, and the following day the school hosted the largest swimming event at an HBCU ever—The Battle of the Burr. This event, a dual swim meet between Howard and Georgetown Universities, brought together live DJs, dances, and the Howard marching band. The event sold out all 2,000 tickets, and the head coach estimated the live crowd to be around 1,200—the most in the school’s history.
The enthusiasm shown for Howard’s swimmers and divers demonstrates that opportunities to showcase Black people in aquatic sports is possible and can lead to the founding of more HBCU programs and more Black swimmers and divers, period.
Representation matters. It always has.
This was evidenced by Halle Bailey’s portrayal of the timeless character Ariel in the upcoming live-action film, “The Little Mermaid.”
Since the release of the trailer last month, viral videos of little Black and Brown girls smiling have flooded social media. And with Halloween just around the corner, hopefully we will be blessed with more beautiful images such as Gabriel Union’s Instagram post of her daughter Kaavia James Union dressed as Ariel.
The joy seen by these Black children across the world has, of course, also been accompanied by anti-Black pushback against Halle Bailey’s portrayal of a mermaid.
The anger and ignorance expressed over a mythical character because she was Black was astounding.
Hashtags such as #NotMyAriel and memes that whitewashed Black films surfaced, showing the perpetuation of liquified racism and the deep entrenchment of anti-Black sentiment in the US and abroad.
Due to systemic racism and white supremacy, whiteness remains seen as the default.
Challenges to the status quo, even in the form of a live-action Disney film, tend to come with pushback and screams of an erasure of whiteness. In reality, the inclusion of Black and Brown folx into fantasy and sci-fi is not about erasing white people, but rather giving the rest of us the opportunity to rightfully exist in the collective imagination.
White people rarely balk when they see their fellow white folx on screen as Black, Asian, or Indigenous characters. Even if they do, the response is not met with the same energy or venom that our beautiful, talented Black Ariel has been met with.
The talents and accomplishments of Simone Manuel, Alice Dearing, and Kristen Hayden should serve as a wakeup call to anti-Black racists— Black mermaids are more of a reality than you may want to admit, so stay mad Jan.
Black people deserve to have positive images and relationships with water. Representation is one way that we continue to move the needle forward.
Either way, Black swimmers and divers are here to stay, so celebrate and challenge anti-Black racism instead.
