The international swimming federation just gave Black swimmers everywhere a wet slap in the face

By banning accommodations for Black hair, FINA’s efforts look less like inclusion and more like the aquatic apartheid of the past. Here in the United States, Black people and pools have had a fraught history. In many places, Black people were prohibited from swimming in pools with White people up until the late 1950s. And when public pools were finally integrated, White people in various cities did what they could to keep Black people out of the water, including putting nails in the bottoms of pools, or pouring bleach and acid into the water.