Mondoweiss
A French, a Palestinian, and a black woman all wade into a pool
Israel/Palestine
Nida Hussain on August 23, 2016 25 Comments
In 2011, a landlord was brought before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission for
putting this sign on a swimming pool used by their tenants. (Photo: Ohio Civil
Rights Commission)
Simone Manuel’s gold medal win in the Rio Olympics is no minor feat, and not
just in the athletic sense. As Manuel herself acknowledges, her achievement is
a slap in the face to the racism which permeates US society, at one point
blatantly barring, and to this day, deterring blacks from participating in the
pleasure of communal swimming. Think of Dorothy Dandridge, whose toe was deemed
cause enough to drain an entire pool lest she carry communicable diseases
attributed to African-Americans without causality in the segregation era, or
think back to the burning image of a white motel owner pouring acid into a
pool, black guests still in it, looks of hurt, panic and confusion on their
faces as they scramble to escape the toxic fluid.
Attitudes and actions espoused by whites across the nation and enabled by
legislation thus played a direct role in the emergence of generations of
African Americans who could not swim. According to USA Swimming, An estimated
70% of African Americans do not know how to swim, and to this day access to
swimming pools is limited in black majority neighborhoods, another consequence
of low income and disparate funding allocation trends across urban areas with a
predominant African-American demographic presentation. It comes as no surprise
then that campaigns such as Make a Splash have made demonstrable effort to
recruit relatable ambassadors and focus efforts and resources on encouraging
black communities to proactively learn this essential life skill.
Yet Manuel’s victory, mighty in its own right, comes in the midst of troubling
events anchored to the right to enjoy public water and water sports in other
parts of the world — events that remind us that racism and sexism still
permeate the very same societies we tout as progressive, democratic,
pluralistic, and post-racial.
Within the span of about a week, the French towns of Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet,
and Corsica have each banned burkinis from public beaches, effectively
restricting the right of French women to dress as they choose, controlling how
they get to present their bodies when partaking in activities at a public
beach. By specifically targeting the burkini, French authorities are attempting
to make the case to Muslim communities to accept and adhere to secular French
values and abandon rather than merge theirs, while outrageously tying hygiene
and morals of Muslims into the discussion. Even the French Prime Minister
weighed in on the matter, referring to the burkini as a symbol of the
“enslavement of women”. French society’s obsessive aversion to the display of
religious practice has apparently gone so far as some French officials calling
for Muslims to be “more discreet,” as though the mere sight of diversity
threatens to rip the social fabric of French society to shreds.
In reality, the burkini ban effectively discriminates and marginalizes one
single, but dual faceted minority group–those Muslim women who observe hijab
and cover themselves in the presence of men. This group of women, it must be
noted, is a much larger segment than the burqa or niqab wearers who are by
comparison just a handful, already targeted by other bans since 2010.
Interestingly, it remains unclear as to what is in fact deemed legal beach
attire. Bikinis and speedos have not as of yet been legislated as mandatory,
and men’s (and women’s) wetsuits seem to remain perfectly legal, despite being
essentially the same configuration of material as a burkini, save for a cap to
cover the hair — bringing into question yet again how principles of ethnic and
gender equality, and that of individual liberty, can really be said to be
upheld through such laws.
(Image: Carlos Latuff)
Things got worse by the end of the same week. In Israel, a Regional Council
leader, Moti Dotan, called for segregated swimming pools for Israelis and
Palestinians, questioning Palestinian hygiene and cultural practices as he
quipped that he would not wish to share a pool with them. Public pools are thus
the latest infrastructure being leveraged to implement apartheid against
Palestinians and Palestinian citizens of Israel, discrimination against whom
collectively is already enabled through government issued identification,
differences in access to government services, as well as through segregation of
roads, schools, and even hospital wards.
The occupation has proved immune even to the Olympic spirit, and dampening that
of the Palestinian delegation to Rio. Many of the Palestinian delegation, like
Mary al-Atrash, could not access decent training facilities either as a result
of lack of infrastructure in the West Bank, or due to the discouraging reality
facing any Palestinian who considers travel to Jerusalem–the impending denial
of permit by the Israeli civilian affairs authority, the long and arduous wait
at most checkpoints, and the inevitable sense of humiliation tied to having to
seek permission from an occupying force to move freely within your own land.
Dotan has since issued a mild retraction of his statement calling it a “slip of
the tongue,” but continued to emphasize apparently subpar physical hygiene
attributable, to him, to Palestinian culture. Of course, it is ironic that
Palestinians would be found swimming in Israel or the occupied Palestinian
territories at all, given the cutting of water supply to a number of West Bank
villages by Israel over the course of the summer or in consideration of the
horrific targeted killing of 4 young Palestinian boys playing on the Gaza
beach, by an Israeli warship during the Israeli Operation Protective Edge
offensive in 2014.
Despite Simone Manuel’s historic accomplishment in the Olympic pool, water
activities thus seem to continue to be a flashpoint for the curtailing of
freedoms, for the institutionalization of racism, sexism, and Islamophobia, and
for enabling the ugly practice of segregation. Water, the very essence of life,
that clarifying healant both so scarce yet so abundant, is abused again and
again as fuel for the fire burning through progressive social values. Manuel’s
victory enables thousands of black girls across the United States to envision a
future where they stand on a podium, representing their country through their
athletic prowess, but it also reminds us that such momentous achievements are
still at risk of being drowned out by the rising waves of right-wing
nationalist extremism that appear to be taking Western, liberal democratic
nations on both sides of the Atlantic by storm.
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A French, a Palestinian, and a black woman all wade into a pool
Israel/Palestine
Nida Hussain on August 23, 2016 25 Comments
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In 2011, a landlord was brought before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission for
putting this sign on a swimming pool used by their tenants. (Photo: Ohio Civil
Rights Commission)
Simone Manuel’s gold medal win in the Rio Olympics is no minor feat, and not
just in the athletic sense. As Manuel herself acknowledges, her achievement is
a slap in the face to the racism which permeates US society, at one point
blatantly barring, and to this day, deterring blacks from participating in the
pleasure of communal swimming. Think of Dorothy Dandridge, whose toe was deemed
cause enough to drain an entire pool lest she carry communicable diseases
attributed to African-Americans without causality in the segregation era, or
think back to the burning image of a white motel owner pouring acid into a
pool, black guests still in it, looks of hurt, panic and confusion on their
faces as they scramble to escape the toxic fluid.
Attitudes and actions espoused by whites across the nation and enabled by
legislation thus played a direct role in the emergence of generations of
African Americans who could not swim. According to USA Swimming, An estimated
70% of African Americans do not know how to swim, and to this day access to
swimming pools is limited in black majority neighborhoods, another consequence
of low income and disparate funding allocation trends across urban areas with a
predominant African-American demographic presentation. It comes as no surprise
then that campaigns such as Make a Splash have made demonstrable effort to
recruit relatable ambassadors and focus efforts and resources on encouraging
black communities to proactively learn this essential life skill.
Yet Manuel’s victory, mighty in its own right, comes in the midst of troubling
events anchored to the right to enjoy public water and water sports in other
parts of the world — events that remind us that racism and sexism still
permeate the very same societies we tout as progressive, democratic,
pluralistic, and post-racial.
Within the span of about a week, the French towns of Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet,
and Corsica have each banned burkinis from public beaches, effectively
restricting the right of French women to dress as they choose, controlling how
they get to present their bodies when partaking in activities at a public
beach. By specifically targeting the burkini, French authorities are attempting
to make the case to Muslim communities to accept and adhere to secular French
values and abandon rather than merge theirs, while outrageously tying hygiene
and morals of Muslims into the discussion. Even the French Prime Minister
weighed in on the matter, referring to the burkini as a symbol of the
“enslavement of women”. French society’s obsessive aversion to the display of
religious practice has apparently gone so far as some French officials calling
for Muslims to be “more discreet,” as though the mere sight of diversity
threatens to rip the social fabric of French society to shreds.
In reality, the burkini ban effectively discriminates and marginalizes one
single, but dual faceted minority group–those Muslim women who observe hijab
and cover themselves in the presence of men. This group of women, it must be
noted, is a much larger segment than the burqa or niqab wearers who are by
comparison just a handful, already targeted by other bans since 2010.
Interestingly, it remains unclear as to what is in fact deemed legal beach
attire. Bikinis and speedos have not as of yet been legislated as mandatory,
and men’s (and women’s) wetsuits seem to remain perfectly legal, despite being
essentially the same configuration of material as a burkini, save for a cap to
cover the hair — bringing into question yet again how principles of ethnic and
gender equality, and that of individual liberty, can really be said to be
upheld through such laws.
(Image: Carlos Latuff)
Things got worse by the end of the same week. In Israel, a Regional Council
leader, Moti Dotan, called for segregated swimming pools for Israelis and
Palestinians, questioning Palestinian hygiene and cultural practices as he
quipped that he would not wish to share a pool with them. Public pools are thus
the latest infrastructure being leveraged to implement apartheid against
Palestinians and Palestinian citizens of Israel, discrimination against whom
collectively is already enabled through government issued identification,
differences in access to government services, as well as through segregation of
roads, schools, and even hospital wards.
The occupation has proved immune even to the Olympic spirit, and dampening that
of the Palestinian delegation to Rio. Many of the Palestinian delegation, like
Mary al-Atrash, could not access decent training facilities either as a result
of lack of infrastructure in the West Bank, or due to the discouraging reality
facing any Palestinian who considers travel to Jerusalem–the impending denial
of permit by the Israeli civilian affairs authority, the long and arduous wait
at most checkpoints, and the inevitable sense of humiliation tied to having to
seek permission from an occupying force to move freely within your own land.
Dotan has since issued a mild retraction of his statement calling it a “slip of
the tongue,” but continued to emphasize apparently subpar physical hygiene
attributable, to him, to Palestinian culture. Of course, it is ironic that
Palestinians would be found swimming in Israel or the occupied Palestinian
territories at all, given the cutting of water supply to a number of West Bank
villages by Israel over the course of the summer or in consideration of the
horrific targeted killing of 4 young Palestinian boys playing on the Gaza
beach, by an Israeli warship during the Israeli Operation Protective Edge
offensive in 2014.
Despite Simone Manuel’s historic accomplishment in the Olympic pool, water
activities thus seem to continue to be a flashpoint for the curtailing of
freedoms, for the institutionalization of racism, sexism, and Islamophobia, and
for enabling the ugly practice of segregation. Water, the very essence of life,
that clarifying healant both so scarce yet so abundant, is abused again and
again as fuel for the fire burning through progressive social values. Manuel’s
victory enables thousands of black girls across the United States to envision a
future where they stand on a podium, representing their country through their
athletic prowess, but it also reminds us that such momentous achievements are
still at risk of being drowned out by the rising waves of right-wing
nationalist extremism that appear to be taking Western, liberal democratic
nations on both sides of the Atlantic by storm.
