By Jaden DeGruy

When social media strategist Paulana Lamonier was trying to figure out a side hustle, a conversation helped settle the question.

“There was this young lady,” Lamonier said, recalling that small talk from several years ago. “She was, like, ‘Oh I can’t swim because my bones are too dense.’”

“I was, like, ‘Whoa! Where did you get that from?’ That’s when I did my research …  There are reasons for why there aren’t enough Black people learning how to swim.”

Not knowing can be fatal. Black 5- to 9-year-olds in the United States drown at 2.6 times the rate of their white peers. Those aged 10 to 14 drown 3.6 times more often than whites overall but 7.6 times more often in swimming pools, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis published in 2024. Among Black adults, 63% reported never taking a swimming lesson; 37% reported never learning to swim.

Armed with her research and skill in the pool, Lamonier launched Black People Will Swim in late 2019. “It’s not,” she said, “a matter of we can or we can’t. But will we — despite the stereotypes, disparities and the hurdles that we have to go through to learn how to swim?”

At pools at Dwight Athletic Center in Harlem and Westbury High School on Long Island — Lamonier plans to add a location in Queens — kid learners are classified by age group and the names of marine life: Seahorse, Nemo, Flounder and Stingray. Teens are assigned to beginner, advanced beginner and intermediate courses; adults are divided into the same categories. Sessions consist of six weekly classes.

Equipped with kickboards and noodles to help them stay afloat, a trio in the Seahorse group was led to the pool in Harlem on a Friday in June. Some looked eager to get started learning; they smiled wide, kicked around in the water and listened acutely to their instructors. But others seemed nervous, whining, scowling and refusing to take instruction.

Instructor Tyrell Little said his skin color is a plus for the program.

“I feel that Black kids seeing a Black instructor, they’re, like, ‘Oh, I’m scared because of x, y, z.’ And growing up like them or similar to them, I can say I understand,” he said.

Before she became a Black People Will Swim instructor, Brenda Toledo had already taught someone how to handle themselves in the water.

“I’m a big sister, so I wanted to teach my brother,” she said. “I have a love for talking and just sharing knowledge. And why not share this beautiful thing? Let’s all swim. Let’s learn how to float, keep a flow and do tricks in the water.”

Access to pools, money to pay for swimming lessons, parents’ fear of being in large bodies of water and other factors drive the racial divide among those who drown, researchers from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago concluded. Their study, published in Pediatrics last year, included responses from 1,140 parents and found that three-quarters of their children had not taken swimming lessons in the prior year. “Reasons for not having swimming lessons …  included … [the] child already knew how to swim,” those researchers wrote, “no place to go, not enough time, Park District pool closure, and parents not comfortable with swimming themselves.”

Lamonier said she tries to keep her courses affordable.

“Six classes for $120? Like, you’re not catching that at the [YMCA], you’re not catching that at a lot of the other swim schools.”

Lamonier learned to swim at a community center in Uniondale, her Long Island hometown.

“My mom signed my sisters and I up in this swim program,” she said. “We had to wake up early Saturday mornings because we had to make sure we were registered since classes were really cheap.

“It’s where I met my childhood friends and really gained that sense of independence.”

Instructor Little said he has high hopes for the program. “Next year, I see us with multiple locations … along with more instructors and more recognition from just everyone. I want people to say, ‘You know what? I want to take a swim lesson.’

“I take pride in saying that I help that person learn to swim. If someone goes on vacation and they have fun in the water, I get a little bit of excitement and pride saying, ‘I helped them get to that point.’”