Conflicted: An Autoethnography on Researching the Minority Swimming Gap

In this research note, I use an autoethnographic method to undertake the task of uncomfortable reflexivity to address the intra-conflict of being a Black woman researching the minority swimming gap, who, like my research participants, struggles with hair maintenance to engage in swimming activities. My uncomfortable reflexivity moves from stages of confession, self-discovery, catharsis and a plan to incorporate deeper reflexivity in future research and other academic practices. Reflexivity in qualitative research is used as a methodological practice to give validation and legitimacy to a research study. Oftentimes, a qualitative researcher will do a bracketed interview to become aware of existing biases, fix problems with an interview schedule, or to temporarily feel what their subjects may experience during an interview. Sometimes reflexivity is merely done as a step in the research process, never progressing to the point of real interrogation of self, the body, and, ultimately, application. I have been guilty of going through the motions of comfortable reflexivity

I Am Not My Hair...Or Am I?: Exploring the Minority Swimming Gap

A review of literature has revealed a dearth of research on leisure swimming patterns of Black females. Black youth, both male and female, have a higher rate of drowning than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States (“Water‐related injuries: Fact sheet”, 2005). Two known studies produced by (Irwin et al., 2009; 2010) examining hair as a constraint to swimming for African American youth produced conflicting results. In order to comprehensively examine hair as a constraint to African American female participation in swimming, the current study adopted a qualitative approach which allowed exploration of the cultural background and experiences of the participants enrolled in a required swimming class at Yates University (this is a pseudonym used throughout this research). The following research questions guided the study (a) How does hair influence swimming participation choices of Black females and (b) What is the self-reported degree of difficulty in the constraints negotiation process for Black females who do swim? The major finding is that hair acts as a constraint to swimming for participants of this study, but participants offered ways of negotiating this constraint to still be active participants in swimming

What African Americans Can Do to Bridge the Swimming Gap: A Call to Action

Over the last ten years, the gap in swimming participation between Whites and other minority groups has been well documented. Moreover, the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints to swimming participation by African Americans have been clearly delineated. With the challenges surrounding the minority swimming gap acknowledged, the impetus should now be on creating strategies to rectify the problem. This paper argues for a collective effort on the part of the African American community to ameliorate the swimming gap, thus lessening the senseless deaths associated with it. In this paper strategic actions are outlined including advocacy and the creation of viable partnerships to bridge the swimming gap. Most notably, the authors applaud the efforts of African American swimming luminaries such a Cullen Jones and many others who continue to articulate the importance and urgency of African Americans learning to swim but surmise that they cannot do the “heavy lifting” by themselves to encourage and inspire African Americans to learn to swim. Organizations such as the National Urban League (NUL), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Congressional Black Caucus and media moguls such as Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and Mo’Nique are encouraged to join forces with the NUL and NAACP in developing a broad-based initiative to promote learning to swim. In summary, the authors argue that the African American community must play a significant role in developing solutions to curb drownings and close the swimming gap

The Complexities of De-Constructing the Constraints to African American Female Participation in Swimming: A Rejoinder to Irwin et al.

This rejoinder to Irwin et al. is written to address several concerns regarding “Myth #4: Personal Appearance Limitations” in their recent article. Constraints to leisure are complex and become more complicated when race, culture, family socialization, and hair are combined. Despite the data-driven evidence which they argue refutes “Myth 4” there are several practical concerns that are raised toward better understanding the responses of African American females in the study. We posit that a heightened understanding of the interaction between culture, race, and gender in the case of African American females is vital to the interpretation of the data associated with “Myth 4.

OncoLog Volume 52, Number 01, January 2007

Toward Personalized Medicine Making Strides in Esophageal Cancer House Call: Eat Well, Live Longer DiaLog: The Secret of Good Person-Doctoring , by Robert Buckman, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Neuro­-Oncology, M. D. Anderson Professor, University of Torontohttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/oncolog/1156/thumbnail.jp

OncoLog Volume 46, Number 04, April 2001

Clinical PET Facility Returns to M.D. Anderson Trial Shows Pill Is as Effective as Intravenous Chemotherapy for Advanced Colon Cancer House Call: After Cancer: A Survivor\u27s Diary Postirradiation Oral Complications Are Serious but Preventablehttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/oncolog/1096/thumbnail.jp

University of Texas / M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Newsletter

Monthly report discussing cancer care and research to inform physicians