Gisele Fetterman: ‘Historically, Swimming in America is Very Racist’

Democrat Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman’s wife, Gisele, recently lamented about the supposed racism that pervades swimming in America.

During a recent interview, Gisele talked about how she and her husband sought to purchase a mansion and use the pool to combat racism in swimming.

“While we did not want the mansion, that mansion came with a pool, and a pool that I wanted,” she said. “The dream was to open this pool and make it a public pool, turn it into the people’s pool, and ensure that young people across Pennsylvania could learn how to swim and learn water safety and kind of work to right some of the wrongs.”

“Historically, swimming in America is very racist, and usually when you look at drowning statistics, it usually affects children of color, because of lack of access,” she added.

During the Jim Crow era, public swimming pools were often segregated and American blacks were rarely allowed to use the white-designated pools during the hot summer days when such pools were often used as cooling centers.

“There were thousands of public swimming pools that were built in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s,” Professor Jeff Wiltse from the University of Montana told ABC News.

“The vast majority of these pools were for whites only. And the Jim Crow pools that were accessible to black Americans tended to be small and much less desirable,” he added.