#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Swimming While Black? High School Swimmer Disqualified Over The Way Her School-Issued Swimsuit Fit

Episode Date: September 18, 2019

A young swimmer was disqualified after a race for how her swimsuit fit her body. After public outcry, the decision was reversed. Breckynn Willis, a member of the swim team at Dimond High School in Anchorage, Alaska, had competed in four events at a swim competition Friday. She swam in and won a heat during the meet, but a race official said that her swimsuit had shifted into a position that showed too much of her backside. The official said Breckynn's team-issued swimsuit didn't fit her properly and thus violated a rule, according to a statement from the Anchorage School District. Watch the 9.12.19 edition of #RolandMartinUnfiltered https://youtu.be/ZWryIfMI774 - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org - - 📘 Check out #RolandsBookClub and some of his favorite tech gear http://ow.ly/M5zF50uJPam ✅ NOW AVAILABLE: #RolandMartinUnfiltered Merch - https://bit.ly/2VYdQok ✅ Subscribe to the #RolandMartin YouTube channel https://t.co/uzqJjYOukP ✅ Join the #RolandMartinUnfiltered #BringTheFunk Fan Club to support fact-based independent journalism http://ow.ly/VRyC30nKjpY ✅ Join the Roland Martin and #RolandMartinUnfiltered mailing list http://ow.ly/LCvI30nKjuj Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. You can make this possible. But I got to talk about this story out of Alaska, where a young swimmer, a sister, biracial, was disqualified after a race because the judge ruled that he could see her butt cheeks. OK, now, after lots of public outcry, the decision was reversed. Now, Brecklyn Willis, she's a member of the swim team at Diamond High School in Anchorage, Alaska. She has competed in four events in a swim competition on Friday. She won. She swam and four of them won a heat during the meet, but a race official said that her swimsuit has shifted into a position

that showed too much of her backside, claiming that was a rule against that. Folks, it was a team, a school issued swimsuit. Many people say that she's a curvaceous person, but she's also a sister, meaning she got butt. She's a bitch. Erica, this is absolutely insane. In fact, there was a female judge who actually said, we're going to have a problem with this once this gets out. This guy tried to claim that the rule existed, and they said, no, it doesn't. This is nonsense, this rule. This is crazy.

So cue Serena Williams, and then just cue also the policing of black bodies. This is not just black women. To be black is to live in a police state constantly. It does not matter where you live, what type of occupation that you have. That is really the existence of being black. And so when we hear stories like this that have actually made national news, I know for myself and people that I communicate with, this is not something that surprises us because we've actually experienced the same things growing up in school and whatnot and in our own profession. So I think that this is kind of a part of that larger conversation where we're just

talking about like on the debate stage, which is a perfect place on the HBCU campus, that these are some of the conversations that need to be had from a constituent or just folks in the public to people who are actually running from higher office to talk about what are their, where do they stand on making sure policies that really do continue to keep us in a place where everything we do from our hair, our wear locks, to our bodies, to the way that we communicate is always, always something that's being policed.

Utterly idiotic, Greg. It's utterly idiotic. It is, but I mean, I agree with Sister Wilson. I agree with Erica. I mean, at the end of the day, this is the rule does exist. It exists in the warped fantasies of white men and the white racial imaginary. As she said,

remember that catsuit Serena had on almost 20 years ago now at the U.S. Open, and remember what they tried to do her at the French Open saying she couldn't win. So she just put on a tutu and revolutionized the tennis world in a tutu. My point is that there will never not be a fascination, number one, with the body. She's right. It's not just black people. Look at the ESPN annual body issue.

This fascination with the body. But when it comes to black people, black men like LeBron James with his arm around the waist of a model on the cover of Vanity Fair like in a replica of the King Kong 1933 version, or for that matter, coming forward to 2019, this example. What we are dealing with is this fetishization of the body and black women have had to suffer the brunt of it, brother. Whether it's their body or their hair.

I mean, this is swimming while black. And you got wrestling while black. Remember the cat that cut his dreads off? Yes. Said he couldn't compete. And they know that people of color, we love competing. We are athletic. They love to say we're scientifically engineered differently,

which is complete falsity. But white privilege and white racism, they continue to be obsessed with us and our ability to achieve athletically and intellectually despite their efforts to suppress us. Our candidates win despite voter suppression and oppression. And they continue, white America continues to be obsessed with this, and we keep winning. Which is why when we all grew up, we said, you've got to be twice as good in order to survive, let alone succeed. Our parents were right. We do, because white privilege and white racism continues to be obsessed with us and trying to see how much more we can overcome and we keep winning.

And good luck to that swimmer. And glad she got that resolved. And she needs to keep swimming because they're telling her she probably got to lose weight to be a championship swimmer because she too curvaceous. Curvaceous. Keep your curves, young lady. Keep your curves. Well, first of all, they ain't going nowhere.

Right. They ain't going nowhere. Right, right. They ain't going nowhere, and they might as well suck it up. All right, folks, back to that Roller Mark unfiltered video in just one moment. All right, folks, you heard me talk a lot about marijuana stock.org. Why? Because I want to keep you informed of investment

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