Columnist Andrea Ayvazian: Refilling the ‘pool’ of public good
Published: 5/14/2021 10:46:06 AM
For almost four decades, I have read about the social, political and economic impacts of slavery, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow years, the civil rights movement, the mass incarceration of Black men and women, and the ways racism has mutated, adapted and remained powerful and virulent in subtle and overt ways.
Like so many others, I know that for centuries racism has permeated this country’s criminal justice system, health care system, banking and finance systems, education, housing and home ownership, public transportation and the media. What I never realized was how the history of racism could also be tracked by studying the history of public swimming pools.