(via Simone Manuel’s Olympic Win Is Huge Considering...

(via Simone Manuel’s Olympic Win Is Huge Considering Swimming’s Racist Past)

West Coast living means getting Olympics news early through alerts, so I knew Simone Manuel would fulfill #blackgirlmagic with her gold medal in swimming - the first African American to do so. Once she made history, the articles about black folks’ twisted history with swimming popped up. From the Atlantic slave trade to the segregation of community pools, there’s a lot of history, and a lot of black folks still can’t swim, don’t want to swim as I learned from being in the real world.

I’m currently working on a young adult novel about a 16-year-old girl sacrificing everything for love to be a mermaid at a nightclub. She also happens to be a lifelong competitive swimmer. And she’s black. 

Finally getting my idea to paper, I’ve already incorporated the history on swimming in the story and will continue to weave more in. So when I saw Simone be draped in gold yesterday, I thought about how important my story could be with sprinkling real-life history over fantasy.