Fitness, Race, and DC

I've been thinking this week about fitness and race in DC.

There was an article in Monday's Washington Post that asked "Is your spin class too young, too thin, and too white?" It was an analysis of the boutique fitness centers that are "exploding in gentrifying urban areas," places like SoulCycle, Orangetheory, Crossfit, and Pure Barre. The author points out that

fitness junkies have begun to notice who isn’t coming. Sweat through a class in one of these studios and it’s very possible that you’ll see it, too: many, many lithe young white bodies and very few people of color. Or older or heavier exercisers.

This statement made me think about my own exercise activities in DC, which are actually some of the more diverse places I spend time in DC.

Bruce and I swim laps at the William Rumsey Aquatic Center, just a few blocks from our apartment.

The Rumsey pool is a beautiful facility! and free for residents to use!

It's a public pool, and, unlike the pricey boutique fitness classes mentioned in the article, residents of DC swim free! Bruce and I just take a copy of our lease, along with our driver's licenses, and we're in! While there aren't many men who swim when we do (mid-day), the women's locker room is usually filled with a diverse group of women: African American, white, old, young, all shapes and sizes. There's a blind woman who comes with her service dog, and a deaf woman, too.

The other place I exercise (or shall I say practice a physical art) is with the Washington Ballet School.

I take classes there once a week--they have a ton of adult classes at every level. While the class I've settled into isn't particularly diverse in terms of race or sex (all the women are "white" or Asian), there are women of all ages, from 20-somethings to maybe 70, and different shapes, too--not all are ballet-slim!

And Washington Ballet also offers a couple of beginner adult ballet classes in Anacostia, a neighborhood of Washington that's maybe 90% African American. The teachers and most of the students there are African American.

Thinking about race and fitness made me wonder about the racial demographics of DC in general. In the mid-20th century, DC was a majority-black city . . . even today, the percentage of African-American population in DC is just under 50%.

In my day-to-day activities, I encounter more African American people here than I do in Cedar Rapids: I grocery shop next to other middle-aged, middle class black women; Bruce and I are often the only non-African American people on the D6 city bus; and the church I'm attending is more racially-mixed than most churches.

But Bruce has pointed out to me that in lots of places, places of culture and of political connection--despite the demographics of DC--we're part of a mostly-white crowd. For example, the play we attended last Saturday--about Frederick Douglass and John Brown--at the Anacostia Playhouse. Despite the neighborhood and subject matter, the audience was mostly white.

That free jazz concert I attended at the Library of Congress?

Musicians=white, too.

Mostly white audience.

The free public lecture about alleys in Capitol Hill (alley residences were typically inhabited by African Americans in the post-Civil War era)? Mostly white, older audience.

Yesterday, Bruce attended a meeting that discussed the DC Comprehensive Plan, the plans for Washington's future. He heard some statistics about race that shocked me.

One of the speakers at that meeting, DC Council Member Kenyan McDuffie, noted that the average household wealth in DC is $284,000 for whites . . . and $3,500 for blacks.

Let that sink in a minute.

Another Council Member, Robert C. White, pointed out that in DC, black unemployment is six times higher than white: SIX TIMES. As in less than 3% for whites and 16% for blacks.

Something's not right in this Chocolate City. I wonder what will happen with this city that used to be a majority black city. Will it become like the boutique fitness centers, catering to white, wealthy people? Or will DC look more like the William Rumsey pool that offers opportunities to all residents?