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Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., on being Floyd Mayweather Jr.: "This country needs to be more positive. We're already at war. We're in a recession, we're at war and we continue to be negative. The fans in the UK showed me more love than in my own country. That's crazy. Sometimes I'll sit back, I'll be in my theater sometimes, and I'll think: Imagine if I was the same fighter that I am, and I was the same person that I am, and I was from another country. Can you just imagine how big I'd be? But I wouldn't change my life for nothing in the world. There's nothing like being young, black and rich. But there are certain things you think about. If Floyd Mayweather was white, I'd be the biggest athlete in America."
When U.S. Olympic athlete Cullen Jones took to the podium with his teammates to accept the 4x100m freestyle relay gold medal at the Beijing Olympics last year, Americans saw something sadly unfamiliar: a successful African-American swimmer. Jones' story, while inspirational and historically significant, is a reminder of the black community's complex relationship with swimming. A Supreme Court ruling desegregating American beaches and pools in 1971 sparked riots and bloodshed, and much of the African-American community continues to hold an aversion to swimming today. Black children drown at a rate more than three times greater than whites and as many 75% of African-Americans do not know how to swim. Now, with Olympic gold in his pocket and fame on his side, Cullen Jones is doing everything he can to reverse these trends. Correspondent Mary Carrillo joins him to explore the relationship between race and swimming in this country.
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