What is it with swimming pool discrimination? Nearly sixty campers in Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a swim club because they were a little too "dark" for the regular clientele. Though the club is private, it advertises open membership with a fee. The campers were asked to leave by a member of the staff, and the camp was offered a refund for the racist ejection.
In a statement, John Duesler of The Valley Swim Club said, “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion… and the atmosphere of the club.” Was this guy teleported to our time from the days of Jim Crow laws? I seriously can't believe this!
– Dewitt
Photo credit: Flickr
The pool was in the Philadelphia suburbs and largely had a white clientele. Suddenly, one day your normal customer comes to the pool and sees 60 extra kids running around screaming. You don’t think that the people who bought memberships to the pool to come and relax would be upset? Not only just the additional disturbance, but what about the additional safety considerations?
The camp paid around $2,000. The average membership for a year was around $400. If you have even six customers complain and threaten to cancel their memberships, the business is losing money.
I don’t think this has anything to do with racism and I think it’s funny that those who urge others not to judge are so quick to judge those involved in this situation.
I also like how you forgot to mention that there had always been non-white members of the pool before this incident, which was included in the news stories.
I would say that the fact that non-white members previous to the incident makes the incident more heinous, it’s like saying “we’re okay with a few rich black people, but as soon as they outnumber us, we’re scared.”
There’s no excuse for what the club did, so don’t try defending it. This has everything to do with racism, and you’re obviously just as bad as the people at the club if you don’t see that.
TC, you’re an ass. The black kids have every right to swim there, if the club offers group memberships than that’s their problem! Thay have to accept it whether it’s black or white kids.
If it’s just about the other people trying to relax (which they can’t do with black kids around?) then why did the club mention “complexion”? Sorry, but it’s not 1955 anymore. racists!
well.. theyre losing money now, this story is blowing up on the internet. what a bunch of idiots. seeings/reading stories like these makes me angry…
this is the link to the story, and nothing that says in it makes what this club did, any sort of right.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31833602/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity/
however… i would like to have seen how the actual kids were behaving….
Mark S. and YaBird…so quick to judge before an investigation.
The only citation is to another blog titled “Diary of a Mad Blacktress”. Does that seem like a very credible source?
It’s a private club. If members complained because there were an additional 65 people in the pool, then the club has the right to rescind membership for a refund.
Pool statement:
“The Valley Club is deeply troubled by the recent allegations of racism which are completely untrue.
We had originally agreed to invite the camps to use our facility, knowing full well that the children from the camps were from multi-ethnic backgrounds. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that we underestimated the capacity of our facilities and realized that we could not accommodate the number of children from these camps. All funds were returned to the camps and we will re-evaluate the issue at a later date to determine whether it can be feasible in the future.
Our Valley Club deplores discrimination in any form, as is evidenced by our multi-ethnic and diverse membership. Whatever comments may or may not have been made by an individual member is an opinion not shared by The Valley Club Board.”
Why does everything have to be about race or sexual orientation or gender?
the [valley swim] club is honestly at fault, if they didn’t want an extra 60 kids around, they shouldn’t have taken the money from the camp…
sounds like a mix of racism/bad planning on the clubs part. i would urge people to give the club a call* to express their concerns
my heart goes out to those young children, honestly they had to learn the harsh lessons of this country soo early.
what would i do? honestly, i [personally] would have bought a membership to the club and invited all of my black family members/friends to the club for a swim.
* http://local.yahoo.com/info-12181369-valley-swim-club-lower-moreland-twp
TC, I went to the source the MH blog cites, and the source that blog cited, and I even googled the story. I got my information, and just because the club went and issued that statement, it doesn’t take away from the fact that at that club, on that day, the club was racist.
I’m sure they had their lawyer write their statement strictly to save their own asses.
I’m a lifeguard at a pool, and sure I get fed up when we get insanely large groups of children(whether they’re black, middle-eastern, asian, or white) they’re all still annoying. That doesn’t mean you kick them out of the pool, it means you suck it up for the day and go back to business as usual. The only reason action was taken on THIS group is because of race issues.
Mark, since you did your research, you would know that they were not kicked out of the pool on that day and that the pool director’s decision for the children to stay was essentially overturned by a vote of the pool’s board made up of members.
You have made your decision to conclude that the pool was racist. I’m on the side that our country is too politically correct and minorities like to play their respective victim cards too frequently.
It’s possible that the kids were unruly and there were not enough lifeguards to properly monitor the situation. So do you risk looking racist or invite legal liability? Fact is: the public doesn’t know the entire truth and time will tell. But I think we should be reserving judgment on anyone involved until more information is available. The truth is somewhere between the two sides of the stories.
TC, it Sounds to me like you are the one using your victim card. Why is it that any time ANYONE decides to point out the load of shit on the carpet, everyone flips out about it. Be brave man, sometimes you have to call it for what it is. ..isms are alive and well in our great country. Ask any minority person what it feels like to go shopping in certain dept stores. And IF you have the courage to ask? Be ready to get the truth.
Alright, this is my last one because no one really seems to be understanding where I come from.
When Michael Jackson was accused of child molestation, did you believe it? He seemed pretty creepy and he talked effeminately and he could have been gay. His children were out in public with masks on and he held Blanket outside a window. Now child molestation is an evil just as bad as racism and, based on the story provided by the child and the child’s family, it seemed highly possible that this strange man did commit the act. Only after testimony and investigation and legal proceedings was he acquitted.
Sometimes things seem so heinous and obviously true when they aren’t. That’s my point. I’m not afraid to admit that I might be wrong and, if proven so, then what that swim club did was indeed terrible. Now new sources are reporting that contracts with two other non-minority camps were terminated as well.
With more information, the truth will come out, but we have to at least entertain the possibility that all person involved are not racist. That is a bold allegation.
I am quite aware of the “isms” that are alive and well in our country. I’m just not willing to automatically assume that they are the motive for every action against a minority group.
The whole point that is missed in these comments is that the club representative stated that the kids would “change the complextion and atmosphere of the club.” That remark is clearly racist in its tone and if that spokesman for the club is not speaking for the members of the club, then the club itself needs its senior representatives to say so and will now have to work with the local community to show otherwise because of the ignorance of their first representative. It’s clearly obvious that there were complaints from members and the club should have informed them that they had made arrangements for a children’s day. Is there some racism involved? Probably with a few who were very put off by seeing a large number of minorities and still fear large groups of color based on their own ignorance. The club is now branded by these remarks and they are going to have to do some major PR or be subjected to all kinds of protests as the “Racist Swim Club.”
Okay, I’m the creator of the not exactly credible source that re-posted what was already out there at the time of the incident. Here are some of my thoughts, just to mix it up.
1. Any subsequent statements by the club are about damage control, as any organization would do after such an incident. We have to keep in mind that they are a money-making organization, and they do have a reputation they would like to alter or uphold, depending on your opinion of them in the first place.
Let’s think back to actor Isaiah Washington’s harsh and deeply troubling use of the ‘F’ word toward a fellow actor on Grey’s Anatomy. I’m using this example not only because it’s a slur against someone for sexual orientation, but because the perpetrator was black–just, you know, in case people think that black people are all victims and perfect (I’m black. I don’t think this is the case, and not why I wrote the post on my blog). Anyway, Washington was fired from Grey’s Anatomy as a result of the comment–but does that mean that all is well? Simply because two other camps’ contracts were ended doesn’t mean the initial incident wasn’t fueled by race.
2. The camp paid for a guest membership. The camp organized this and planned in advance with the club. I don’t think whoever signed this contract/accepted their money had a problem with it. (as you say, TC, I am very ready for the fact that not all involved are racist) However, I do think that we can’t discuss race and -isms without discussing class and education. I truly do believe there were people in that club–not all, but some, and they were very vocal about it–who felt as though they do not pay money to swim with a bunch of loud brown kids–or, as some of you say, just loud kids in general. Why the club didn’t think of this, or alert members in advance, is unknown–or perhaps they did, and we haven’t gotten that bit of information yet. Why the people at the club didn’t just suck it up for the day, or head elsewhere for a few hours is also unknown. They were little kids on a hot summer day just trying to get a little pool-side fun without problems. Whatever the issues between the club and the patrons, the children should not have been prevented from enjoying their time, even if it was as little as an hour while they sat and heard themselves being discussed as though they were a nuisance or menace.
3. When you say the word “complexion” and are talking about people of color, the connotations are too obvious to be ignored. When you say a group of black kids “change the complexion,” of a space it’s nearly laughable how inappropriate the statement is. If you can’t prepare a brief statement that doesn’t have any reference to color in a situation where all those denied service were black, then you cannot be surprised at any backlash that results from such a statement. There are so many other ways it could have been framed. In fact, that word could have been taken out completely (to, “they were worried they’d change the atmosphere of the club”) and we may not be as upset as we are.
4. As for bringing in MJ (RIP): regardless of legal innocence or guilt, the uproar over it showed that, as a society, we believed a transgression had taken place–even the idea of an adult and child of a certain age in the same bed crosses lines we have drawn in the sand as a society. So, too, is an outcry over young campers in an exclusive pool–ESPECIALLY when those campers are of a certain color and economic background differing from the majority of members of that club.
5. We are not a colorblind society. We are visual creatures, and race is a social construct that we all use to classify. It’s unfortunate, but true. So, while I’m not quick to cry racism and oppression, I am quick to say that you cannot look at a group of 60 people and not see their youth, their color, and all the connotations we carry with that–AS INDIVIDUALS. Each person has their own association, good and bad. Personally, yeah, I might have been like, “damn, I just wanted to kick it with my Danielle Steele and now these children are about to flip out.” But I would have asked the manager when I could come back and let the kids have their fun.
Blacktress, a nice, well-thought response. I’m glad that we can each respect and understand each other’s opinion. I’m sure we’ll both be watching the development of this story closely.
My comment about your blog not necessarily being a credible source is due to the definition of a blog and the subjectivity that is added in its writings. I think that this blog writer, like you, should have linked directly to the news source.
TC,
The swim clubs comment about “the complexion” is what made it racist. If he said that the kids were rough housing and being disrespectful to other patrons, this wouldn’t look like a scene from a 1960’s civil rights movie. Even if it the reason for kicking the kids out was based on race, you don’t make it blatantly obvious.
no one has a ‘right’ to use any private property. I would support their right, as a privately owned business, to deny service to anyone, even if their cited reason was, “we don’t like black people.” Property rights are more relevant than people’s feelings.