Safety should come first. Refunding the money the day after the incident and revoking their membership is a statement that they are not welcome and that it is not a safety matter. If was simply about safety then they could have limited the number of members that one group can bring at any given time. Changing the "complexion" seems to be the correct choice of words for the club's honest intent.
The other 2 camps aren't crying racism. The black camp has to make it a race issue. How can they complain about being singled out for refunds based on race, when 2 other camps got refunds also?
QFT. In modern American society, there is absolutely no way to definitively prove someone is racist. It is no longer socially acceptable, in any corner of the US. Even former KKK members claim white nationalism and pride in where they've come from to shield their obvious hate for those that are different. Racism is just a form of hate, an emotion, and how can you prove someone has a certain emotion if they vehemently deny it? Why even bother anymore? It's time that we start protecting the rights of all people without even mentioning this word. Claiming that someone has such a character flaw is such a weak argument. It only serves as a diversion from the ultimate goal and gives the guilty party more power. Racism, while inherently evil, is not unlawful in any way. It is the actions of the racist that I'm concerned with. If anything, racist ideology becomes less popular when you cannot act upon it. I'd like to see us get to the point where the evasive techniques that RR mentions are fruitless.
The problem here is it assumes this pool, which has been open for a long time, had no idea what their safe capacity was. It's not like they didn't know what to expect when they signed the contract.
Not only does the changing the complexion comment betray the racism, but the children heard people at the club ask what all the "black children" were doing there. It doesn't get too much more blatant than that.
Agree. I dont really side with the club, was more calling out their moves that we knew was coming. The predictable save-ass steps. Refunding all the contracts to me was more rather than trying to precision carve out the 1 undesirable club, do 1 big broad sweeping step calling off the whole day to get it over with.
They should try a plan where the day care brings the most deserving of kids to the private club. Cap the special field trip to 10 or 12 kids, keep the ratios for the lifeguards so that they are not overstressed. Do it once a week and it becomes a nice collaborative within the community. I really don't think it's a race issue. the media is exploiting the "complexion" comment. The private club needs to set guidelines for groups visiting their complex. If they have run into these issues before, they should have seen it coming. The kids aren't regular swimmers. Throw 25 kids in a pool that can't swim well and you have a recipe for disaster.
According to the kids the members of the pool were asking "What are all those black kids doing here?"
I am betting they limit the number of kids that can't swim to a limit or require at least a certain number of adults per child. ----------------------------------------------------------------- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090713/ap_on_re_us/us_swim_club_minorities Pa. swim club accused of racism to ask kids back PHILADELPHIA – A private suburban swim club accused of racism after it canceled the memberships of dozens of minority children says it will seek a meeting with the kids' camps to work out an agreement for them to return. Amy Goldman, a member of The Valley Club, said those able to attend a hastily called meeting Sunday afternoon voted unanimously in support of reinstating the memberships of the Creative Steps day camp and two other camps as long as safety issues, times and terms can be agreed upon. The Creative Steps camp had arranged for 65 mostly black and Hispanic children to swim each Monday afternoon at the gated Huntingdon Valley club, which is on a leafy hillside in a village straddling two overwhelmingly white townships. But after the group arrived June 29, camp director Alethea Wright said, several children reported hearing racial comments and some swim club members pulled their children out of the pool. The camp's $1,950 was refunded a few days later. The president of the swim club's board of directors, John Duesler, has said the decision was made out of safety considerations, not racial concerns. "We have near-unanimous approval from our membership, so at this point we'll be figuring out ... how to approach all the camps and see how we can move forward," Duesler told WPVI-TV at the club's entrance on Sunday.
So if a couple of swimmers said something Racist, then the People who run the club MUST be racist too?
No, they are members of the club. It is one piece of the evidence against the club and the views on race.
Members = swimmers. It's a club, so the members are the patrons of the club. I think using the comments of random patrons, possibly children, as evidence against the club is pushing it. Still, I don't really buy this safety stuff. To buy that, I have to believe they don't know how to handle the most fundamental aspects of their business. I won't insult them like that.
I am not surprised that if you had a mainly suburban crowd and a group of 65 minorities from another community (i don't know if it was a lower class or not) came in all at once and changed the dynamic, a lot of people are going to react to that. We're not talking about one or two people going into the pool, but 65. That's a lot of people all at once. Yes, there is racism here. But the question is, not that racism is unjust and not fair. Of course, we all agree on that. THe real question is how do you best over come it? These kids having access is great, they should be able to so long as they follow the rules. But more importantly, what is the way that both groups of members can gain from each other instead of lose. This isn't simple. There's a lot of comfortablity issues here. And TJ is right, it takes a tough hard and dispassionate look to really solve these kinds of problems. Simply calling people ignorant or racist, while accurate to some degree, really isn't productive.
no its not, all he is going to argue is racism is justified because blacks are criminals, don't let him bait you into what you think is going to be "reasonable"
You can't gain understanding by keeping people seperated, and you can't achieve tolerance without understanding. Tip-toeing around the issue only makes both sides more sensitive to the "otherness" of those they are not familiar with. Overcoming differences is merely matter of finding commonalities--like a shared space to swim and socialize. You say there are "comfortability issues", but it doesn't have to be that way. Let's say these kids swim all summer at the club. If they came back again next year, do you think the white members would be more or less comfortable with the visitors than in the previous year? If the white kids grow up sharing their pool with ethnic minorities, do you think they will be more or less tolerant for it? I think the answers to these questions are quiet obvious to anybody who has really made an effort to understand racism and intolerance in our society.
My knowledge of business management is limited and I dont know all the laws, but I'm assuming private clubs can accept or reject whoever it wants. Also this doesnt have to be some Rosa Parks thing. If the camp was quick to go to the media about racism instead of getting a real explanation (which it doesnt seem the club provided), then thats not good either. Try to work it out as a paying customer first. With that, maybe its just me but racism or not a respectable organization takes into account the paying customer's time, planning, and money spent on them. Then tries to rework things to offer the service they payed for. I doubt Drayton McLane says get those Sunshine Kids and those other 2 groups out of my boxes cuz they overcrowded it and they smell bad, and dont come back. He'd just open himself up to all kinds of criticism. The club took a chance approaching the issue the way they did, on OPEN enrollment, and they got burned. They dont HAVE to be non-discriminatory I guess. So its up to them if its worth the bad publicity to keep doing business the way they do it.
