Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Welcome to Post-Racial America! (No Black Kids Allowed)
More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.
"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.
When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."
The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.
"I said, 'The parents don't want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,'" camp director Aetha Wright said.
[...]
The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.
"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.
| Also in Rights and Liberties | |||
| Bill Kristol: Snow's Coming and Health-Care Reform Is Really Inconvenient for Lawmakers Let's kill the effort -- and tens of thousands of uninsured humans -- so staffers don't have to drive in the messy weather. Post by Steve Benen. December 18, 2009. |
Peggy Noonan Outdoes Herself, Blames America's Problems on "Adam Lamberts" of the World Don't be depressed about healthcare or the economy; the real threat to our country's future wears leather pants. Post by Liliana Segura. December 18, 2009. |
Deal Reached in Copenhagen ... And it Looks Like Crap Even when you are expecting this, it still sucks. Post by Tara Lohan. December 18, 2009. |
|
EMAIL
PRINT
18 COMMENTS
PERMALINK