In this wonderful post racial world we have a Philly suburban pool that accepted $1,950 dollars for a group of kids from Creative Steps day camp so the kids could go swim for 90 minutes every so often. When the kids got there for the first swim people noticed they were black and started to freak out…like “OMG those black kids are going to possibly do something bad to our little snot nosed, white, pool pissing kids”, so they kicked the black group out. They’re now trying to pretend it wasn’t really a race thing, that it was more a group thing, despite the fact they knew how large the group was and accepted the money in advance.
“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….
“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 video at this news site will break your heart.
This humiliated me as a human being. Though humiliating to me, it must have been something so much worse for those children. Remember when you were a kid and someone said something to you like “your sneakers are ugly”? Remember how bad you felt? Multiply that by five billion, and consider over time the cumulative effect of people telling you your skin color, your race, your fucking everything, was not good enough, not wanted, somehow defective, and not worthy of even a swim in a pool where little white boys and girls piss with considered regularity?
You can’t continue to treat a whole race of people a certain way and then question the results using Bill Cosby as your example, all while disparaging those who speak the truth — like the scary Reverend Wright.
The truth is scary. It’s probably why we have yet to face it.
peace
“This humiliated me as a human being. Though humiliating to me, it must have been something so much worse for those children.’ you are so right. this is so sad and terrible. its not as if those kids had switchblades in their swimming trunks. just..ugh.
This is just another scar on our face.
One truth to face is that people aren’t ever going to act right and particular evils go away slowly if ever. Racism will be with us for a long time and before it goes away a new evil will replace it, I’m sure.
.-= Doug´s last blog ..Poetic License =-.
This is wrong on so many levels.
I hope the lesson here is that we have stupid, short-sighted people everywhere.
The reason they have remained in their little cocoon of safety in suburban Philly undiscovered for so long is the underlying assumption that you have to visit Deliveranceville, TN or Tobaccyspit, AL to find racism.
The prevailing paradigm is one of justification and rationalization: “As long as I am ‘more tolerant’ than those crackers in the South, I’m a good person.”
I’ve got news for all of you — there are stupid, short-sighted people everywhere. As a non-native whose been in the South for decades, I can tell you a couple of stories that will curdle your toes. But I can tell you hundreds more that would surprise you in all the best ways.
If you haven’t taken the Birmingham Pledge, then spend four minutes of your life reading it, comprehending it, signing it, and sharing it.
.-= Ike´s last blog ..Noise cancellation =-.
That would be a good pledge for all to take even in light of respecting ourselves.
I think Tim Wise wrote a more eloquent piece on this situation just today
Off the Deep End: Reflections on Private Clubs, Public Prejudice and Racism 2.0
Um, I left out that that’s a totally crappy way to treat kids and everyone involved ought to be ashamed of themselves.
.-= Doug´s last blog ..Hearer =-.
I think they are not at all ashamed of themselves.
I don’t know how to comment on this. It breaks my heart
In NY now that the “good” times have ended people are waiting for a resurgence in crime. You know who they’ll say are the criminals. Hasn’t happened on a large scale yet. Might never happen but…
I can’t imagine being one of those kids in Philly. More than that I can’t imagine being a white kid with a parent that condoned the act
.-= pia´s last blog ..The night I began to become a Southerner =-.
It is hard to know what to say that is for sure. To say nothing is not so hot either.
Some things just make my head spin with embarrassment and anger. Those people better hope there is no god because legend has it the dude gets pretty pissed off at this kind of stuff.
These are only the tip of the iceberg of reasons for not believing in the a god.
Seems hollow and useless to say “how horrible”. It makes me angry, angry and ashamed. I think of my son when I see this.
It’s like the thing that will never be solved, will never go away.
.-= jacob´s last blog ..Congressional =-.
I hear ya.
It is 2009 isn’t it?
.-= Chris´s last blog ..Deep Thought =-.
The greatest thing we do is fool ourselves into thinking that somehow because it’s 2009 things have changed.
I am heartbroken for these children… heartbroken that they are forced to experience…actually feel, what their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on, have dealt with throughout their lives. I know some things have changed for the better, but it just takes one disgusting incident like this to put us right back in the age of segregation…
.-= earthtoholly´s last blog ..SkyWatch Friday No. 52 =-.
Teaching 5th grade like I do I see what stuff like this does to kids. For every sign of hope I see there is always an incident like this to jar me back to reality. It’s disgusting.
.-= kait´s last blog ..Goodbye MJ =-.
The local neocons are making hay with the “rumor” that the head of the pool is one of the movers and shakers behind Martin Luther King Day in Philly and is involved with one of Obama’s anti-racial discrimination groups.
Sad if true. Guess I’ll be getting the Philly paper tomorrow.
.-= sauerkraut´s last blog ..Sarah Palin’s Ode to Conservitards4Palin =-.
Yes got to see what’s up there.
Their is no end to this kind of stuff. I went to school in Philly before transferring as you know, and it was a very racist city. This kind of thing is not going to end because people think it already has, and every incident that occurs to prove us wrong are said to be “rare”.
I know that about Philly but I would think the burbs would be different. I know that this country had not changed that much and it’s disheartening.
heartbreaking, embarrassing, I don’t think IT will ever end. Racism, sexism, ism ism, will be around for ever. Pretending everything is fine is what really dysfunctional families do, same with us, on the issue of race and racism we’re dysfunctional.