HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa. (AP) -- Members and officials of a private swimming pool in a predominantly white Philadelphia suburb reacted to a visiting group of minority children by asking them not to return and pulling other kids out of the water, a day camp director said, and the state is investigating.
The Creative Steps camp in northeast Philadelphia had contracted for the 65 children at the day camp to go each Monday afternoon to The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, camp director Alethea Wright said Thursday. But shortly after they arrived June 29, she said, some black and Hispanic children reported hearing racial comments.
"A couple of the children ran down saying, 'Miss Wright, Miss Wright, they're up there saying, "What are those black kids doing here?"'" she said.
The gated club is on a leafy hillside in a village that straddles two townships with overwhelmingly white populations. It says it has a diverse, multiethnic membership.
Wright said she went to talk to a group of members at the top of the hill and heard one woman say she would see to it that the group, made of up of children in kindergarten through seventh grade, did not return.
"Some of the members began pulling their children out of the pool and were standing around with their arms folded," Wright said. "Only three members left their children in the pool with us."
Several days later, the club refunded the camp's $1,950 without explanation, said Wright, who added that some parents are "weighing their options" on legal action.
Club president John Duesler told Philadelphia television station WTXF that several club members complained because the children "fundamentally changed the atmosphere" at the pool but that the complaints didn't involve race.I really do try to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to race because I do feel that the race card is played a little too casually at times, on that note fuck the Valley Club. This is blatant racism, these inner city children are part of a club which paid $1950 for these children to swim for 90 minutes every Monday for the summer. 90 fucking minutes. Really, you couldn't put up with Blacks and Hispanics for 90 minutes a week? Look you already vote Republican, pay your maids and gardeners below the minimum wage, take lavish vacations, and spend money like it's going out of style. How arrogant are you people? You have pools at your own fucking homes, I know this because you can afford memberships to a country club. No, no you go to the club to be seen and get hards on for flaunting your money around. Can't you do one nice thing for humanity? No, obviously you cannot. But I understand these little urban children "....fundamentally changed the atmosphere" [of the pool]. Ya god forbid you see a little color there. Stupid, stupid people.
This is pretty disgusting, although not altogether too surprising.
ReplyDeleteThere should be no possibility of legal action though, as suggested here: “Several days later, the club refunded the camp's $1,950 without explanation, said Wright, who added that some parents are "weighing their options" on legal action.”
The club is private and should remain out of the influence of the court and public officials. Unless of course, someone was physically harmed or some other crime was committed here, which is not the case. The money was refunded , and they were told not to come back, that's all. That should be the end of the story, although hopefully the club and/or some of its members reconsider what they have done and see that it is wrong. Either way, they should not be sued over it.
No, they shouldn't be sued over it. Just the way the southern states circumvented amendments passed to give blacks the freedom to be treated as human beings didn't actually break any laws in upholding the "seperate but equal" status; private clubs are obviously kept private for a reason.
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