Pennsylvania Swim Club Accused Of Racism To Ask Minority 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.

The swim club has claimed it has a diverse, multiethnic membership, but Goldman, a member for two years, said she couldn't remember seeing a black member this year.

Goldman said members were told that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which has opened an investigation, is to make a fact-finding visit to the club July 30. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., said Friday he had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate "to determine what action, if any, is warranted by the Civil Rights Division."

Others to criticize the club include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the United States' highest-profile black swimmer, Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones, who said Thursday that "hearing about what's happened to these 65 kids is both disturbing and appalling."

Chuck Wielgus, executive director of USA Swimming, the governing body for the U.S. swim team, said he was stunned by the accusations against the club.

Wright, the camp director, didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Sunday evening. She said earlier that other institutions had offered to host her group at their pools for the summer.

Camp parent Silvia Carvalho said she hadn't heard about the club's action but didn't believe her 9-year-old daughter, Araceli, would be willing to return.

"She has already said so," Carvalho said Sunday night. "She doesn't want people to look at her the same way."

Comments

[jmundstuk]

The club wants to clean up its image. A storm was created; they want to quiet it. The kids should not go back. It puts them at risk, and they have already suffered an unnecessary damaging incident. Find some nice place for the kids to swim and have fun. This is not Little Rock and these are not high school students.

[dct1999]

Exactly.

[wadda]

It's nice they've cleared up the safety considerations so quickly....

Amazing what a little understanding does....

[De Jenkins]

I think they should go.. This is the perfect time for both parties to talk about Race.... What better time than now for this one. We have got to move past this crap. Its a new day... The only color that really matters now is green. Keep in mind that this is a "private" club . I totally and outraged for what happened to the minority kids.. I can only imagine the humilation that this caused. I however think that something good can come out of something bad. So send the kids up there to the camp. However let both sides talk about this issue and then move forward. We humans have the same basic needs and basic issues that applies to ALL cultures.

Just my two cents....

[oberon123]

Time for both sides to talk? These sons of bitches thought that we live in pre apartheid South Africa. There is no talking. Picket this place into the ground. The problem with you liberals is that you are under the disillusion that everyone can be reasonable and civil. They can not. Wake up and smell the oolong tea.

[dct1999]

Say word

[NoSillyName]

Don't blast "liberals" on this one. Maybe there are some that are still that naive, but there can't be many who think that way.

"Both sides to talk". HA!!!

At best, those people will very grudgingly let the kids have their Monday afternoon swim to themselves. Just don't be surprised if there's a strong odor of disinfectant on Tuesday mornings.

[eternalkerri]

Im usually one for civil and reasonable.

But, Ill go with oberon on this....

these guys are pr.icks.

[robXdion]

You don't use kids as proxies in an adult situation. This isn't one of those feel good "Remember the Titans" type movies. That's some old Hollywood BS. Some of you are embarrassing unthoughtful and easily emotionally affected. Think it through.

[bowthai]

Sounds wonderful, but kids and adults are going there to swim. Likelihood of constructive dialogue seems slim. I do think this presents an opportunity to talk about race, but not by sending the kids back there. Why is the impetus on them to ease a situation that they did not create? Instead, if anyone needs to discuss, it's certain members of the pool (and I recognize that not everyone there was racist).

[dct1999]

Again we see post after post stating or implying that we are not allowed to provide any sort of constructive feedback to black women.

The camp director had an OBLIGATION to do her homework BEFORE taking her charges into any new environment.

A good leader ALWAYS asks themselves what they could have done differently and which of their actions may have contributed to a negative outcome. Are we supposed to exclude black women from basic business practices and appropriate leadership strategies?

[jmundstuk]

Agree. The camp director didn't do her homework.

[robXdion]

This is a dicey angle on this, but at risk of incurring the wrath of many I'll be your "Huckleberry". Man, you know criticizing a black woman is a federal offense, LOL!! I've seen how these things play out too many times. Some blacks let their guard down and lofty idealism gets the better of their commonsense. Especially when they buy in to the "post-racial Obama" hype. You often have the female (of any race) dazzling with idealism and "we are the world" sentiment while the cynical, jaded and protective male bristles with wariness only to be chided as being bitter. -- As a former NROTC instructor at an HBCU I can recite MANY encounters similar to this swim camp (in TX no less). And there's no way I would've carted a bus load of my charges to a place I hadn't researched or inquired as to their comfort around blacks since there weren't any visible minority presence. It's just smart and direct. This has earned me disdain from clueless people, but respect among the more experienced. Oh well.

[dct1999]

True dat. This meme that there is no possible way to ever anticipate problems like this is getting on my dayum nerves.

That pie-in-the-sky attitude reeks of stupidity.

[Ale]

So, in researching the swim center, where exactly do you think the phrase.
"Privileged white bigots, no coloreds allowed" would have been found? on their website?
When getting the membership should she have had to say "Oh, just to let ya know, we are black"
The comments overhead by the kids and the adults in the group makes it clear the issue was never safety, but race.

[dct1999]

Come on, when you research a place you call your contacts in the community and ask questions about the facility. You do an on-line search to see if there are any pertinent complaints. You don't simply rely on what the employees tell you.

This is basic stuff.

[robXdion]

They want the mantle of leadership and none of the accountability. As a former NROTC instructor at an HBCU I can recite MANY encounters similar to this swim camp (in TX no less). And there's no way I would've carted a bus load of my charges to a place I hadn't researched or inquired as to their comfort around blacks since there weren't any visible minority presence. It's just smart and direct. This has earned me disdain from clueless people, but respect among the more experienced. Oh well.

[CherrySpring]

dct1999, I heart you, but I don't see eye to eye with you on this one. And it's not because I'm a black woman either (not sure how that plays a part, but admittedly I haven't read the rest of the board so I don't know the history of this topic). She spoke with the club owner and gave him a check, I believe they met face to face (though it's not clear). If he seemed fine with her when they communicated, and the club didn't have a previous history of bigotry, there was no reasonable way for her to conclude that predominantly white automatically equals viciously racist. Sometimes it does, and other times it doesn't. I've been a black dot in a white sea many times, however not all of those experiences were bad-- it's hit or miss.

The club owner, I'm almost certain, knew that they were black before they arrived to swim that day. He should have known his members better and refused the camp from the start , anticipating a problem. Instead he made it seem like everything was fine, until some of his white members started complaining about "complexions" (and probably threatening to close their membership and tell their friends for good measure).

[Naithom]

Should the children be subjected to dealing with such bigots - NO!

The bigots should have to pay for the children to go somewhere where they will be accepted. Somewhere very nice.

[vasta]

I believe the bigots should face the children and apologize.

Then, the members of the swim club should come out and embrace these kids. Let the children have the opportunity to teach and forgive.

[NoSillyName]

Dream on.

[dct1999]

You are delusional and your naive ideas are dangerous.

[AfroLatina21]

The kids shouldn't go back IMO.

Girard College, a boarding school for poor children in first through 12th grades, has offered to host the camp children for the summer anyway. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090710/ap_on_re_us/us_swim_club_blacks

[robXdion]

OK. . . .I'm joining this kinda late, but there seems to be a disconnect between some posters here and my man dct1999. Many people here are liberals, minorities and generally have an idealistic view on things. So it's natural that the idea not returning to the pool is "letting the b!gots win". But that's a fantasy. These kids aren't "Freedom Riders". You don't play that game with impressionable young minds. If ADULTS want to go charging into the breach, then by all means knock yourselves out. But it's OBVIOUS dct1999 and a few others are being pragmatic and suggesting it's nonsensical to send the kids back to the pool. Trying to prove a point by using children as proxies is just plain stoooopid and reeks of emotionality without forethought. --- I hope this makes sense to those unable to grasp what dct1999 is posting.

[dct1999]

Thank you. Your ability to bring clarity to an issue is again appreciated.

[Solja]

"These kids aren't "Freedom Riders". You don't play that game with impressionable young minds."

Tell that to the little black girls that desegregated the Little Rock school. They weren't "Freedom Riders" either, but they were right and their hope to be equal made it possible for all black kids to go to the same schools as white kids. They just wanted to go to school. They just wanted to swim.

[robXdion]

You know full well what I meant. Those girls weren't PURPOSEFULLY put in harms way. Use some logic here.

[NoSillyName]

Right on, rob!

[qthedancer]

I definitely agree. The children should not have to go back to the swim club. But adults should be there raising he//.

[AfroLatina21]

But I thought they said they couldn't handle that many children...at least that's what the club president stated.

They are just trying to do damage control. If I were the group I wouldn't accept it.

[dct1999]

You know that these hatefilledbigots always contradict themselves. This is the same ole same ole.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Which IMHO is why they always make for target rich environments...

The look on such faces when one points out that ignorance and xenophobia are neither "family values" nor Christian virtues... Priceless.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[NoSillyName]

$1950 (the charge, not the year though you'd think it was) seems like an awfully large sum of money for one afternoon per week of swimming for 65 children.

Were there no other clubs to choose from?

Seems odd.

[BlackMagicWoman]

Doesn't sound that expensive to me. Pool memberships cost a lot. It's a shame because our city has pools but we have no money to open them.

[dct1999]

Where do you live?

[NoSillyName]

That's more than twice my monthly social security allotment. You obviously have money to spare if that amount doesn't seem expensive to you.

[NoSillyName]

So what? Do they want to have a "Whites Only " swim day and a separate "Ethnic Day" for the brown & black kids after which they can drain & refill the pool?

I'd never go back there if I'd been treated as these children were. Can the kids forget the vile words that were spoken about them? Maybe they can; more power to 'em.

This "invitation" is the equivalent of a very backhanded compliment.

[BlackWidowPilot]

I beg to differ; had those four young people and their families back in the 1950's shared your position on such matters, then our public schools would have waited years for integration to happen, to the added woe and misery of a very woeful chapter in our nation's history, that of Jim Crow and Segregation.

Evil must be confronted, and where necessary, fought if We The People are to live up to the promise of our Constitution, our Declaration of Independence, and the sacrifices of thousands of Americans of every colour, race, and creed who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our Liberty.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[NoSillyName]

Maybe, but I don't like to go where I'm treated badly. You know the pool management is only doing this because of the bad press they've gotten.

[mjeffn]

"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."

Really, well...I suppose you never know what diseases they might contaminate the pool with.

That place should have its license to do business revoked to ensure those people lose their jobs.

[A Meat Beetle]

Ah, how the c,o,c,k,r,o,a,c,h,e,s change their tune when the harsh light of public opinion shies upon them.

[A Meat Beetle]

^shies--->shines

Put my finger on the wrong button...AGAIN!

[ywcachieve]

I would never go back. I would say, eff 'em.

[Dupree]

When I saw this very young child on TV crying about how they verbally attacked him about his color and when the lady that sponsor the children said that one of the other children asked if "he was too black to be allowed to swim" ....the psychological damage has already seared his young conscious. How dare these ADULTS act in such a hideous way. These were children...and from all report...they were very well behaved and just wanted to have fun and go for a swim. And instead these insecure mentally deficient grown people who still holds on to ancient ideas of superiority that blinded them from seeing little children that wanted to have fun...instead they projected their hatred onto them and tried to make them the enemy of wrong...when all along they were looking at the reflection of their own souls in the cornea of their eyes.

[vonPinto]

You used the word I love to describe these mentally handicapped goofs who think that their skin color defines their brains power, "INSECURE"

You made my day.

It is unfortunately, the kids the are raising under this illusion that will bear the brunt of their stupidity in the future.

The only thing that is permanent is Change, and the average racist has failed to understand that.

[MrsGrapevine]

And let them win. Now they have to stomach the idea of integrating their pool club, and have all their white members pull out, and then they will have to shutdown. I love it!

[dct1999]

You are amazingly naive. This is a PRIVATE club, they have no obligation to integrate and no one can shut them down.

[dct1999]

The camp director holds some of the responsibility for this. She should never have sent her black/latino campers to this seg re gated private club; she didn't do her homework.

[6bd]

This is America, people are people. Mutual respect, empathy, patience, .......simple.

[dct1999]

Your reply makes no sense.

[Dupree]

Part II

If I am discriminated against...it is NOT my fault that others are short in vision and have the intelligence of a rock to assume that my color or their color somehow add or subtract from them or I. She did do her homework. The President of the club was well aware that the children came from the inner city. He welcomed them. He never once said anything against them. It was the members that HE the president of the club...underestimated....so now are you telling me that the President that knew his members...and yet he was surprise by their behavior.

Although he pretended when the cameras rolled that he did not hear the racial attacks on the children...but the lady that sponsor the inner city children said that he did heard and he did acted embarrassed and apologized. So it appears that he did not know his own members that well. Do you still plan to blame her for that? And for the record...I as a free person in 2009 should not have to check out a so-called reputable place...to see if the KKK resides there. YOUR mindset leaves me riveting.

[dct1999]

Yes. When you are responsible for other people's children you do have an obligation to check-out the places where you decide to take them.

Additionally, any good leader always takes the time to ask themselves what they COULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY in the aftermath of these types of incidents.

[soiloecho]

Excuse me? It's a club where u pay en get in...If the camp directors start investigating clubs for every little thing in a club that says'everyone is welcomed' they will have no time to plan for other important issues like...

[ATrumanDemocrat]

Really? Maybe she just didn't "know her place"? Must need a whippin"

[dct1999]

She holds SOME of the responsibilty for the incident. Nothing you or anyone else says can change that.

[dct1999]

There is no gotdayum way that I'd let my kids go back there. The kids reported hearing rac.ial.ly charged comments.

No parent, guardian, or camp director in their right mind would allow those children to return to that environment.

[We-Are-The-Ones]

I agree.

The harm they did to those children cannot be fixed by saying "oh come on back."

[MrsGrapevine]

Why wouldn't you let your kids go back? You would just let the racist have it without teaching your kids to fight for change?

I hate that innocent kids were exposed to such hate, but once the door is open, you don't let it close without teaching your children how to stand up for themselves.

No Sir, i disagree, don't run and retreat from bigotry, you are then enable your children to accept racism.

[mjeffn]

cosign

[dct1999]

My children are taught about racism. Why would you assume that they aren't?

They are too young to be exposed to blatant hatred and they don't have any responsibility to "fight for change" until they are older. I hope you don't have any young children because you lack the capacity to understand that children should be protected. My children spend their time in loving, supportive environments not among ignorantwhiteracists who have no qualms about hurting kids.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Cosign. As a white 40-something man, I would gladly open the door for you and yours, and God pity the fool who spewed such racist drivel as these club members uttered within my earshot...

We are one country, one people, one America, or we are nothing but just another civilization headed for the ash heap of history like Rome or Manchu China.

No way. Not without a fight.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[BlackWidowPilot]

Cosign. No retreat from evil, no surrender.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

PROTESTant

[Axekick]

You're correct. While their words may have changed they have already exposed their true feelings. I certainly would not pay to subject my children to racial hatred.