Sigh. Apparently we still have a long way left to go when it comes to race in America.
Over sixty children who are part of a day camp in Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from the Valley Swim Club earlier this week because they were African-American. The camp had paid the club $1,900 to use their pool once a week for the duration of the summer. But when the campers arrived for their first day of swimming they were notified by the pool attendant that the club didn’t allow minorities and they would need to leave immediately.
The following day the club’s president said in a statement that the children were turned away because they were concerned the children would “change the complexion” of the club.
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) has demanded an investigation.
Sorry kids. You can be President, but you still can’t share a pool with rich white bigots.
Filed under: Politics/Social Action | Tagged: African-Americans, bigotry, blacks, Jim Crow, Philadelphia, racism, Valley Swim Club
UNBELIEVABLE…we really have not moved have we? so sad
What the what?!
that makes me just want to throw up!
I can not believe stuff like this still happens! That is just sickening!
i gotta tell ya, i was a bit freaked out by the idea of alabama, but i spent some time travelling through it and it didn’t seem so bad. i think you’d find crap like this anywhere (southie, for one, haha). however, i stayed the hell outta mississippi >:B
That’s kind of what was so crazy to me about this. It happened in Philly! I mean, Donovan McNabb is still the Eagles’ quarterback right?? Didn’t Obama get 83% of the vote in Philly??
Here’s the thing Shane, growing up in South Jersey and spending time with family in Philly has lead me to always say that the area is the “South of the Northeast.” There is still a ton of racial tension there and this exposed it.
and maine is the deep south of the far north
i am surprised that there wasn’t a riot in philly over that…and i kind of wouldn’t blame them
yeah i agree with ryan, that is insane, and now i will turn on the news, cause wow.
well, what you see a lot in metro areas is that people with money who are “white” have a lot of resentment against how the urban areas are so “non-white”, and you’ll these people to be much more racist then your run of the mill hillbilly. i’ve seen & heard so much racism from elitist types, it’s ridiculous. even those who call themselves “liberals”. they’ll vote for obama b/c it’s partisan. and they’ll cheer for mcnabb (wait, don’t philly people kind of hate him?) b/c the team wins. but, they still see non-whites as inferior, and don’t want them around.
Maybe the original story is not full accurate?
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Swim-Club-Members-Nothing-to-Do-With-Race.html
I hope, for the Swim Club’s sake, that the original story is inaccurate and this was all just a big misunderstanding.
But the club took $1,900 from the camp without first realizing they couldn’t handle an additional 65 kids? Seems like a pretty significant detail that would need to be worked out before money was exchanged.
I dunno. If someone were accusing my private club of discrimination, I’d be in front of every news camera in an INSTANT giving the whole story. This many days after the incident, this sounds like a spin job.
You still have to account for all the things the kids say they heard members say. And I want to hear more about the pool attendant that allegedly told them the club didn’t allow minorities.
Who knows. Like I said, I hope it was a misunderstanding.
yeah it wasn’t on any local news (we get all philly news) so i imagine it was probably a mis-understanding.
It was on CH. 6 last night:
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/video?id=6907656
It has also been in the Philadelphia Inquirer since Wednesday:
http://search.philly.com/?q=valley+swim+club&cat=site&f=&sortby=date&offset=10