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Pool Bans Black Kids? What Decade Is It?

Racial discrimination sends us back to the 1950s

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 10, 2009 10:53 AM CDT

(Newser) – A largely white suburban Philadelphia swim club’s barring of black and Latino campers was so backward “I thought I had fallen into a time warp,” writes Annette John-Hall in the Inquirer. Things like this happened in the 1950s—when singer Dorothy Dandridge booked a room in a Las Vegas hotel, the staff actually drained the pool—but “this isn't 1950s Las Vegas. It's 2009 Philly.”

“I didn't understand because we're all the same. We're just a different color,” said one camper. The club’s president told the camp’s head that he’d had to “disinvite” the children because of a member vote, but a member says that’s not true: his fellow poolgoers had recommended a schedule change, not a ban. As the story has gone national, protesters have gathered—but pool management isn’t talking.

Nine-year-olds Quadir Preston, right, and Asjah Anthony, second from right, demonstrate in front of the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., alongside other supporters.
Nine-year-olds Quadir Preston, right, and Asjah Anthony, second from right, demonstrate in front of the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., alongside other supporters.   (AP Photo/Mark Stehle)
The front gate to the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., remains locked yesterday following allegations that the swim club blocked a group of minority children from swimming.
The front gate to the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., remains locked yesterday following allegations that the swim club blocked a group of minority children from swimming.   (AP Photo/Mark Stehle)
Kelbin Carolina demonstrates in front of the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., in response to allegations that the swim club blocked a group of minority children from the pool, July 9, 2009.
Kelbin Carolina demonstrates in front of the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., in response to allegations that the swim club blocked a group of minority children from the pool, July 9, 2009.   (AP Photo/Mark Stehle)
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Change must come from the inside out. Because this isn't about complexion or atmospheric change, but about kids having a good summer. - Annette John-Hall

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 23 comments
armywife
Jul 11, 2009 2:04 AM CDT
well, it is true that racism has always existed on both sides of the mason-dixie, but i think you are wrong to say that worst bigots are found in the north. i'm from the south and fully aware of the long history of extreme violence and persecution blacks have faced there - lynchings, slavery, jim crow laws, the 4 little girls from selma, the list is agonizingly long and horrifying. simply because racism also exists in the north doesnt let the south off the hook as the biggest offender.
Mad
Jul 10, 2009 11:33 AM CDT
Oh, I didn't realize those kids weren't also Americans. The nerve of those foreign children
FreeThemAll
Jul 10, 2009 11:06 AM CDT
But you aren't saying that to be a racist one must benefit financially by being so, are you? The definition of racism, according the dictionary provided as a application on my Mac is: the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. • prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief.
 

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