The development came during a hastily called Sunday afternoon meeting of the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania. Club members voted overwhelmingly to try to work things out with the day-care center, which accused some swim club members of making racist comments to black and Hispanic children contracted to use the pool, said Bernice Duesler, the club director's wife.
Duesler said the club canceled its contract with the Creative Steps day-care because of safety, crowding and noise concerns, not racism.
"As long as we can work out safety issues, we'd like to have them back," she told CNN.
[...]
"These children are scarred. How can I take those children back there?" she said.
However, Wright's lawyer, Carolyn Nicholas, said the center will give the Valley Club's offer "due consideration" once it is received and looks forward to sitting down with the parties.
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8 comments:
I am hoping that the fierce social reaction against this racism will counter any ill-parenting effects.
This event is possibly a good argument for public schools. Stick a bunch of white kids together and of course they're going to ogle and get weirded out by *other* kids with different skin colors. TV and the media overwhelmingly portray blacks, hispanics, and other minorities as evil people with an attitude and a bone to pick.
Of course, it couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, historically speaking, aren't whites -- by FAR -- the most dangerous? I digress...
What a mess The Valley Swim Club made. Their reputation is scarred for years, if not longer, no matter how "well" they patch up this situation.
Discriminating against those that are different than you is a natural survival instinct.
Those parents have every right to teach their children the freedom of association, rather the fascist ideal of ramming diversity down their throats.
Tolerance of those unlike you is another effort of government intervening and mandating your charity.
please, this is america we can live, eat,sleep,work,play and swimm where we want...when you ride the city bus,whats in the bus goes with the ride! the same with the public beach..why dont they want us? ask mom and dad, if you can find them!
Racism, as distasteful as it is to me, is not illegal in America. There are all sorts of "white only" organizations operating legally in America as well other race based organizations on Campuses.
Where the The Valley Swim Club crossed the line legally is when they advertised their club as an open club pretending it wasn't closed and/or racist when it indeed they had issues. Ethical and moral issues in my opinion..
It sounded like the little guy did not like being called “Black” since he is with a multiracial group. Most do not like to be called African American and others want to be called Black Americans, now it is Multiracial American.
its good news for kids well their is not any difference between black or another person. thats good
Safety in and around the aquatic environment is paramount and instead of looking at the unfortunate occurance of alleged racism, look at the underlying safety factors. Were additional safety personnel hired when it was known that a group of this size and age was scheduled to use the facility? I know from personal experience that whenever a large group of swimmers(say, from a day camp) are using an aquatic facility, in addition to the regular customers, extra lifeguards ARE needed. Was the safety issue addressed before the group was at the pool? I am not making excuses, I do not deny that racism exists, perhaps this whole incident is overblown(media) and it hopefully goes away. What really needs to be addressed is the closure of too many inner city aquatic facilities, for whatever reason.
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