July 8, 2009, - 1:16 pm
Wow, I Feel For These Kids; But In America We Frown On Racism (Against Non-Whites) & This Isn’t Typical
By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
I feel for these kids, who were apparently turned away from The Valley Swim Club’s swimming pool because they are Black. In the hot summer sun, their day camp, Creative Steps Day Camp, paid almost two thousand dollars to swim there, and to kick them out for their race is wrong, not to mention extremely low-class. (We don’t know for sure if the mainstream media news report is accurate and whether we have the full story, but it appears likely, since the club isn’t talking beyond its “complexion” statement–see below.)
But it’s important to remember that while racism and bigotry will always exist everywhere on earth, in America it’s rare, on the fringe, and generally frowned upon by most Americans (who are mostly fair and decent unlike elsewhere around the world). And this club will take the heat, of which this bad publicity and news report are just the start. I’m sure this club will be the subject of lawsuits, as it should be for violating a valid contract it had with the kids’ day camp, and lots of news reports. I’m sure many mainstream media figures are booking their post-Michael Jackson memorial service plane tickets straight for Philadelphia.
Yes, a private club in America has a right to discriminate. There are country clubs a mile from my residence where I’m not wanted because Jews can’t be members (and I wouldn’t want to be). That’s their right. But that doesn’t mean it’s not extremely low-class. It is. And if you make a contract to allow kids to swim there, you must abide by the contract. To kick these kids out because of their complexion, that’s just sickening. And I know most Americans agree with my assessment.
The sad part of this is isn’t just the undue bigotry against the kids. They’ll get their redress in some way, and hopefully their parents will have the good sense not to turn this into an “America is racist” lesson. It’s that this very untypical, unAmerican experience will be cited and used–as such rare examples always are–not just by the professional race merchants such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (who are probably also already booking their plane tickets to Philly), but by our enemies, particularly of the Muslim variety, who will shove it in our faces whenever we cite their frequent religious and state human rights abuses.
Yes, this incident is fuel for the appetite of all of the malefactors within–and without–America.
**** UPDATE: A friend of mine writes:
Yes..kids should not have to deal with inequalities of the past, and this incident is certainly ugly.
Just as ugly as the [discrimination against the White] CT firefighters, and just as offensive as the ‘diverse’ C & D students recently admitted to Annapolis. Reminds me of a Bob Dylan song: “A self-ordained professor’s tongue, too serious to fool, spouted out that liberty is just equality in school”.
Exactly. In most of America, anti-Black racism is not tolerated today. But anti-White racism?
[Yes, a private club in America has a right to discriminate.]
And we have a right to boycott anyone or anything business that has anything to do with such a place.
i_am_me on July 8, 2009 at 2:41 pm