Comments on: A “Whites only” swimming pool? Take action!

By: rikyrah

rikyrah — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:54:17 +0000

they're shamed, because their asses got busted.

By: lamac66

lamac66 — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:37:20 +0000

Totally humiliated these kids.

By: Daisy Kingston

Daisy Kingston — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:35:38 +0000

“Underestimated capacity?” That's a weak excuse. More like they underestimated how racist the members of the country club really were. Whoever approved the contract in the first place was probably just thinking about the money that was coming in. With this economy, one needs all the business you can get. They didn't think about the fact that these were minority kids.

If the members of the country club had not disapproved of those kids being there, management wouldn't have said all of a sudden, “Oh, we have too many kids here for this space, we don't have the capacity!”

By: Justice58

Justice58 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:19:09 +0000

Our Valley Club deplores discrimination in any form, as is evidenced by our multi-ethnic and diverse membership. Whatever comments may or may not have been made by an individual member is an opinion not shared by The Valley Club Board.

Yeah right. Now they're shame because everyone knows how they mistreated little innocent kids. Pay the Piper!

By: Angelar

Angelar — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:17:46 +0000

fyi,

Arlen Specter has decided to look at the situation….

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Swim-...

By: Miranda

Miranda — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:07:55 +0000

The Valley Club has taken down their site and now just has this page up with the following message:

The Valley Club is deeply troubled by the recent allegations of racism which are completely untrue.
We had originally agreed to invite the camps to use our facility, knowing full well that the children from the camps were from multi-ethnic backgrounds. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that we underestimated the capacity of our facilities and realized that we could not accommodate the number of children from these camps. All funds were returned to the camps and we will re-evaluate the issue at a later date to determine whether it can be feasible in the future.

Our Valley Club deplores discrimination in any form, as is evidenced by our multi-ethnic and diverse membership. Whatever comments may or may not have been made by an individual member is an opinion not shared by The Valley Club Board.

http://www.thevalleyclub.com/

By: Miranda

Miranda — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:00:19 +0000

How is that possible when the kids were actually in the pool when they were told to get out and leave? It wasn't gridlock then, so it can't be “theoretical” gridlock now. They were told why they were being asked to leave by the pool attendants. This has nothing to do with the NUMBER of children, nothing at all.

By: mon_dieu_ishmael

mon_dieu_ishmael — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:44:05 +0000

Dump 60 additional grade school kids into a pool and nobody swims. It would be gridlock. it would by two extra gym classes added to a full pool.
The manager who agreed to that is an asshat.

By: isonprize

isonprize — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:44:03 +0000

Philly is definitely humid in the summer! And summer camps generally take kids from 5 up to age 12.

Summamabitches.

By: WordSmith

WordSmith — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:48:05 +0000

Then that should've been made clear from the start.

By: WordSmith

WordSmith — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:45:37 +0000

See that's what gets me the most. I thought about that all last night. How in the HELL are you going to do that to KIDS? The video I saw, the kids ranged in size from small (like maybe 5 or 6) to the older ones. They looked to be about grade school age. For the older kids, I think the dichotomy of knowing you have a black president on one hand, but yet you're being told by an adult that you can't swim at this swimming pool and somehow it's because of who you all are on the other - what a devastating smackdown to their egos.

Summer fun.... they didn't care where as long as they got to swim. I don't know about Philly, but when I lived in Cleveland proper and thereabouts, the humidity used to kill me - coupled with the heat.

Fucking snivelets.

I don't know the background of the guy running the show, but he's got some damned 'splaining to do ..... supposedly being an Obama supporter. If we got to get into white liberal racism, then we better start now because this shit cannot continue.

By: Justice58

Justice58 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:16:42 +0000

Did anyone see the little 12 year old boy on CNN giving an interview on what happened at that pool? The child had tears! His little heart was so hurt. All he wanted to do was have some summer fun.

Nah Nah …Someone must pay for this sh!t. Hit them in the f-ing pocketbook!

By: WordSmith

WordSmith — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:10:28 +0000

Democratic Underground had a news story from the local Fox news station that had Mr. Duesler originally saying, "they had underestimated the impact on their pool of the number of students" - and the wording got changed by the reporter at Philly.com. I'll see if I can find it from last night.

By: Shazza

Shazza — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:11 +0000

I saw on the news that the protest was only like 8 people. The Club closed in anticipation of an unruly mob ( I guess) but the white reporter sort of smirked and said there was more media there than protesters. They talked to a club member that said it wasn't about race, it was a safety issue because there was over 60 kids in the pool and just 2 lifeguards. We'll see…………

By: beachmom1

beachmom1 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:30:42 +0000

Also, Adam B (who hails from that area in PA), is on the case:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/9/7515...

Front page:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/9/751774/-...

He now says they are being investigated by the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission, which is a state agency.

By: beachmom1

beachmom1 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:28:09 +0000

Also, Adam B (who hails from that area of PA) is on the case:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/9/751774/-...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/9/91846/13164

By: PTCruiser

PTCruiser — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:13:11 +0000

I hate to be an outlier here but if the best these folks can do is to have a white folks only swimming pool in the Year 2009 let them have their pool. The world and time is passing them by and if they indoctrinate their children with these attitudes, the world and time will pass them by as well.