Pool Boots Kids Who Might "Change the Complexion"
So angry you could scream? Me, too. But what fuels a deeper rage is the harsh reality that if you are a black child in America, this is your story, too, and some version of it has happened or will happen to you. The election of Barack Obama does not and will not protect you. The illusion of a post-racial reality is dangerous to your well-being.More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.
"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.
"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately..."
"They just kicked us out. And we were about to go. Had our swim things and everything," said camper Simer Burwell.
The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.
"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.
Here's what my friend Quiana said about that truth: "A black president is not the same as the end of racism...We have to worry about the kids, white, black and those who live somewhere in the middle... messages about body, skin and self are painfully branded in moments like this. No matter what the club does, I hope all these kids have a caring adult who can support them to learn and heal instead of hurt and grow hard."
I remember with clear precision the first time my daughter was on receiving end of an overtly racist remark/action from an adult -- she was three. A mother on our block told her she couldn't come in their house because she was black and left her screaming in the front yard two doors down from me as the other children went inside. One of the children she let in was a very light biracial girl who must have "passed" to this woman. I ran and grabbed my child, not knowing why she was screaming. As soon as I knew (she told me), I raced and got that other girl's mom who snatched her child right up out of the that house. Our daughters had played like neighbor kids do on the sidewalks with the two little white girls from that home without prior incident. Who knew?
My son was five, in kindergarten, the first time he experienced the sting of a racist taunt from a classmate (I don't think I need to explain that one further). I will say it was a very racially mixed school that praised itself for its diversity and welcoming environment.
As a young, naive white parent I was shocked at each of those experiences. My Black friends just shook their heads and said to me, "So what did you expect?" They understood what I still needed to learn -- that it was just the beginning.
That was the 80s. Now here we are, a generation later, and even after we elect a Black man President of the United States, for some kids in a pool in Philadelphia, it's the same old same old same old.
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Pam's House Blend: Black kids booted from Philly club's 'whites only' pool
Jack and Jill Politics: 60 Black Kids Booted from Philly Pool for Being Black
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