written by Anti-Racist Parent columnist Cloudscome
You’ve probably heard in the news lately about the Valley Swim club outside Philadelphia. They are a private swim club in a mostly white suburban area. The management of the club contracted with a city kid’s day camp to have the campers come and swim in the pool once a week. The mostly black kids camp had paid somewhere around $1900 for the pool time. But the first day they showed up to swim this week the members of the swim club did not welcome them. From reading and listening to the news reports it looks to me like the white members of the club had some vocal negative reaction to a bunch of black kids jumping in the water with them and their kids.
From the NBC report:“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.
“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.”
I first heard about this on Thursday afternoon on Twitter. I retweeted the link to a news story by Allison Killkenny at True Slant, which gave out the swim club’s email and phone number. I sent an email to the president of the club which mainly questioned his narrow-minded ignorance. At the time I was under the impression that it was club policy to discriminate. Today I am beginning to understand that it may not have been Mr. Duesler’s leadership that was responsible. It looks to me like it was the cruel and racist reaction of the club members that is the real problem.
The story was on the local news last night and my kids saw it. Buddy, my six year old, who is African American and Hispanic, did not appear to be paying attention to the news while it was on. He was messing around on the piano while I watched. But he clearly took it all in. At dinner he asked me about it. “What was that on the TV about black kids not allowed to swim in that pool?” I told him the story as clearly and simply as I could. I told him straight up it was racism and that stuff like that happens. It’s not right, it’s not fair, and a lot of people are protesting it. I told them I had sent an email to the club to complain and that other people were there at the club protesting because we know it is wrong.
I also told them they will find there is racism in the world. It’s hard to be black and sometimes people don’t treat you right. You have to know who you are and that you are precious and important no matter how anyone treats you. His reaction was to say when he grows up he is going to be a police officer and go put those people in jail. I was heartsick to see once again his innocence and faith in the system. I didn’t address the complexity of police relations at this point, I just reiterated that racism is unfair, unjust, and we can fight it.
My four year old Punkin, who is also African American, spoke up at this point. He looked at me in consternation, his mouth full of raspberry pancakes, and said, “Are we black?” “Yes” I said. He shook his head and screwed up his face in denial, throwing back his head and getting ready to blast me. He is older now than Buddy was when Buddy started to understand his ethnicity and claim it. It seems to me he has a negative understanding of what it means to be black and doesn’t identify. But I am not sure that he understands that being black is being African American. He may be thinking of the color, or some other association for the label, and being very literal about his own brown skin. He has said before “I’m not black, I’m brown. See?”, while holding up his arm and smiling.
At this point, Buddy burst back in with, “Punkin, yes, we are black. We are both black and when we grow up we will be police officers and we will go there and arrest them and take them to the judge and the judge will put them in JAIL! Right? Cause they can’t do that!” Punkin nodded at him and got excited at the idea of all that powerful action. Buddy went on, “And even the President will do it!”
“Yes,” I said.
“And you know the President is black too.”
“No he’s not.” says Punkin. “He is light.”
“Yes he is” says Buddy. “He is my color.” He holds up his arm to the last sunlight coming in the dining room window. “He is black like me. Just like my color, right?”
“Yes”, I say, nodding.
Punkin turns to me and says, “No, he’s not mom. He is light like us.”
“No, Punkin. He is black and you are black. Everyone’s skin is a little different. Lighter or darker, and the sun makes it darker in summer. But when we say black we mean African American. You are African American and so is President Obama.”
I didn’t get to launch into anymore instruction at that point because someone fell of their chair or spilled their drink or did some silly, rude thing to interrupt the conversation. This is typical dinner table behavior for us. We only get about three minutes of actual conversation into any 20 minute period. But still. I have no idea if I handled this in the best way. I don’t know what I should have said to them about racism, about being black, about the complex dynamics played out between black youth and police officers. I just pray our talking about it and reacting to the situation directly will give them an advantage for the next time. The time when they face the racism themselves and need to know who they are and who stands with them. The point is, there was injustice and we participated in speaking out against it. We were shocked, horrified, angered and moved to protest. We bumped up against the ugly in the world and acknowledged it.
How did it go in your house?
Cloudscome is a single mother with three sons. She is a library-media specialist and blogs about books and technology at http://awrungsponge.blogspot.com.
I am so sickened to even hear of this, and glad that it is finally getting the media attention that it deserves. I guess this opened my eyes up to the fact that things like this happen every single day to so many people, but because of my privilege, I am ignorant to it unless it is right in my face. I am so scared to talk about race and racism because I don’t want to get it wrong but thanks to this site, where I have been lurking for a couple years, I am making a little progress (I hope).
Here: http://www.colorofchange.org/swim/?id=1976-832760 is an online petition.
Great piece. There is still a huge stereotype about blacks being unable to swim. I think it goes back to the public swimming pool where suddenly whites have to share the same enclosed, liquid and amorphous environment with blacks and both groups universally being ‘in the drink’ together becomes too much for the mass psycholgy of intrinisc white racism bear.
Pennsylvania! Yikes, so many white separatist groups based there for such a small state, very saddening.
Thanks for posting that link D! I just went and signed the petition.
My kids didn’t seem this story but I if they did and when they’re a little bit older I hope I handle it just as well as you did.
I thought you handled it really well. You have your work cut out for you with black boys. The world is much more cruel to them than black females.
This story sucks, but what about acknowledging Obama for what he is? I am sick and tired of people saying he’s only Black, denying his heritage.
He is only half black, he was abandoned by his Black father, and he was raised by his white mother and his white grandparents.
His white family deserve praise and not his Black family, who abandoned him
We discussed it at dinner last night and my white kids were gratifyingly horrified. Of course, they don’t have to worry about being treated the same way as kids of color do.
It also turned into a good discussion of the north/south issue and my son, a rising seventh grader, recalling our conflict earlier this year with his English teacher in a fairly privileged white majority school. As is common in CA, there are some Latin@s and some Asians but very few African Americans. They were analyzing a story about an African American family of the fifties driving south and experiencing severe racism…I read the paper on it he had turned in for a high grade that said such families were treated equally in the north at that time. Asked him how on earth he could say that and he said “I know–that’s what I told her–but she made me.” Gag. Wouldn’t acknowledge her mistake when I wrote her but maybe it put something in her mind. And reinforced the importance of speaking up about stuff like this in his.
My daughter is too young to be aware of the story. But as a Philly native who lives in the burbs, I GET it and I’m not surprised. I love that the blogosphere and social networking probably got this story moving on the national level after the local NBC affiliate got the scoop. I hate that it happened at all.
But today, I took my multiracial munchkin to a state park w/ a massive pool (Nockamixon, in Quakertown, Bucks County, for anyone local), and the sheer diversity there was… healing. Seriously, tons of families of variable composition, every age group, every shade, multiple languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, for starters). Between work and home, it’s admittedly more diversity than I’m going to see in one place in a week. Which tells you what kind of place the greater Philadelphia area really is.
Great post!!! Read how I feel about the incident at
http://www.nichewho.com/journal/2009/7/11/a-misunderstanding.html
>This story sucks, but what about acknowledging Obama for what he is? I am sick and tired of people saying he’s only Black, denying his heritage.
At the risk of thread derail, Pres. Obama has publically acknowledged both sides of his family (and more, including his step-family), but he is publically black-identified.
That means on this blog and at Racialicious, that we should respect that decision and choice, regardless of whether we agree or how we would identify.
So when Cloudscome tells confirms for her very young children that yes, Obama is black (i.e. of African descent), she’s not wrong and she’s being respectful. He is black. And he is white.(Although in our racist society, noone every says that). And he is biracial. One does not negate the others.
He claims black for personal (I assume) and public purposes. And we have to respect the right of people to self-identify.
I wonder a little bit about this story. I don’t doubt that the kids overheard some comments from people at the pool side: “What are all these blacks kids doing here?” I do wonder if the management of the club actually refunded their money entirely based on race. I tend to believe them when they say they may have taken on more kids than they could handle and that was why they refunded the money. You may have had a combination of some people who were disconcerted to see a large group of unfamiliar minority kids at the pool and said as much, hurting the kids, and a management that bit off more than it could chew while trying to make some money by selling pool time ot area day cares. Either way, it’s sad that the kids had to hear the comments and that the people were crass enough to make them. I hope I’m right that it was cluelessness on the part of a few of the club members and not an overall policy.
It’s depressing to recognize that what happened at this pool happens all the time. Thanks for posting so thoughtfully about how your kids reacted and how your family discussed it, Clouds.
I’d like to share a link that readers might find useful – the Southern Poverty Law Center Stand Strong Against Hate Site. It provides information about hate groups by state. You can also add your name to those who are standing strong against hate.
http://www.splcenter.org/center/petitions/standstrong/
@Lyonside, I agree. I couldn’t help acknowledge what Jane said either…I like your response.
But, seriously, though…Jane, Jane, Jane. Naive Jane. Silly Jane. Ridiculously clueless Jane. So what should we call President Obama? White? Because his white family raised him? It doesn’t matter who raised him, dear. On a cold night in Chicago the man would have still had a hard time getting a cab (no longer, obviously). When he was a pre-teen and teen growing up he fielded racism just like any other Black child. Some of it, I might add, coming from his White family. Sometimes I think White people forget that a biracial child that is obviously Black has an easier time in the world than a Black child. Skin color issues aside (because we know that a Black child can have the same, darker, or lighter skin than a child with Black and White parents), having grown up in a White family doesn’t make being Black any easier when you’re not around that family. When you’re in school you’re still “the Black kid” when you’re in the store you’re still “the Black kid” and when you’re being pulled over by the police or meeting your significant other’s parents you are still “the Black kid.” Your Blackness is not negated or “softened” by having white relatives…even if you were raised solely by those White relatives. You are still Black. Not only that, but our President is an intelligent man, I think everyone can agree. He has thought of these issues and HE CHOOSES to call himself a Black man. As Lyonside said, we need to respect that. And anyway, didn’t the author say that her children were of biracial heritage as well? So they have an “equal claim” to their Blackness, right? Why make statements designed to raise ire on a site like this? You should be learning, not commenting. Sorry, but its true.
Andrea: your perspective has come up on other blogs and forums, so let me address it here as simply as possible.
>I tend to believe them when they say they may have taken on more kids than they could handle and that was why they refunded the money.
This entire story would be a non-issue if the swim club had bothered to SAY THIS when they refunded the money. Instead, by the camp’s account, the reservations for the rest of the summer were canceled with NO explanation, and the money was refunded, including the money for the first day.
This cancelation also happened 4 days LATER, after a long weekend where I’m sure the club was opened. I don’t know what happened behind closed doors re: vocal members, board members, and the director of the club. But it is highly unlikely that it took the director that long to independently decide that the club was too crowded.
There are also practical solutions they could have come up with WITH THE CAMP to resolve this without canceling. Off the top fo my head, I can think of the following:
1. consider breaking the campers up by swim level so they’re not all in the shallow end – some kids may be there because they have to, others may stay there becuase they want to play w;/ their friends.
2. hire more lifeguards for that 90 minute session (shoudl be done anyway).
3. organize other water activities on the grounds to seperate the camp kids into 2 groups – one does slip-and-slides, sprinkler games, water balloon fights, etc., while the other swims for 45 minutes, and then they switch.
4. put up a “Welcome Camp So-and-so” in the front, or some kind of itinerary, so that club members can make their own decisions (quietly, please) as to whether they want to be there when the camp arrives.
> I hope I’m right that it was cluelessness on the part of a few of the club members and not an overall policy.
I woud love ot think that too… except that the FIRST Thing the club director said when this hit the news was the “kids would change the.. complexion of the club” comment. That is NOT the statement of a person worried about safety of children. That isn’t even the statement of a person worried about the safety of adults.
That is the statement of a racist or someone who is being intimidated BY racists. That is the statement of someone who has NO CLUE ABOUT HOW TO HANDLE RACISM AND RACE ISSUES. That cluelessness is the kind of passive racism that makes too many people pat themselves on the back and say, “Hey, I’m not racist, I don’t harass people or burn crosses, now why can’t XYZ people clean up their own neighborhood? They’re animals!”
That’s FAR more dangerous than overt racism. Give me a nutter in a sheet any day. At least I know who they are and what they’re thinking. I would much rather be hated than ignored by those who think they have the privilege to live in a world without people like me in it, and get uncomfortable when that doesn’t turn out to be true.