Day Camp Director Overwhelmed by Offers of Support for Her Kids

The original NBC Philadelphia article, linked here at NowPublic in the article, Day Camp Kids Told Minorities Not Allowed in Phila, PA Pool , states:

"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 am unaware, nor can it be determined from the article, whether Mr. Gibson was poolside at the Valley Swim Club or whether he was relaying what was told to him by his child or children, other children or parents that were there that day.   
 

when we re-post a media article from the main stream, whether it's here on NP, our blog, or some other site we have to accept the article for what it is. We are not full time paid journalists with the resources to verify every single fact of every single post. 

The poster on NP is not responsible for the contents of any story posted. Only the original author can be held to account for the story. If a story is on someone's blog well may be we should check to see if the main media is reporting on it, but if it's not, it does not mean its not true or incorrect.

Last year, when there was the terrorist attack in Mumbai, there were so many posts on NP which contained quotes from so called eye witnesses but it would have been impossible for a poster to NP to track down all those witnesses to verify that they said what was reported.

I do believe a serious incident/event took place at this private swimming club which needs a full investigation and the findings made public. No NP member has the resources to do that, so we will wait and see if some one will do just that!

If it's a private club I wonder why then, they even opened it to non members. I suppose if it's a private club they are entitled to decide on the membership but once they offer it to the general public without vetting, then it's no longer a private club.

Karen I think you did very well to get this story out and we will have to wait to see what becomes of it. Hope I'm not rambling on here but I actually think the staff editors are asking for a bit too much on this story.

once the swimming club accepted the fee from the camping group, they entered into a legal contract. After the start of the contract the club decided to rescind it without proper justification, such as, the camping group had broken the club rules.

The way the club rescinded the contract was legally wrong and can be sued for damages. It was all handled very badly by the club, whether it was because the camping group happened to be a bunch of black kids trying to enjoy their summer, or because the club members were complaining about over crowding, it really does not matter, because the club should have considered all those points before entering into a legal contract with the camping group.

There are in America today, private country clubs, like for tennis or golf, which do not accept membership from non-whites. I think this was high lighted when Tiger Woods became the No1 golfer.

Does this swimming club have non-white members or workers? I did read somewhere that's it's in an area which is 99.99% white, so on that grounds alone there could be no non-white members.

On a lighter note, the other day I read something about, "It's the business of newspapers to sort the wheat from the chaff, and ensure the chaff is published!"

The question of racism is the main one here. Clubs that are only for Man, Woman, Christian, Muslim, Jews, Black, White , Homo Sexual or others exist every where and in every country except for a few European Countries where this is outlawed. Wish causes a new set of problems and another sort of discrimination.

Mismanagement seems to be secondary. Many businesses make falls assumptions and over extend them self to the point that they have to go back and cancel a loot of contracts.

Every Air line over book and hopes it will all work out and usually does. 

This time it did not and action where taken that may have been badly handled.

I was on an over booked flight in Chicago two month ago and truest me people where not happy no matter how the Air line staff tried to handle it. First they asked for volunteers to take the next or even next day flight, after they did not get enough responses to that request, they had to make the decisions and make some people wait.

Children and Families as well as Business people had priority and what remained was taken off the plane list and put on stand by, many said some very ugly things in the heat of the moment and in one couples case security had to be called in.

Of course they where right to be upset, however, today this is common business practice in order to keep prises down and make certain that you are always booked to max.-capacity to cover the cost.

Imagine all the Gym members showing up at the gym at the same time? They would have to close the gym and kick every one out. 

It could very well be that this has been mishandled and blown out of proportion by both sides.

Last year we had an open house for our Farm and B&B and as usual I expected about 50 people since I have done it a couple of times. Only this time in order to increase our exposure we decided to sign up with a tour guide organization and their add campaign . They organized annually an add campaign for tourist to find out new spots to discover.

So we expected maybe 500 people at the most and so the tour guide organization believedas well. 

We ended up with over 3000 visitors for that day and it was crazy, had we not managed to pull the entire community together to come and help with out notice on a last minute call, I would have no choice but to kick every one out and close doors.

Trust me it was stress and I own our community a great deal of gratitude for all their shipped in that day. Because even though we had extra staff on hand no one expected this sort of turn out. 

Some thing similar could have happen here as well. 

Well I think perception is reality.  Due to this the investigation that Arlen Specter wants will be a waste of money.  This has turned into an emotional and no longer rational event.  I'm appalled that in 2009 in North America, even in Canada with our Charter of Rights, we are still getting wrapped around the axle about someones skin colour.

Racism is alive and well and it is a sad testimony to the human race.

Hello all:

Let me make this brief.

Racism is wrong.

If the club in fact booted them for skin color, by all means, demand your full pound of flesh.

On the other hand;

Exaggerating or inflaming race sensitive issues for political gain is also wrong. It erodes all the gains we have made in normalizing race relations.  That is not to say things are anywhere near perfect, but sensationalizing and exaggerating the reality brings us all down, it does not raise us all up.

For that reason, all here who demanded that the facts underlying story be confirmed were doing all of us, regardless of skin color, a huge favor and service.  In my opinion, if you are going to venture into pivotal issues like race, you should hold yourself to a higher standard of proof and fidelity to the absolute truth.

Racism is disgusting, but any perversion of reporting of allegations of racism for political gain or to create societal division, is equally reprehensible.

Those were my thoughts.

Respectfully,

Don Mashak

The Cynical Patriot

In my opinion, this probably wasn't the first summer that they gave temporary membership to external groups visiting the area. But maybe it was the first time a camping group for black kids had used the pool. The club management had not anticipated such a racist reaction from some of it's club members.

 They should have banned those members, at least during the time the camping group was using the pool, but in most private clubs, the membership committee is elected or appointed by the general membership, so may be they also feared for their future.

Instead of honoring their legal contract with the camping group they rescinded and caved in to some of their racist members. They cancelled the other groups to cover their backs.

There's a history which can't be ignored. There was a time if a black kid got into a "whites only" pool, they drained it!

My thanks to all for reading and to those who have provided substantive comments at the thread.

Being of African descent and having been born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 50s and living there most of my life, I am more than aware of the ugly history of racial intolerance and exclusion practiced by the so called City of Brotherly Love since its founding and where, in many instances, behind closed doors, hidden from some in the city and most definitely from the world, private clubs continue to discriminate against racial groups not to their liking.

What rules, if any, that may pertain to minority membership in the Valley Swim Club are unknown. When the Valley Swim Club was contacted by MSNBC, regarding its policies toward minorities, with MSNBC asking for a copy of the membership qualifications, they were informed only members were allowed to view the rules.

Minimally and legally, the club may be subject to some form of breach of contract for suspension of their agreement with Creative Steps Day Camp, although it would be a safe bet that written among all the jargon of legalese it states somewhere the club reserved the right to revoke membership in some fashion.

If the club is not a club that discriminates within its rules and by laws, than the racial prejudice exhibited by some of the adult members upon the arrival of a group of minority children, having paid their membership fees, giving them the same rights as all the others there at the Valley Swim Club pool, children who were merely seeking a day of fun in the pool but instead found circumstances promoting feelings of hurt, anger and dejection, is a hard lesson of life that has been learned by many generations in the past.