Valley Swim Club Philadelphia Makes Racial Remarks
Valley Swim Club Philadelphia Makes Racial Remarks To Children in Philadelphia, PA. An area day care center stated Thursday, July 9th, 2009, that members of a private swim club made racist comments about the center’s children. The club then canceled their swimming privileges.
The year is 2009 and minority children from the the Creative Steps Day Care Center had racial remarks said to them.
Creative Steps Day Care, care for children ages kindergarten through seventh grade. They went to the Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, on June 29th, 2009.
Alethea Wright, who is the day centers director, had contracted to use the club once a week. During their first visit, some children said they heard club members asking why African American children were at the club.
One of the little boys told the Philadelphia Inquirer that “a woman at the club said she feared the children ‘might do something’ to her child.”
Just days later, the day care center’s $1,950 check was returned without explanation.
The stepfather of one of the children is filing a complaint against Valley Swim Club, with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, according to the panel’s chairman, Stephen Glassman.
The commission is investigating the allegations, spokeswoman Shannon Powers stated, and will attempt to resolve the conflict out of court.
Sen. Arlen Specter’s office stated that the Pennsylvania Democrat has sent a letter to the Valley Swim Club president asking him to reinstate the contract with Creative Steps. The letter stated, “I think that you would agree that there is no place for racism in America today.”
CNN attempted to speak with club President John Duesler on Thursday, July 9th, 2009. He stated that he had no comment and asked CNN to leave the club property.
But Duesler told two Philadelphia television stations that the children had changed “the complexion” and “atmosphere” of the club.
Valley Swim Club Philadelphia Makes Racial Remarks and a small group of protesters gathered in front of the Valley Swim Club Philadelphia Thursday. They stated that they thought Duesler’s statements prove that the club’s action was racially motivated.
“I was hoping it wouldn’t be something that was so blatantly apparent. I was hoping that it was overcrowding,” one protester commented. “When I read the statement by the club president, it made it blatant.”
Jim Flynn, who proudly stated he was one of the club members who made a complaint against the children, stated it was not racially motivated.
Valley Swim Club Philadelphia Makes Racial Remarks…”There were a lot of children in the pool and not enough lifeguards,” he stated. “As general members, we were not told that they were coming. If we knew, we could decide to not come when the pool was crowded or come anyway. We could have had an option.”
He said two other day-care centers, neither of which included minority children, had previously been similarly uninvited.
So, if you are poor and a minority…you are not swimming in this private club.
A private Philadelphia boarding school stated Thursday, July 9th. 2009, that it plans to help the day care center.
“We thought it was appalling what happened,” Girard College Admissions Director Tamara Leclair stated.
Director Leclair is meeting with the director of Creative Steps to sign a contract allowing the children to use Girard’s facilities this summer, as early as Monday, July 13th, 2009.
Valley Swim Club Philadelphia Makes Racial Remarks…What do you think Baby Boomers? In 2009, should children be discriminated against because of their ethnicity or financial backgr0ound? For the full story go to CNN News.
Perhaps some of you think my comments jaded. Even though I did rein my self when I first read this story. I still believe it to be racism that prompted the refusal of these children to the private swim club.
Some of you state that it was bad management that prompted the refusing of these children returning to the pool for the summer. Over kill on allowing so many children into the pool and not enough staffers to watch them.
I say “thumbs down!” I say it is not bad management, but bad manners and racism from the “pool members.”
For more comments on “Valley Swim Club Philadelphia Makes Racial Remarks,” go to NBCphiladelphia.com. Do any of you find it ironic that racism in Philadelphia…and where the Declaration of Independence was written…are two of the same places?
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Most people think white trash is racist scum who is southern, nasty and lives in a trailer. That isn’t always true, in fact most of the time it isn’t. As proven by the story above you can find scum who are middle class to wealthy and live outside the south. This shocks some people, but all my life I have seen this attitude before among whites who by appearance and speach one would think otherwise. And people wonder why the civil rights struggle still goes on. Now you know why.
The Creative Steps Day Car, A Philadelphia-area day care center, claimed that Valley Swim Club in Huntingdon Valley made racial comments then canceled the daycare’s swimming privileges.
Now in reading the story and I, myself calling Valley Swim Club (VSC) I came of the mindset that this is not a case of racism. This is not about a group of African American kids running around a rich white person swim club. When I first read the story my mind was screaming something was wrong.
Well let’s discuss first private swim clubs. These are usually high cost recreation areas. in other words members pay hefty dues to be a part of the club. The expectation of paying these club costs are for the peace and relaxation. Most of these swim clubs do have membership forms to fill out and need to be accepted before you can attend. Imagine if you would that you are a dues paying member. You spend hundreds of dollars per year to be a part of a private swim club, you go to the pool and suddenly you have dozens if not hundreds of kids running around and screaming. What happened? You did not join a public pool, you did not spend your hard earned money to be subjected to this. Being someone who has had their pool overrun by people who I thought did not belong, I can understand the frustration. I do not think the racial comments were said, but I will address that later.
Now let’s discuss the day care center. What is not clearly reported is how many councilors were on hand to handle 60 kids at the pool. Some unofficial reports claim it was as little as 4 councilors, others claim it was 12 councilors. What was also scarcely reported was how the kids from the camp entered the pool area. Several reports were the kids rushed the pool screaming and yelling then jumping into the pool. It was also not clear was how many other day care centers were there. This was not about racism this was about a pool club that gave no warning to its members when it allowed these day care centers come to swim.
Here is my personal thoughts on this:
First this is not racism. I will explain in detail my thoughts on this. This is poor planning on the part of the VSC to not notify it’s members. Had the members been notified that day care children would be attending and not to be surprised things might have been handled differently. The sudden influx of black children screaming for the pool might not have been such a shock or surprise. I am sure some comments would still be made, but not racial remarks. More along the line of “How can they let those kids carry on like that?”
Second this is also poor handling on behalf of the day care center. They did not keep the kids in control they let them run loose, as they charged the pool essentially scaring the crud out of everyone there. I am sure it would have looked like the pool was being invaded by a bunch of kids who did not belong there. Instead of keeping the kids under control they ran rampant until they were asked to leave.
Third kids are going to be kids. If they are not with their parents, or just bad parenting, children will act like excited children who have not been to the pool in a long time. In other words yelling, screaming, running. These things that are not expected at a private swim club.
Lastly I firmly believe that this was blown out of proportion by the day care center. I see this as a way to get back at the day care center for canceling their swim time. It is far to easy in this day and age to claim racism and get a huge amount of publicity. Instead of dealing with the fact that your kids did not act appropriately and were kicked out for bad behavior. Let’s label this place racist and get the media to condemn the swim club.
Bottom line this is not racism, as much as people want it to be. This makes me embarrassed to be a black man…. or am I.
As always I am Blogger X, an unknown. You can take my report at face value or you can try to deem me a racist. Either way you don’t know if I am white, black, man, or woman. Instead I am a human being making a non biased report on something I perceive as biased media reporting.
Till next time,
Blogger X
I am not buying the statement from John. Sorry. This is racism at it’s purest form. Sad that there is such. If it were in issue of overcrowding, then the Valley Club could have decided to make some agreement with the daycamp facility regarding the amount of children who could go. For Example, the daycamp director could have set-up for half to go one week and the other half the following week. John, the board of directors, whatever, got pressured in some way by a member or some members, who knows, and thought that the decision they had made would have satisfied whomever. Did they not know that these children are human? That they have feelings and desires just like any child? That they were so looking forward to their summers at the pool? Some of the best memories for a child come from summers by the water, be it the ocean, a lake, a pool. None of these children deserved this. None. Step back, take a look at America. Remember who we are, where we come from.
I agree most completely with Blogger X. Racism and religious persecution run on the same vibes – if you cant prove me 100% wrong, I am 100% right even if what I believe is rediculous. For some reason I feel like the reaction was viewed as racism, because as we all know, white people are evil. They may have had their kids get out of the pool because of the crazy behavior in fear that they may be hurt. I have seen this happen and seen the parent/couselors/guardians of the out of control kid goes on the defensive and screams racist. It’s disgusting on both sides of the colored coin. If we can understand that people are going to have problems with behavior regardless of color if that behavior constitutes fear/anxiety, we can step away from the racism and into human nature. People are going to hate but leave the term racism for the truly dispicable acts, not for something stupid like this…
Re: Blogger x- Your personal thoughts are biased and simply flawed.
VSC did notify its members. VSC gave their members options on when they wanted to visit the pool because it would now service campers.
What difference would it have made if it were a sudden influx of white children that entered the pool? Why was it shock that black children came? How do you know the day care center let their kids run wild? Were you there? Were their accounts of misbehaving or are you assuming? Why would a member think the kids did not belong there? Can black kids pay dues and enter a pool? Is that a possibility? How did the campers know the other members belonged there?
How do you know what comments the members made? Are you guessing? Were you there?
Kids yelling, screaming and running. This never happens at a private swim club. Are you sure that’s what you want to base your argument on. Are you sure?
You are inferring that bad parenting was the cause of some type of behavior at the pool. How could you possibly know about the parenting or guidance these kids receive? Do you know any of the campers?
Define blown out of proportion? Based on what standard?
You seem to have drawn on every stereotype your feeble mind could hold to come to your conclusion. You are not a human being with compassion or special insight.
Re: Blogger X.-
The website for VSC now simply reads: “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.”
Their reason for the incident is overcrowding. So which is it?
Well, X and Y, I not only totally disagree with you, I have read every article and piece of information I can find on here about this and I think you are just dead wrong. There are even people from the swim club who think that the club was wrong that were there that day. They say the kids were NOT misbehaving and that there was no reason to throw them out. They also say that on the weekends (Sat and Sun) there are often a lot more kids than what were there that day. If there were not enough lifeguards that is the fault of the facility, who clearly was aware that those kids would be arriving at that time on that day. After all, they had a paid contract with them.
By the way, blogger X, I am not ashamed to admit I am a white woman. Don’t know why you are ashamed to admit to your ethnicity or your gender, unless it is because of your shameful post.
Personally, I think the day care center should have refused to accept the check back and showed up the next time. She should have said, “we have a contract”. Then she could have sued him for breaking his contract. That is what I would have done. I wouldn’t cash that check if I were her.
And yes, I think those people did make those remarks. You know, your racism comes out when you make comments such as “The sudden influx of black children screaming for the pool might not have been such a shock or surprise.” And “They did not keep the kids in control they let them run loose, as they charged the pool essentially scaring the crud out of everyone there.” This is simply not true. No one made comments that the children were out of control, and in fact, there were people there that said the children were well-behaved.
By the way, this is not a “high class” swim club. I read up on it and found that it is a working class/upper middle class club that runs between 300 and 400 for the summer. Tht is comparable to the YMCA.
Why don’t you come out of the closet and admit to your racism, “mr. black man” who really is not.
Will some one please explain to the children who heard the racial comments that this was NOT about racism?
Sharon
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
It’s truly amazing how some people speak as if they were there. Mr Blogger X has no idea what he is talking about and that’s quite obvious.
You only need to watch the video of the young black kid on CNN crying about how he thought we were past these days to know that it was not an overcrowding issue. Comments that “they” might steal something and one of “them” might hurt my child go way beyond overcrowding.
What about the comment from one of the pool’s operators that said it change the “complexion” of the club. What does that mean exactly? Maybe it would make sense to say the environment changed or the atmosphere changed as a result of a bunch of wild kids suddenly appearing. However, the word “complexion” indicates someone who truly thinks backwards.
If you happen to watch the young man crying and then claim no racism, so be it. Until then, you are guessing at best.
Also, the newly caped Blogger X sounds a lot like the reverend who defended Casey Anthony on this site.
I’m not sure which I find more appalling, the racism that this club has shown or the fact that people do not see this as form of racism, anyone who has ever been discrimated against in any form whether it be white on blacks or blacks on whites should see this as it is, I find it hard to believe that this club that portrays itself as elite, would also publicly portray itself as ignorant, was this club not aware where the money they were accepting to do a ” public service’ was coming from, did they not research who they were accepting the money from, and who would be using it’s services, the fact that these children had to endure such racial remarks in this day in age, from such ‘ educated’ racists, only goes to show educated ignorance still exists, children learn from role models, is this what it’s like to have money?, please let me continue to be ” poor”, and not ignorant.
To : The “CLUB”
I am a white male as are my 3 sons. My Grandson is a 10 yr old “black” young man. My son just today arrived back stateside from Afghanastan & his son is in Colorado for the time being.
Be glad of this because if it where possible i would be at the “CLUB” NOW,
with my Son & Grandson. And my Girlfriend would be too. She is also “black”.
You ALL are PURE, UNADULTERATED ASSHOLES !!!!
John J. Pogozelski
P.S………. I live in Blackwood, New Jersey. We may visit yet in the future !
All this hurts are the children because they don’t understand what this is all about even if they express it they won’t fully understand.
MAY GOD BLESS ALL OF THE INNOCENT CHILDREN INVOLVED IN THIS HORRIBLE CASE NOW AND FOR ALL TIME!!!
Very alarming !
Reminds me of the fifties !
Sad commentary on all of us humans !
Why do people keep claiming this is racial? Quit playing the race card when it shouldn’t be used! There were TWO OTHER DAY CAMPS that had contracts cancelled before this group and NEITHER INCLUDED MINORITIES! Was the pool discriminating against whites too? How can you say it was racial when only ONE of THREE groups who had contracts cancelled were non-white?! I truly do not believe this is a black or white situation. I think it is more rich or poor. Of course that is not as popular for a new story!
Economic discrimination is still discrimination.
Sharon
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
The owners have a proven track record of giving to all races. He can’t control everyone’s words. Besides…even our President Obama lets out a few racist words like “whitie”. Double standard? Come on. I was the only white girl once in NC working on a unit of all African Americans. They called me a caucasion. I never thought of myself that. because I just don’t see color when it comes to people. I’ve worked in the inner city hospitals. I know that within the community there is racism as to the shade of skin. Iwas shocked. But after all…..we are ALL human. A question I pose is who is going to be first to live and talk like Dr. King. If you concentrate on color no matter where your ethnicity comes from you are always going to see inconsistencies. If you look to others as a person…with the same color blood as you…well…we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
The best health is the one you create yourself proactively. My plan would be to reward ones actions of producing such in their lives. I wonder if there are any stats of how many lives might have been saved since insurance companies give rewards to those who join health clubs. For the ones who don’t there are plenty of ideas to promote good health thus reducing ill health thus reducing alot of outlay of money on everyones part. It would be a start. Let’ s continue the freedom to have quick access to our physicians and hospitals. Read the fine print of this bill. Baby Boomers….start taking your vitamins and exercise.
In all the swim club issue…I am sorry that there were ignorant people at the swim club that made horrible comments to the children. I’m proud of the young lady who stated that right. The children have a wonderful leader and role model for standing up for their rights to be there. I applaud you. Can we take this to a higher level and not let the media take it out of control. Let’s not let hatred by a few fuel and exacerbate more hatred. Sounds like the owners apologized…their actions for a lifetime have spoken louder than any club members words. Can the children know about the good those people have done? Maybe that would help them understand that one cannot control other’s people’s ill comments but you should judge the character of the person by their lifetime of actions. I’m truly sorry for the tears the children have shed. My children shed a few tears two when we moved into Germantown and couldn’t even play in our front yard because the children coming home from school wouldn’t even say hi back when my little boy would wave to them. They just stood at our fence and stared. That’s ok. The soon learned we were only human too.
It is unfornate this has happened. I understand why this happened. That Club is situated in a white very affluent community. The club in the past few years has seen a decline in enrollment at the club. Less enrollment equalls less money to run the club. I’m sure the management decided to contract with these camps without telling their members. I can imagine what the club members felt when 60+ Black and Hispanic children jumped into their pool. This community’s perception of Black and Hispanic comes from the Nightly news.It is ashame that the club rescinded the the camps membership but it also is ashame the camp will not return after the camp asked them back. This is an opportunity to introduce the communtiy that these children are harmless and white people have nothing to fear from these campers. We have people who want to play politics instead of doing what is right for everyone. Heal the wounds do create new ones!!
Very upsetting and heartbreaking for these children. Pure ignorance—hopefully this is not forgotten. The sad part is that those accused likely don’t get it.