Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love. A northeastern city, 43.8% African-American, that voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. And my home for the past couple of years.
It’s the last place you expect to hear a story of children being denied the opportunity to swim in a pool because of the color of their skin, right?
Wrong.
The kids from Creative Steps Inc. day camp were turned away from the Valley Swim Club pool in Huntington Valley, Montgomery County, a wealthy white suburb of Philly, after they had paid $1,950 to use the pool for the summer. The president of the swim club released a statement saying: “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club.”
A Philadelphia Daily News columnist wrote:
According to 14-year-old camper Dymir Baylor, with whom I spoke yesterday, some of the comments were heartless.
I heard a white lady say, “What are all these black kids doing here? They might do something to my child,” recalled Dymir, who says he lives in a neighborhood so diverse, he’d never heard anyone speak like that before. “It was rude and ignorant.”
While the story breaks my heart, it does not shock me. I volunteered for Barack Obama in Pennsylvania during the primary campaign and the general election, both times against a white opponent. Over and over again I heard overtly racist comments—not just the coded dogwhistles about Muslims and flag pins and birth certificates, but people who said frankly, “I won’t vote for a black man,” or “I can’t believe I dragged myself out of bed to vote for a n****r.”
Some of the people who said these things were hostile to us as well, the white people carefully prepared before being sent into these white neighborhoods. Others, though, said them calmly, openly, not expecting any sort of shock or horror from us. Racism was just a fact, a given, even in Northeast Philadelphia—and once you stepped outside of the city, it only got worse.
There were times I had to cajole white volunteers for Obama into heading into African-American neighborhoods to knock on doors. Even the people willing to drive hours away from home to volunteer for the black candidate were unnerved by being surrounded by people of color. Why are we surprised that suburbanites, many who left the city in “white flight,” are put off by the skin tone of the kids in their pool?
I hurt all over again for these kids—every memory I have of hearing those words fall casually from the lips of white people of all social and class backgrounds welled back up when I heart this story. I want to deny that this could happen in Philadelphia, but I can’t. I’ve seen it too many times with my own eyes.
I wish I were still in Philadelphia to join the protests outside of the pool. I think that one of the most important things that can happen right now is for white people to repudiate the racism of the Valley Swim Club. I want to stand outside of that club and say “No. You are not free to assume solidarity with me because I am white. You do not get to give that shrug and whisper ‘you know,’ implicating me in your bigotry. I am not like you.”
This event is easy to repudiate. It’s easy to know that this is wrong. It’s easy to be shocked by the casual use of the N-word. We shiver when we find out that someone we thought was on our side still holds those views—not just the Joe Biden generational “clean and articulate” comments, the stupid, hurtful but ultimately forgivable blunders of people who live in a segregated world that it’s never occurred to them to fix – but the views that would lead someone to drive a group of summer camp kids out of their pool because they might change its complexion.
The words themselves are so telling. Does the president of the swim club somewhere deep down realize that race isn’t a real concept, does he think the boundaries so permeable between black and white that the kids’ skin color would rub off in the water onto him and his members? If race truly separates us, why do the borders need policing?
Melissa Harris-Lacewell wrote at the Nation about her own experiences with racism—and her daughter’s first experience.
Many black adults who carry the wounds of our childhood encounters with racism have gone on to live successful, meaningful, happy lives. We don’t spend all of our hours fretting over the ignorant 6th grade bullies who called us “nigger.” Many of us have stories of white allies and advocates who have been important in our personal and professional lives. When my daughter was hurt by her friend’s racial comment, it was her white grandmother who held and comforted her. But the scars remain. The damage is real. And the racial distrust and division in our nation are cemented with these acts of racial cowardice and avarice.
Any progressive activist worth her salt can talk about institutionalized racism until she’s blue in the face. But we need to go further. We need to go further here than just protesting outside of a pool. Not long ago, Attorney General Eric Holder, the first black Attorney General, called the US a “nation of cowards” when it came to talking about race. In part, he’s right. But in part also, we’re lazy, and too many of us have it too easy.
White people need to do more than just stand outside of a pool with a sign. We need to prove to those kids in Northeast Philadelphia and kids everywhere like them that we are on their side, not just today when they are thrown out of a pool, but tomorrow when the schools they attend are still, more than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, largely separate and unequal. We need to do more than shove racism under the rug with our occasional shock and outrage or vindicate ourselves by our vote for a black president.
Racism isn’t gone because Obama is in the White House, and it will not be until those of us who do not feel its sting, who will never be tossed out of a swimming pool because our skin is the wrong shade understand that it is our job to make the real changes happen.
AWESOME piece
The more things change, the more things stay the same!
Why does the race card always come into play? Why is it ‘Because I’m black’ ‘Because I’m white’ ‘Because I’m gay/asian/polkadotted/whatever?’
Why cant we place the race cards away?
Im 16 years old, Im “white”. Does that really mean that I’M racist because I’m talking about this too? Because that’s what im going to have to hear from anyone that comments after me I’m sure, because thats how it works.
If you’re “not with them” your a racist and a terrible person.
When the elections went on, I was not a fan of Barack Obama, ONLY because I felt that he did not have enough expierience should NOT be in control of an entire country.
You know what I had to hear when I told others, especially the African-American students in my classes?
Im a racist.
Why is it that I couldnt care less that anyone is black or white or anything, but I am a racist because I happen to not like Obama. Now I feel he is doing a good job so far as president, and Im glad that the fear of being called Racist got everyone to vote. [I feel that its true sadly..]
But, back to the pool. They showed up at a Private Swim Club with 65 children, not 10 or 20… 65. Do you know what that does to Private Swim Clubs? What the Patrons feel about children being loud and screaming and splashing (because no matter what color theyre skin is, a child is a child and that is what they do.)and things like that? They dont like it, thats why they go to these clubs, if they appreicated kids doing kid things, they would go to public pools.
So, why is it because the children are ‘mostly’ Hispanic/African-American that its WRONG AND RACIST AND THEY’RE TERRIBLE PEOPLE AND SHOULD BE SUED FOR BEING RACIST AND TERRIBLE PEOPLE… because they cannot handle 65 children being in their pool.
Because no matter how much we say racism is dead, at the first chance we get, we pull the cards out.
I just have to ask a few questions. What about the ‘few’ white children within the ‘mostly’ hispanic and black children that made up the class? What if the day care had been majorly white?
What 8 year old child can have enough.. not intellegence, but just a level of understanding so great to say ‘I thought these times were behind us’.
Whoever is telling these children what to say and what to do because ‘theyve been victims of race’ are only trampling and disgracing everything this country stands for.
Why am I, a sixteen year old Soon-to-be-Senior in high school, the only person that seems to wonder what is wrong with this country if we continue to allow these stories to be warped and twisted and bent to fit a lawsuit.
Is money really worth it?
It was truly a great piece, and thank you Sarah for sharing. Sweetheart, Ashley, I don’t belive that you are a racist for the statements that you have made. You have your own right to say those things and believe them as well. The whole issue of the race came in when the statement was issued. Since when does a pool have a complextion? That statement alone speaks volumes that you would never understand as a young white lady. It’s hurtful to say the least. What really breaks my heart is that in your generation, you don’t understand that rascism is alive and well; today things just seem like eveything thing is okay when it’s really not. You all are sheltered by alot of the things that are still affecting the African American community. The biggest hurt of all is that this was our children. The club new the ethnicity of the daycare before they ever took the check that was given so that the children could swim there. do you knwo what type of emotional trauma was caused and how long those wounds are going to take to heal? Of course you don’t and why; because you’ve never had to deal with being told that you couldn’t do anything because of on excuse or the other. It’s not just blatant rascism the way it used to be it’s more covered up by reasons and rules that were made up to keep others that aren’t like them out.
My apologies with your name Amanda.
Amanda—perhaps you grew up at a different period. As an African student at a supposedly liberal American college, I am disappointed that your life has shielded you from the hard realities of non-white lives that don’t make it on TV news. Non-white people still suffer a LOT of discrimination TODAY and the sooner you wise up to that fact, the better for yourself. And those whites should have let the 65 kids swim.
I stongly feel that the issue of racism is an ideology in the ‘Gospel of Evil.’ As a teacher of History in Africa and being African myself, I always tell my pupils that we all have RED BLOOD. There is nothing like white/black pain, joy, happiness, sadness, death and so on. That is what makes us human. Come on people we are all humans at the end of the day.
This is a thoughtful article but I have learned that until they really experience personal racism, many otherwise intelligent, caring white people believe it does not exist. I have had friends say they don’t see it around them when I mention that my husband and I, as a mixed race couple, sometimes encounter it. Not that I am particularly proud of it, but all white people should live for a time in Hawaii, where they will be the primary group singled out for negative comments based on looks. Maybe then, and only then will they see that racism is very much alive and that it will take several more generations for it to even begin to fade.
Great stuff! This is really a great post. Thanks for sharing this to us.
They’re also extremely anti-Semitic at this club. Basically, it’s just a bunch of WASPy jerks who hate and fear any sort of diversity of change.
Filthadelphia is the only place where I have seen people displaying open racist attitude and making open racist comments in any circumstances (And I have traveled a lot!).
being asian in Northeast is not an easy task either. I am called degrading names at least 3 or 4 times a year. I AVOID white kids and teenagers because they can not control themselves. Their parents are racist, so the children take the hate outside. They see an asian person, so they see a good defenseless target, and say a word, or may be even physical confrontation. For me, blacks neighborhoods are much more safer. Blacks never in my life treated me in degrading manner. But the hate from whites is targeted and deliberate.
Philly is uber-racist, both ways. Move to NY, it is better.
philly is more racist and segregated than ever. it is 2014 and people are angry at each other.
I lived in NYC for two months and for the first time in my life, I actually experienced some of the fresh air. I did not see much of the whites in Queens. Everyone was mixed, but in general very friendly. I am asian. And I felt like I belonged in USA, where my children are growing. But my kids are in philly, and it is super racist, and many times I was let known that I was not welcomed. I live in Northeast, and it is OFF the charts. this is how racist it is. I hope for better. I had to move back to Philly because of my family, and I hate it here.
After being raised in the south and truly not a racial bone in my body…I’m proud to discriminate today after spending 1.5 years in Philly working at DLA. They divide…they discriminate…and I reciprocate. Please…you bleeding heart liberals…keep it churned up and your money coming in. I still have great black friends who realize the same thing! And they’re not Uncle Tom’s you racist fools. I discriminate against stupid now. I know my friends and they know me…white, black, Puerto Rican and all that care. Democrats suck!!