Valley Swim Club members speaking out...say pool wasn't too full

[Liberal_in_LA]

Amy Goldman, a member who was at the pool June 29 when more than 60 Creative Steps Day Campers came, said that she thought the club was inclusive to everybody.

"The kids were well-behaved and have every right to be here," she said. "It's shameful."

... The statement read that the facility is not equipped to handle a group of that size.

But Goldman saw it differently.

"The pool was half-empty that day," she said last night outside the club's gate as a line of protesters chanted and raised signs.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/10/751988/-The-Valley-Club,-Day-3-Roundup-%5Bupdated%5D

[Jennicut]

1. Yeah, sure it was. I worked at a ritzy summer camp in CT as a counselor for 4 years

during college...its obvious that many of these places are not welcoming to minorities.

[BlooInBloo]

2. I wonder how many white folks will cancel their membership until black folks are allowed?

[RufusTFirefly]

4. When I was a kid, we joined a pool until my father found out...

... that it had a racist admissions policy. We not only canceled our membership but my father (who was a writer by trade) sent the pool an eloquent, angry letter of explanation. It made a big impression on me.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. There was an amusement park in my town

When my dad found out it didn't let minorities in, we stopped going.

[RufusTFirefly]

9. Good for your dad. We need to break the cycle of intolerance

All too often parents inculcate their children with their own bigotry. People like your dad (and mine) can truly change the world for the better.

And we can change racist businesses who live and die by the dollar sign.

[RufusTFirefly]

3. I grew up down the road from there and don't miss that brand of institutional racism one bit

Every once in a while it's blatant, but my experience is that it's always simmering just below the surface.

[Thirtieschild]

5. Attitudes don't change

In 1968 I worked with a black man who had moved to Atlanta from Philadelphia to work on integrated housing. He said he preferred the racism in the South because in the South you knew where stood, there was just as much racism in the North but people pretended it wasn't there.

[RufusTFirefly]

7. George Wallace won the Maryland primary in 1972.

That's what I was dealing with as a kid.

[DKRC]

10. Pretend is right

I've heard more hateful spew outside of the South than I ever heard in it. I've lived all over the country and all it takes is my white skin & Southern accent to have racists whipping out their white sheets because they assume I'm one of them. Once they understand that I'm not, they get angry because they've shown their true colors and can't go back to pretending with me in the room.

Dumbasses
:rofl:

[RamboLiberal]

6. Member Walt-pool's board caved to racial tensions that he himself clearly observed

But another member, Walt (who asked me to withhold his last name), is adamant that the pool's board caved to racial tensions that he himself clearly observed when Wright brought her campers to Valley Club for their one and only visit.

"It was obvious to me what was going on," he said.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/50440447.html?cmpid=15585797

[Karenina]

11. It seems to me this whole silly scene could have been avoided

by simply INFORMING MEMBERS that on this date between the hours of such and such our facility has been rented out to a day camp. We expect X number of children. Please note that the facilities will be busier than usual and adjust your schedules accordingly.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. It wasn't the numbers of kids the prez didn't anticipate, it was the extreme racism of the members

that caught him off guard. Witnesses have said "the pool wasn't full"