I wonder how they feel about dogs and Jews.

Pam, clearly they believe black people have an unhealthy skin condition:

(4) Use of the pool will be refused to anyone wearing bandages or having skin abrasions, colds, coughs, inflamed eyes, skin infections, etc…

A Dr. John G. Duesler, Jr. is Director of Marketing & Communications at Professional Disc Golf Association. Greater Philadelphia Area. Perhaps all frisbee players could write them suggesting blatant racists are a poor choice to carry your marketing message.

Seemingly he’s the same guy; check this quote:

I have a tough time saying no to people, so I sit on no less than seven Boards right now, our regional disc golf club, with our community athletics association and swim club, peace and environmental activism, and others.

http://zonedriven.com/05/14/zonedriven-interview-with-dr-john-g-duesler-jr

Check out some of the comments at the Philly NBC link. Or don’t, if for some reason you don’t want your blood pressure to spike. I’ll just reprint this little gem, in its enitirety:

i dont see any of you volunteering to let a bunch of rowdy niglets to come swim with you

One unfortunate downside to Internet anonymity is that it allows assholes to say things that would probably get them bitch-slapped if they uttered them in public.

“I wonder how they feel about dogs and Jews.”

Well, dogs are probably okay. 

Jews?  Um, we’ll have to check with the head of our Membership Committee and get back to you…

I suspect that club is going to wind up paying a large sum of money over this.

Sigh.  I could never get anyone to do something like this to someone I represent on a contingent fee. . .  :(

Bitter Scribe: indeed. Normal Person+Anonymity+Audience=Total Fuckwad. Ah, Penny Arcade.

But on the topic. What in the name of fuck? “When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool”. Jesus Christ.

I wish dipshits like these racists would get out of my gene pool.

It must be under rules 1-6 that are missing.

Black people have heavier bones, you know, so they sink and can’t swim.  There need to be extra lifeguards to rescue them…like 5 guards for every 3 Blacks.

Or, else it’s the “don’t feed them after midnight” “don’t get them wet” or they’ll turn into the Gremlins.

Fuck it all.  I’d really like a post-racial America.  Hope I live to see it some day.

I just love it when Yankees stick their asses out for all to see. 

not to thread-jack, but this is one reason why I think the provisions of the voting rights act need to apply to all precincts everywhere in this country, and not just in the historically-openly-racist South.

This bullshit is *everywhere, not just in rednck south-crackerville.

[Republican plant deleted]

Posting anything other than the man’s name, and a phone/address for the club, is most uncool.  Personal information (cell number and home address) should not be posted…

Am I watching a rerun of a scene in Far From Heaven (2002)?

There’s a similar scene in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge where she defiantly dips her toe in the pool of the hotel where she’s the headline entertainer and they actually drain and scrub the pool.  Because of her one toe.

Bitter Scribe, I also was just perusing those comments, and it reminded me of something I actually think about quite a bit—and it looks like Oriscus also is getting at it.  This incident happened in a suburb-ish area of Philly, if I’m reading the map correctly.  I now live in South Carolina, home of the racist facebooking GOP members (and erstwhile lothario governors), but in my observations the racist online commenters for the newspapers & tv stations here are usually fairly tame in comparison to what I see in news forums of other regions, especially the northeast and midwest, where I grew up. This also tends to reflect the people I know/knew in both regions. 

I think this is partially b/c that southern suburban/exurban regions are generally more integrated in day-to-day life than in suburban/exurban northern areas, where remnants of white flight are still in effect. The southern suburbs were built more recently, generally post-war and post air-conditioning, so perhaps the time to settle in before mandated desegregation didn’t arise.  (Truly “urban” areas are more complex, and rural areas even more so, but I’m narrowing in on suburbs et al for brevity’s/broader applicability’s sake…). 

An uppity racist mom at a pool club in SC might think dirty thoughts, but I doubt she’d be so “alarmed” and apt to shoot her mouth off like that bitch did to that 12 y o boy in the video, as she’s probably seen more than 5 black kids at once in her life (outside Cosby reruns).  Meanwhile, where I grew up in Caucasian Falls, Ohio, yeah, I can totally see them being like “OMG black people! We couldn’t tell what color you were from the application! Icky leave!”  (I noticed that one of the day care directors had a residence near the Valley Club, possibly working to thwart their usual methods of screening—i.e., by zip code?) 

So is this club a product of northern white flight? The shock of the de facto, though not de jure, segregated white suburbanite? Or is the south just sneakier since federal troops arrive when they’re too blatant?  I don’t know.

I don’t see anything on the membership app asking about race, so when do they determine you can’t join—when you show up?

My officemate once told me that she and her sister were split up for a time when they got to South Africa, after fleeing Uganda.  Why?  Because her hair would hold a pencil stuck in it, and her sister’s would not (it had been straigtened). 

Maybe that’s the test they use - the pencil test.

I think the Obama family should make a point of going swimming in suburban philly.

Just a quick note—the club is NOT in Northeast Philadelphia; that’s where the kids are reportedly from. The club is in the immediate suburb of Huntington Valley, PA.

On a slightly happier note, looks like a private K-12 school named Girard College has already stepped in to give the campers a place to swim.

Ironically, Girard has its own shameful history when it comes to race—back in the ‘60s, they fought all the way to the Supreme Court to be allowed to stay whites-only. They lost, and now have a significant (majority?) minority student body.

I think the Obama family should make a point of going swimming in suburban philly.

On Dr. King Day (ALL WELCOME ON HOLIDAYS!)

or would July 4 be better?

There’s a similar scene in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge where she defiantly dips her toe in the pool of the hotel where she’s the headline entertainer and they actually drain and scrub the pool.  Because of her one toe.

That happened to Ethal Waters when she was in Vegas as well.

The discrimination finally started crashing down in 1959 when Frank Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack were filming the original Ocean’s Eleven and Sinatra pointedly informed the casinos that if Sammy Davis Jr were not accorded the same respect as they were at an establishment, they would not perform at, gamble, or visit there.  And they’d let everyone know about it.  It scared the casinos (and Sinatra was able to use his mob contacts to smooth over problems originating from them).

I am from Philadelphia, born and raised. I live in Denver now. But I have to tell you, Northeast Philly is like a whole other city. In fact, it tried to incorporate itself into it’s own city a few times. They have their own newspaper and everything. It is an extremely racist area. There are not a lot of black people who live out there and the whites there like it just fine. I’ve only been in that area five times in my whole life. Which was enough for me.

Interesting how the racism apologists of the “there must be some rational reason this isn’t racism” and “just playing race card” variety are already trotting out the excuses and rationalizations in the name of safety or overwhelming numbers, etc.

Take off and nuke the site from orbit.  It’s the only way to be sure.

Punditus, I’d far rather show up with several cases of tootsie rolls, unwrap them, and toss them over the fence into the water.

Well, I can’t argue that it wouldn’t change the club’s complexion, at least judging by the photos on their site….

WHAT IN THE OH MY GOD I DON’T EVEN HAVE ENOUGH CURSE WORDS TO EVEN BEGIN.

shameful shameful.

Another club came in & “saved the day”

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Campers-Complexion-No-Problem-for-New-Pool.html

WTF
W T F

This is so ridiculously stupid. It’s like a train wreck, I just can’t take my eyes off of it. I keep rereading the story, wanting to see in all the gory details just how badly these people FAIL common decency and courtesy, let alone not being racist bastards. And every time I read it, my indignation just gets worse.

I’m not even surprised at how they rejected the kids, really, though that’s bad enough. I’m only surprised that they expressed their views so BLATANTLY and offensively. How could anyone in the world—anyone who knew anything about history AT ALL think that that was even the tiniest smidgen of acceptable in any way?

People who are racist don’t just play racists on TV.  They actually are racist.

Punditus, I’d far rather show up with several cases of tootsie rolls, unwrap them, and toss them over the fence into the water.

Ms. Kate,

I think a few cases of full-sized snickers bars is more like it…..

(18) Please do not attempt to intimidate the pool employees in the performance of their duties.

If it weren’t completely obvious already, the fact that the club’s membership actually needs to have this spelled out for them would pretty clearly indicate the level of assholery we’re dealing with here.

@ Truth Is Life: I’m only surprised that they expressed their views so BLATANTLY and offensively.

Don’t be. That this shit is permitted to happen at all, subtly or otherwise, is actually far more distressing to me than is the blatancy: People dumb enough to discriminate (against visible minorities, especially) are usually the same ones with no shame at all about leaving every inch of their pathetic backsides exposed for all the world to see.

They don’t see a problem with being brainless assholes, and they count it bravery when they’re willing to publicly humiliate themselves for the righteous cause of discriminating against a bunch of little kids.

[I think a few cases of full-sized snickers bars is more like it….. ]

Don’t you mean Baby Ruth?

Don’t you mean Baby Ruth?

Yes, that would, indeed, be the canonical choice.

I want to know if the Caucasian kids left the pool spontaneously, or if they were called out by adults. Maybe I’m naive, but it’s hard to believe that all the white children were taught in advance to be so bigoted.

Don’t underestimate peer pressure; a couple of alpha kids coulda started it.

When you’re in the pool and everyone leaves, you start to leave ‘cause there’s often people yelling or calling and you don’t hear it under the water, so you aren’t entirely sure why everyone is leaving and there isn’t the bandwidth to ask.

At least, that was my public-pool experience, with classes and accidents and swim-times clearing the pool at what to a kid (and without clocks) randomly.

I wonder if PA has public accommodation laws?

Wow. Headdesking here. What the everloving fuck, seriously. And I really, really hope the white kids left the pool because they were called, not because they saw the black kids and freaked, because that would be incredibly damn depressing if little kids had already learned to be racist assholes.

GAH. D:

This is fucking horrifying.

It looks like they’ve pulled down their website.

Ah, Philly.  City of Brotherly Love.  Just not THAT brother.

Public accomodation law or not, they should sue for breech of contract.

4) We invite you to have your family birthday or other parties at our club (including summer company picnic).

Excuse me?  Most major companies have pretty strict anti-discrimination policies. 
And how do they screen for birthday parties, just assume no one would ever even know a black kid they might want to ask to their kid’s birthday party?  Not have any black relative because they (the member) is white (or appears white)?

The suburbs of Philadelphia are generally very racist and reactionary and pretty typical of white flight mentality. They see anything (or anyone) urban as part of “the ghetto” in Philly, which means crime and all sorts of badness. Not that the city itself is some sort of post-racial paradise, but it usually doesn’t take me long to be able to tell if someone grew up in the city or just outside of it when talking to them.

Obviously, I’m not excusing this behavior, but I’m not really surprised by it.

“I am from Philadelphia, born and raised. I live in Denver now. But I have to tell you, Northeast Philly is like a whole other city. In fact, it tried to incorporate itself into it’s own city a few times. They have their own newspaper and everything. It is an extremely racist area. There are not a lot of black people who live out there and the whites there like it just fine. I’ve only been in that area five times in my whole life. Which was enough for me.”

I don’t claim to know anything about Philly, but I come from Michigan, the state with the most segregated metro area in the country. I used to look down on southerners before I noticed how people talk about Detroit. I grew up in the far north, where I guess people were just as racist as your Oakland County suburbanite, but it just came up less because there were almost no black people. (We had literally one black person in a town of 600 for a while.) When I went to college at MSU, the amount of disdain white kids from the Detroit suburbs had for blacks was pretty surprising. 

Remember, the Civil Rights Movement had a lot more success in Montgomery than it did in Chicago.

Off Topic, but maybe some good news.

Massachusetts is apparently suing the federal government over DOMA.

witless chum, I’ll see you Michigan having the most segregated metro area in the country and raise you this—I grew up in the Lansing Area of Michigan, where Malcom X was raised. I had no idea of this until I left for college out-of-state and read his autobiography. When there was a push to rename one of the streets after Malcom X, when I was younger, no one talked about how he was actually raised in the area, and how his father was murdered there, or anything like that. It was all about how VIOLENT he was and eventually we got an MLK boulevard despite the fact that I’m not sure if Martin Luther King ever visited the Lansing area.

Didn’t they PAY to get in there? There is a day camp/vacation bible school down the street from my apt. building and they pay to use the pool two days a week, bringing in extra revenue for the complex. I live in a suburb too and I can assure you that no one cares when these predominantly black and hispanic children come to play in our pool. I wish it weren’t such a long drive for these Philly kids so they could come swim in my pool without having to wade through a thicket of racism first.

They don’t see a problem with being brainless assholes, and they count it bravery when they’re willing to publicly humiliate themselves for the righteous cause of discriminating against a bunch of little kids.

Hey, they’re not going to be “PC”.  You know, all that fake respect and lying?  They’re going to bravely voice what everyone thinks about miniorities.

Cause everyone really hates blacks in post-racial America.  Blacks are stealing all the jobs and ruining the economy and turning us into a third world country with their wily Kenyosity and Muslimicity.

—-
Arlen Specter, newly minted Dem, is looking into a Federal investigation.  Private clubs can discriminate, but only if they stay private.  If they offer their facilities to the public, as this club obviously does, they are subject to discrimination laws.

Remember the church that was sued b/c a gay couple couldn’t get married there?  It wasn’t really Dana’s nightmare, b/c the couple didn’t want to force the minister to perform a ceremony.  They had just rented the facility, like lots of other members of the public.

The club is actually in deep shit, b/c they took the money and were fine with having 65 campers use their facility until they showed up black.

Not going to be easy to get out of, though I’m sure there are more than enough lawyers in the membership to help out.

I can hear the bigots now:

Yes, it’s unfortunate they were asked to leave, but they weren’t lynched!  Oh, and they can vote!  Really, life is great for black people in America.  Not being able to swim in a pool is nothing!  Why, there are children in this world who don’t even know what a pool is!  The blacks should just stop complaining and be grateful they were brought here in the first place.  This kid could have been hunting tigers in Africa!  But here, he gets all the benefits of the free market system, which we know works because a private school said he could use their pool.  What a life!

Massachusetts is apparently suing the federal government over DOMA.

With good reason - MA ends up paying out a ton of benefits to spouses because the federal government won’t.  Given the typical age of the married lesbian and gay couples that made up for lost time in the last 5 years, this will be a lot more than it would be if the federal government paid its share.

OMG, look at the comments on this story:

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Campers-Complexion-No-Problem-for-New-Pool.html

This is sickening.

I just read “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism” by James Loewen - guess what, witless chum, if there was only 1 black person in your town of 600, you probably grew up in one!

It was a pretty damn eye-opening read.

Okay, I don’t get it.  How did the black kids get to the pool in the first place.  I was under the impression they were invited.  If they or their parents were not members they had to be somebody’s guests; it’s a private club.  Something missing here.

I used to look down on southerners before I noticed how people talk about Detroit. I grew up in the far north, where I guess people were just as racist as your Oakland County suburbanite, but it just came up less because there were almost no black people. (We had literally one black person in a town of 600 for a while.) When I went to college at MSU, the amount of disdain white kids from the Detroit suburbs had for blacks was pretty surprising.

It’s amazing, isn’t it.  I’m from southern WV, which isn’t exactly a paradise of non racists and everybody getting along.  But when my (not white) husband and I were first dating, we took a trip to Sault St. Marie and being an interracial couple, got all sorts of muttered remarks and dirty looks and a couple of blantant remarks from lots of the locals, especially older people.  When I mentioned this to my dad a while later, he was really surprised.  He’d expected that sort of thing from the people back home, but for some reason he expected Michigan to be more reasonable and besides (as he said), doesn’t Detroit have a lot of black people? and shouldn’t that be more common up there?  Having never been to Michigan, he didn’t realize the sheer extent of segregation and the fact that outside of the cities, there really isn’t any racial diversity at all.

I just read “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism” by James Loewen - guess what, witless chum, if there was only 1 black person in your town of 600, you probably grew up in one!

Yup - those sort of stats don’t just happen by accident. This post on Orcinus covers it well.

If they or their parents were not members they had to be somebody’s guests; it’s a private club.  Something missing here.

They PAID for the privilege, Magis.

It’s a private club, but it offers its amenities to the public…for corporate parties, for birthday parties, etc.  The camp paid them almost $2000 for one day a week swimming privileges for several weeks this summer.

Everything was fine…until the kids showed up and were BLACK.  Then the members pitched a shit fit and the kids were kicked out.  For being BLACK.

Now, it is perfectly legal for a private club to restrict its membership to the melanin-challenged.  It can also restrict the use of its amenities.  But once it offers those amenities for sale to the public, as this club has, then anti-discrimination laws come into play. 

They can no longer discriminate against Federally protected classes if they are offering amenities/services to the public and not solely to their private membership.

No one was a member.  They offered the pool to non-members at a fee to raise funds.  Oops.  Black people weren’t afraid of them and had to be shown their place by being kicked out for upsetting the “complexion” of the pool.

It’s not legal, and I eagerly await the takedown.

Moral of the story for bigots?  Raise your membership fees instead of offering your facilities to the public.