TheLoop21.com

By: Devona Walker (Add to your loop)
Thu, 07/09/2009 - 15:45

Cullen Jones, one of few black Olympic swimmers, is speaking out on this one.

In the suburbs of Philadelphia, at a place called the Valley Club, 65 black and Hispanic kids had their club memberships rescinded because the white folks at the club didn’t like seeing all those black faces in the pool. The manager of the club said the kids were changing the “complexion” and atmosphere of the club. 

This story made me angrier more than just about anything in recent memory. More than the wrongfully accused black men still serving time in prison. More than all the ghetto parasites put together — payday and subprime lenders, liquor stores, and MSG-soaked take-out joints combined. It doesn’t involve billions of dollars of wealth, but it’s actually more important. It involves our children, our youth, our innocence and our best hopes for the future.

When adults encounters racism, it might infuriate them or cause them to demand an apology. But when it happens to children, it affects them the rest of their lives. It robs them of something very precious. I know, I still remember the first time I heard the word nigger and the shame I felt.

If you haven't heard the details, Alethea Wright registered online for 65 kids from Creative Steps Day Camp to use the pool on Mondays from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. But when the kids show up at this lilly white, wannabe country club, things immediately fell apart. Wright overheard some white club members making disparaging remarks about the CHILDREN.

Initially, the club president reassured Wright it would be worked out. But two days later, he told her the board had decided not to allow the kids to use the pool anymore. He released a statement saying "there was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion" and "the atmosphere" of the club.

When one of the kids heard the word complexion, he teared up, according to his mother, Christine Templeton. "He's dark-skinned," Templeton told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “He wondered if he had the wrong skin color to go into the pool. He will never forget this."

OK, this is 2009 right? Supposedly after the Civil Rights Movement?

And haven’t we already seen this made into a movie, based on something that happened way back in 1974? The movie was Pride, starring Terrence Howard and the late Bernie Mac. That was the story of another black kid in Philadelphia, Jim Ellis, who endured all sorts of racism as a swimmer. Other teams would actually get out of the pool and forfeit the competition when they saw him. Later, Ellis began coaching a group of kids from the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Center, who went through the same thing he went through, which is the same thing these kids are going through ... today.

Another black swimmer, Olympic gold medalist Cullen Jones, is also outraged.