Two steps forward......Three steps back!

Okay, I'm no dummy. I knew that although having a black president is a step forward for people of color and minorities in general but I was also aware that the prejudices and injustices that minorities face could not be solved simply by having a black man in office. As evidenced by the mayhem that took place in a suburb of Philadelphia here recently.

Long story short.....an all white swim club revoked privileges to a predominately black day camp (who paid a fee to the swim club to have access to the pool for the summer). The campers actually overheard members of the club state that they were afraid that the camp children would harm their children. Are you kidding me? Being black doesn't mean that they are dangerous. They are children for crying out loud. Even the president of the Swim Club said..... "There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement. I can't believe that he formed his lips to make that statement.

Just think of how those children felt when they were turned away at the door and had to pack up their belongings and get back on the bus because they were denied entry simply because of the color of their skin. How can you possibly explain that kind of "in your face" discrimination. There was even footage of the children crying because they were turned away. It angers me to even think about how I would feel if that happened to one of my boys.

I've seen subtle discrimination all of my life. You know, the store owner who follows you around the store when you are shopping. The little old lady who locks her doors really fast when you pass her in the grocery store parking lot. For Pete's sake, I went to a high school that had a quota on how many minorities could be on their cheer leading squad! But this incident should never have happened. Bottom Line!

Of course the swim club tried to clean up their act and say that they didn't have enough life guards on duty and they "underestimated the capacity of our facilities and realized that we could not accommodate the number of children from these camps." (which is a non truth because they knew in advance how many children would be coming)

The part that upset me the most is that the adults had their kids exit the pool when the black children approached. I can't make any sense of this behavior. I don't feel that the pool owner should be allowed to treat anyone the way that these kids were treated. There are laws in place to allow animals to be treated better than that. It's inhumane!

Okay, I feel better now thanks for listening. I'm sure we'll be hearing about this in the coming weeks. Stay Tuned!