The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

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From nbcphiladelphia.com

More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.

“I heard this lady, she was like, ‘Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?’ She’s like, ‘I’m scared they might do something to my child,’” said camper Dymire Baylor.
The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers’ first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

“When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. “The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.” (more…)

Part of my childhood was spent living in North Philly and my Dad worked in the Northeast for years. I know the crap my Dad had to deal with working up there all through the 70′s thru the early 90′s. It is a section of town that was always (from my experience) determined to keep things a certain way. Usually I wait a while before chiming in on a story like this, but I am well familiar with the Northeast and hope this club gets investigated shut down.

“Change the complexion?” Don’t get me started with that one this morning.

FYI, KYW is reporting that 27 public pools in Philly are currently closed. So no wonder these kids have to go so far out of the city.

Yeah. I gonna follow this story.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video.

Here’s my update…

STOP BEGGIN’ FOR MR. CHARLIE’S WATER!!!!

The more folks do this, the more they place themselves under these stupid racists.

As I mentioned earlier, the city of Philadelphia has 27 public pools that are closed. This same city has a Black Mayor and a city council that has numbers of Black folks. Philly has a long history of diverting money away from these pools and wasting the money elsewhere (the movie “Pride” dealt with that a little) . Anybody calling Nutter?

I’m saying this because folks are already talking about protesting this club and harassing them with phone calls.

If you really want to help these kids, get on the phone and demand that the city find a pool for these kids. The summer camp has an open and shut civil rights case if the account is accurate, so that will play itself out in the courts. As for this swim club, screw ‘em.

I’ve been trying to get the number for the summer camp to see if they have found a pool. If someone knows something, please leave me a comment or e-mail.

Girard College stepped in (Man! Our school used to play against them back in the day)!