Racism’s Cure Found in Private Sector
by Andrew BreitbartThis week’s Washington Times column:
The most unsettling news story of the last week came out of Philadelphia, where a group of black and Hispanic children of elementary-school age paid for the right to swim at a private suburban club and were denied the experience without cause and publicly humiliated in the process.
While the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton cry racism too often and make a mockery of their cause by exploiting events for their personal gain, sometimes old-fashioned bigotry does rear its ugly head in America.
In this instance, the Valley Club’s president confirmed our worst fears when he offered something far from an exculpatory explanation. “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler said in his initial statement.
Some campers claim to have overheard at least one parent fretting about the sudden influx of 65 minority children at the mostly white club.
True or not, these children were clearly wronged and it’s hard to believe that race didn’t play a significant part in their being tossed from the suburban club on their very first field trip.
Bigotry is not a partisan issue, and to be sickened by this story is the proper human response. America’s original sin of slavery and the stain of Jim Crow make a bad situation almost viscerally unbearable – and warrant a conclusive remedy. This, unfortunately, is our country’s long-term burden.
Many members of the private swim club, removed from its director’s idiotic move, now find themselves in the unenviable position of working round-the-clock to defend themselves and their previously unblemished club. Even neighbors of the institution have taken to the media to distance themselves from the awful act.
“I think they’re knuckleheads up there,” said John Fenton, a local. “I don’t know how you can do that to little kids.”
Whenever legitimate acts of bigotry occur, they should be exposed to the light of day. The media and the legal system – fueled by public outrage – can do the rest. In this case, substantial national and even international news coverage of the Valley Club incident is beginning the process of making the campers whole.
You can read the column in full here.
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271 Comments
"While racism does exist, it is no longer the natural order, nor is it representative of the majority. Otherwise, this story would not have played out the way it did."
EXACTLY!
Mr. Breitbart,
I think you're reading too much into it. Put yourself in the shoes of the members of the swim club. If you were one of them, how would you feel if the pool was inundated with sixty more kids from the ghetto or elsewhere? The club president made a mistake and then corrected it.
"Your comment must be approved by the site admins before it will appear publicly."
OK that’s it, let's try this word for word then, until we can narrow down just what constitutes the reason why civil conversation can be “moderated” to this extent.
This is happening more and more lately here at BH.
I’ll do it line by line until the “offending” word or words can be defined.
Here goes.
Andrew,
All is good buddy.
Just one small fact in your story has got to be mentioned though.
I’m not familiar with the area of the city being mentioned, (since I live in Kalifornia), However, I’ve read that John Duesler, is a stanch Obama supporter and contributor.
Today, I had the pleasure of a pool party full of kids,
(98% of them of “minority” backgrounds from school), over to play with my,
A legal contract is a legal contract, regardless of race or anything else.
"Many members of the private swim club, removed from its director’s idiotic move, now find themselves in the unenviable position of working round-the-clock to defend themselves and their previously unblemished club."
unblemished???
Breitbart you racist.
(white until they tan up), ————.
A great time for all.
little
that's it… the word for a male yute that is still small, as in b-y
You have Got to be kidding me?
Not Over.
This isn't fun anymore.
Not Over.
My entire first post without the "offending" word included:
Andrew,
All is good buddy.
Just one small fact in your story has got to be mentioned though.
I’m not familiar with the area of the city being mentioned, (since I live in Kalifornia), However, I’ve read that John Duesler, is a stanch Obama supporter and contributor.
Today, I had the pleasure of a pool party full of kids, (98% of them of “minority” backgrounds from school), over to play with my, (white until they tan up), little b-ys.
A great time for all.
And to think, the word on the street is that ALL conservatives are nothing but a gang of racists.
It would seem that the libtards are more fearful of “changing the complexion” of their social gathering than any of us “right wing radical extremists”
Not Over.
Geez…it worked.
Not Over.
Wow. Great column, but 1GooDDaDDy, my friend, that was diarrhea of the keyboard if ever I've seen it. Wait a little bit before you have your next freakout, dude/
I must admit, I haven't followed this story closely enough. It certainly is a shame that the Valley Club's president (and possibly others) appear to be a racists. I can't think of anyone who feels that is acceptable. On the other hand, I do believe a private club should have a right to admit whoever they choose regardless. One of the reasons clubs opened themselves up for suits is they tended to rent out their facilities to raise money (e.g. for wedding receptions etc.) If clubs don't do that, to me it is like free speech. You have a right to discriminate regardless of how despicable it may be. Therefore, I would rather see public pressure than legal action as a remedy.
I hear you. But, like a lot of other commenters have noticed and mentioned here lately, the "moderation" is becoming more severe as of late.
It's born out of frustration. There is no way of knowing what will be included or excluded anymore. I type my comments in a word processor first, then cut and paste them into the field, so it is understandable and concise. It takes time and effort.
When posted under the "Your comment must be approved by the site admins before it will appear publicly." they NEVER show up again, and there's no explanation.
Oh, and happy Sunday to all.
What about the Congressional Black Congress? Until what's good for the goose is good for the gander, I curse this filthy maggot swill!
I know what you mean…we're being moderated by a constipated prude, apparently, but count to 10 & make a sandwich…don't clog the badnwidth. ;-D
Read "The Big Black Lie-How I learned the truth about the Democrat Party" Kevin Jackson http://www.theblacksphere.net
Got a Ham and cheese right here.
Not Over.
No doubt the constipated prude is a "bot", but someone had to have put the "bad" words in.
B-oy?
It isn't that they were excluded so much as that their money was taken, the agreement was made, and everything was fine right up until they showed up to swim. That's when they weren't allowed anymore. If the club had refused to allow them to swim in the first place before the agreement was made, then your objection would have more weight with me, but saying yes and then blatantly changing your mind after you see your clients is an issue unless your clients are clearly behaving badly.
Uh huh.
(- checks to see if the sheets are missing -)
Yes, but then don't make the deal in the first place–present it to the membership and let them vote before you let the kids in. Private clubs are allowed to restrict membership, a la golf clubs or the Boy Scouts. It's a nasty situation, not helped by the club using the term "complexion." No heroes here except for the neighboring facilities that opened their doors to the kids.
65 kids in A pool, regardless what race, is TOO many!
4294967295 replies?! one for the books….
and i have been moderated of late and i didn't even use one of my favorite curse words.
>"there are no incentives in 21st-century America for racism, and there are fewer and fewer hiding places for bigotry's last holdouts."<
You'll need to masticate those words, Mr. Breitbart, once Ms. Sotomayor is confirmed to the SCOTUS.
Excellent piece Andrew. Its funny how the club's members come out of the woodwork to defend the kids right to be at the pool. The private sector came to help without any prodding from the government. Interesting.
Stafford what a tool.
I agree.
However.
If that was the problem the guy could have said… "The number of children exceeded the the number that could have swum safely."
Wow a racist plant. What an original idea! FYI, it's the left, your left, that categorizes everyone by race. Over here on the right each person is an individual.
Nice use of "swum." Is it certain that there was only one pool?
Heh.
If it's not a word, it should be. "Swimmed" is entirely unacceptable.
You must have had impure thoughts Patti!
I'm tired of white guilt, too. Got no time for that stupidity.
In this case, though, considering all of the obvious possibilities for legitimate reasons to turn kids around at the door… why on God's green earth did the fellow not just say there were too many kids all at once?
And seriously, how tone deaf do you have to be to not realize that "change the complexion…of the club" is a very poor choice of words?
This whole affair was a set-up from start to finish. I bet those involved were pretty disappointed that overt examples of racist behavior was limited to a mother worried about her little boy. Pathetically, all the race-baiters had in the end was the word 'complexion' to hang their accusatory hat on. A sudden influx of 65 boisterous urban kids of any color would have a negative impact on most any private suburban club, no matter the predominant race there, either. The cherry on top for me was the TV interview crew members' Obama t-shirts. As I've already said, the entire affair reeks of prior planning.
I try really hard not to accuse liberals as a group of things but… I have noticed a certain tone-deafness that conservatives don't suffer from. Liberals haven't been conditioned by constant accusations of racism to watch what they say as closely.
That's what the deal is with "code words". Conservatives are SO good at watching what they say that there aren't that many examples of racist language to get them on so it's all "code words".
(I'm not counting those who obviously racist or those who purposely and deliberately say things they know are not "PC" as a figurative "finger" to the stupidity of finding racial offense in everything possible.)
In any case… people used to being immune from those attacks and who think of themselves as most *obviously* on the right side of the issue because of the way they vote… IMO… certainly do seem to be terminally tone deaf.
I mean…. complexion? Egad.
That's easy to say when you don't have to deal with it. Like it or not, when you invite a large number of kids from the ghetto, you invite trouble.
can you imagine the grease?
Nonsense. The kids were too young to use the entire pool, so what they had was a medium sized pool that now had the members kids plus 60 more trying to play in 1/3 of the area. It was an unsafe situation. It might also be that the language being used by the kids on the field trip left a little to be desired, which might have prompted some parents to make complaints. Either way, the kids money was refunded, so the club did nothing wrong (other than make an extremely poor public statement).
Now if one of those kids had broken his neck in the overcrowded shallow end, then you'd hear complaints of racism and poor judgment by the club's owners screamed from the rooftops.
No, it's a malfunctioning piece of software that no one here wants to take responsibility for. You can make the same post twice and one time it will go through, the next time it'll be censored (and never show up with no explanation). If you complain to the contact listed for the site, you never hear back. It's half-assed and I hope they eventually decide to do something about it.
You're right and Andrew is dead wrong. These people are being painted as racists, but they obviously knew the races of the children when they agreed to let them participate. The problem was that there were too many kids, and some may have been acting inappropriately for the age of the kids in the shallow end. That's bad organization on the part of management, but that's hardly a crime. It's sad that the kids thought they had a fun activity that was then canceled, but since none of us were there (and you're certainly not going to hear any of the members come forward and accuse the kids of bad behavior now), to assume that it must have been racism at work is the worst kind of lazy thinking (not to mention giving the race-baitors exactly what they're looking for).
This is why I hardly post here lately. Too many issues with moderating and lost posts.
Considering this post supposedly has just over 4 billion responses, I think it's a fair bet that they're having technical issues (and no one to fix them).
I think "swum" is correct but you don't hear is very often. Maybe there's a left wing troll English professor (they don't allow right wing English professors) who can tell us what's correct.
"White tax payers even pay for a WHOLE COUNTRY JUST FOR J3WS – even after they attacked and murdered Americans! But Whites get nothing and pay for everything. "____Really,.. you can't be serious. the "J3WS"?____They made a deal, then backed out of it when they realized what they had done, shameful and stupid to bring the children there, then slam the door.____Suppose you had a contract with me to let your offspring use my playground, then when they arrived,. I gave them the boot in the rudest most heartless way possible? Would you care a damn about my "rights"? or about what I had done to your kids?____
and come on… "the ghetto troublemaker kids"?
they were children, not high school age juvie hall parolees out under armed guard for Christ's sake. Kids.. and I refuse, totally reject any CHILD is a lost cause before they even have a chance to speak. I grew up in a nearly all white neighborhood, so what? We have made a social agreement, among nearly all Americans that Dr. King was right, it's the content of your character, not your color that should be the ONLY mark of your advancement. We, most of us accept that any all one race club is wrong, if not illegal,. but then,. they NEVER CLAIMED TO BE AN ALL WHITE ONLY CLUB, did they?
they in fact deny it.
they lied, and a fat with cash Obama supporter is the one who excluded, so it's all about a lie, and ignorance after all.
I care not a damn wether those children came from the lowest NY burrough, or the loftiest perch in Valhalla, they were denied because they were different, and that lesson is one no child needs to learn.
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Why can't Liberals who hate Republicans find something better to do with their time? They figure Conservatives must be racists because of how racist they themselves are. If you want proof, just ask a Liberal about Alberto Gonzalez, Rice, or Clarence Thomas. They are more than happy to say bigoted things about minorities (or women) who disagree with them.
There is zero evidence this story is in any way true. Nothing but he said she said.There were three camps that were turned away. Any word about them? Never mind let's tar n feather,run them out of town,burn them at the stake! I don't believe it a good practice to accept at face value any smear against anyone! I hope the charge of racism does not come your way Andrew because I suspect there's a good chance you'd believe it.
Since none of us where there how can you state so confidently that there were too many kids or that they were acting inappropriately compared to other children?
Can't Jesse Jackson still blackmail the club for 90 grand to make his fat belly bigger?
So the club set itself up to look like a bunch of intolerant creeps? Because..that's good for its' image?
This whole story seems weird to me. First, from what I understood, the people who booked the kids were minorities. Then to have 65 plus kids in the pool? And they didn't close it to other groups at the same time? Something isn't being told correctly about this, just not sure what. Color may not even be a factor, it almost just sounds like crappy planning and a jerkwad who spoke to the media. At least that is what I hope.
I can't jump to your conclusion for the same reason I can't jump to any conclusion – I have no first-hand or reliable third-hand knowledge.
But I do agree with your opening statement: it's reasonable to assume that the manager knew the race of the kids when they were given access.
Which is why it's so ridiculous that it's even news. That's how our lovely, sensationalist fourth estate works: if I accuse you of stealing my tater tots, it's not news. If I accuse you of stealing my tater tots because I'm black, it's headline news.
Funny how those who rail against "white guilt" and demand "evidence" are quick to also say it's only natural to suspect "boisterous urban kids" will upset the order of things no matter the racial makeup of the social setting. This thinking IS prejudice, IS prejudging people, and about nothing but fear of "the other." When did bigotry ever seem anything but natural to the bigot? I agree with Andrew Breitbart — "to be sickened by this story is the proper human response."
I, for one, am proud of our private sector. It can easily outperform our public sector in performance, quality, and morality. It would be a crying shame if our private sector were ever to be replaced by our public sector.
…
When I do it, I start a post with "test" so people should know to ignore it, below goes the text being tested, then immediately after posting I hit the "Delete" whether it took it or not. Reduces the screen clutter.
The List So Far of blocked words is in another thread below.
I think the posts in the "must be approved" queue only have a certain amount of time to be approved before they automatically get flushed. That would make sense if this "one size fits all" comment system were used on some guy's little site, it would be bad if it got jammed up while he was on vacation, for example.
What? Greasepaint? You think they were white kids in blackface?
I am grateful I do not know enough to understand such ignorance.
Sounded like a setup from the beginning. Why weren't they going to a public pool? Most conservatives see through this and empathize with the members of the PRIVATE club, not the ghetto troublemaker kids. Funny, EVERY OTHER GROUP can have their own club…but NOT WHITES. White tax payers even pay for a WHOLE COUNTRY JUST FOR J3WS – even after they attacked and murdered Americans! But Whites get nothing and pay for everything.
I'm actually not sickened by the incident, because I have no reason – other than the accuser's claim – to blame the incident on race.
All we know is that the kids are 'minorities'. Somehow that ends the discussion. But what if, regardless of race, they were just obnoxious kids? Their leader was quick to jump on the 'racism' bandwagon, and in my experience the people who scream 'racism' at the drop of a hat are genuinely obnoxious people.
And in any case, isn't this a private club? I'm not banging on Curves' door because I can't go work out there. I'm not filing a federal lawsuit because I can't attend Howard University.
I think in the desire to appear NOT racist people tend to fall in line with the racists' claims of racism too quickly. That's how jackasses like Al Sharpton become millionaires.
Maybe I'm just a little 'raced' out right now. After seeing Michael Jackson turned into a successful smoke screen, seeing Obama's Africa trip turned into another one has pushed me right to the edge. Seriously, who cares? Soldiers are dying in Afghanistan, and Anderson Cooper and the CNN Obama crew are seriously devoting hours to "wondering how he feels" as he tours facilities that were devoted to slavery … hundreds of years ago. He has black skin. But he was never a slave. None of his family were slaves. He has no greater or more special tie to that nonsense than I do.
Our society is so easy to steer with white guilt. It's pathetic.
"The most unsettling news story of the last week came out of Philadelphia"
Say what? It appears to be a non story only fueled by the race baiters.
Here I thought the most unsettling story from last week is the one out of Akron Ohio where 50 black youths beat up a whilte family while shouting at them "It's a black world, etc." putting the father in the hospital in critical condition.
http://www.ohio.com/news/50172282.html
Now thats what I call racism!
I believe this is a valid example of the Scunthorpe problem.
Racism today is more politically correct, the lauguage of rasism is no longer socially acceptable, it is disguised in politics by code issues, they advocate states rights, the death penality and get tough on crime. They acknowledge blacks are now equal and claim that affirmative action is no longer needed, they are against assistance programs, equal opprotunity measures like college quotas, and desegregated schools. Republican Party is responsilbe for the creation of the new language and agenda, but the racists are up at arms because the more politically correct racism fails to teach the next generation to hate blacks, so much that we now have a black president.
Have you ever lived in a ghetto? I have. If these kids behaved anything like my former neighbors, it's hardly any wonder at all the club members were shocked and horrified.
Beyond parody.
If they were allowed to join they should be allowed to swim. This stinks. Those (few) members who objected to the new members of the swim club were capable of resigning. The Director was/is a boob.
Did the club president also agree to take money in exchange for the children to use the facilities?
If so, and if the children agreed to behave as per the club rules then this is a case of racism plain and simple.
Stafford if you are going to act like a psuedo-stereotype forum plant you need to reel in the hate, buddy. You're not fooling anyone the way it is now, we use you as Training Level 1 to help people sniff out the conservative smears.
Were all 65 using it at the same time? If so I see your point…
It is the past participle of swim : )
HHHR is making progress but still has a streak of venom going.
We agree on this though, 'to be sickened' is the proper *initial* response, but we are not animals to be ruled over by basic emotions. I agree the children were wronged based on what I have read but now I want to know if they were abiding by the club rules or if they thought they could do whatever they wanted once they got in.
If the club limited numbers of people in pools, or if it said 'no running' or if it said 'be quiet' and the kids repeatedly mobbed the pools and ran everywhere screaming their heads off then there is a problem. I'd penalize the kids by restricting them for a week while their parents or advisors straighten them out then give them another chance. (Oh yeah I read that it wasn't the kids who paid but their summer school/camp/whatever paid for it – $1900)
We don't know how long they were in the club, we don't know how many kids were in there at a time, we don't know the club rules. I'd like to know all that before I cement my opinion.
I need more information. On the surface, something certainly stinks, but were the kids just being obnoxious? I'll withhold judgment for the time being.
Racism occurring above the Mason-Dixon line – hmmm… I didn’t think that was possible, especially in the highly evolved area of Philadelphia, PA …just can’t be, can it? Along with the intimidation of voters by the Black Panthers at the polls in Philadelphia, PA …what’s the deal? Maybe they misreported …it was actually Philadelphia Mississippi at a “private” …club, and the people intimidating voters were the KKK?
CONTRACT not INVITE
There are a lot of kids from my suburb who are pains in the butt, and one of my dearest friends is from the ghetto, so that kind of generalization doesn't make sense to me.
You got that right!
There were other camps? Do you have a link?
Hey Stafford, you are an i diot. As a one of these "Jewish" people you believe are killers you can go s crew yourself you bigot. I'd like to see a punk like you say something like that to my face you little nazi wimp.
IF I were a member of a private swim club and the officers decided to "rent it out" to ANY swarm of kids of ANY color, I would rip the officers a new one. What about private don;'t they understand?
Who cares…..so they got turned away…quit crying.
I am with you on that. In fact, any kid is a pool is annoying. That is why I have my own.
You have nailed it. I am of the opinion that the press had this story grooved, such that we will never really know what happened.
Face it, the story as presented is juicier than if it was a simply misunderstanding or mistake.
The problem is we will never really know "The Story." If this turned out to be OK, who would read about it.
Ditto on this. Where I came from, I couldn't get away fast enough.
You of course, don't have a racist bone in your body. Must be nice.
Ah, they didn't join the club. Back to grammar school with you.
Believe it or not, not every business is populated with people who are media-savvy. Sometimes ordinary people sound quite stupid when they are quoted in the national news. Chances are the person in charge doesn't have a degree in public-relations. Stick a camera (or 50) in the average person's face and chances are something will be said that can be construed in a negative way.
Yes. Didn't join, the pool was dangerously over-crowded, and their money was refunded. Then again, because Andrew doesn't bother to relay the facts, people who didn't get the chance to read the original story have no choice but to assume the facts are as he's relaying them.
I think the low moment was Andrew's comment about the Club being in a "Settling mood." Perfect….so because they overbooked and had a situation that could have been dangerous (especially legally), we're now encouraging people to sue? That's what it's come to? Conservatives looking forward to a lawsuit to address the pain of a field trip being canceled?
This column has "Oops" written all over it. Hopefully Andrew reads the facts and does a retraction.
I think the low moment was Andrew's comment about the Club being in a "Settling mood." Perfect….so because they overbooked and had a situation that could have been dangerous (especially legally), we're now encouraging people to sue? That's what it's come to? Conservatives looking forward to a lawsuit to address the pain of a field trip being canceled (with a full refund)?
This column has "Oops" written all over it. Hopefully Andrew reads the facts and does a retraction.
Ron MUST be talking about a bribe taken in order for the swim club's mgmt to allow 60+ kids to come in and use the pool in addition to all those ALREADY using the pool. Yes, he MUST mean that sort of "grease".
Jesse's the smaller of the two hucksters. Al Sharpton has lost some weight but he is still bigger than Jesse.
Yep, and it's the City of Brotherly Love too.
May Valley go broke.
I belonged to a resort that catered to the middle class and below. I had to quit because every time I took my nine-year old daughter swimming, the language children her age were using was making me cringe (not because of her, it would have made Andrew Dice Clay cringe). Anyone who comments about stereotyping children from the inner city's language has obviously never left the comfort of their Liberal neighborhood. Kids who were raised listening to Tupac don't see anything wrong with using more F-bombs than verbs.
In case anyone thinks that makes me racist, my daughter (half-Hispanic) attends a Hispanic, dual-language school that is beautiful and has virtually no problems. Foul language and bad behavior is not part of someone's racial makeup, but years of being treated like helpless victims have turned many neighborhoods into places where bad behavior is the norm.
I agree with Andrew Breitbart — "to be sickened by this story is the proper human response."
This statement alone should convince Andrew that he's 100% on the wrong side of the argument (especially from a troll with a username like that).
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