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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Black comedian posts sarcastic video about The Valley Club controversy
Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 11:17 am - by Alan Tu. Filed under: Community.
Brooklyn comedian Elon James White has posted a video giving his take on the racial allegations made against a suburban Philadelphia swimming pool club. The first thing you should know about White is that he is black. Hence his website elonjamesisnotwhite.com. His video is probably representative of how everyone outside the Philadelphia region is hearing the story. It’s a simplified version and White is working from published media reports. So, even though there are some inaccuracies in his video they are all things reported by the news media.
But while I’m on this point, the farther you get away from Philadelphia the looser the facts seem to get. The opinion blogs and columns by people outside the region seem to believe the following version as true.
Inaccurate version: 65 black children were denied access to a private Philadelphia pool. This version suggests that the children showed up to swim and were told upfront that the club did not allow minorities and that they would have to leave immediately.
Closer to reality: 65 minority children from the Philadelphia based summer camp Creative Steps had an arrangement to swim once a week at the suburban Philadelphia pool The Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley. When they showed up, the kids were allowed to swim but according to the summer camp director some kids reported hearing some white parents makes comments like “What are all these blacks kids doing here.” Then days later, the agreement that allowed the summer camp kids to use the pool was canceled without explanation.
Any ways, I’ll keep looking around the web to see how this story is being told because like it or not it is shaping how the outside world sees all of the Philadelphia region.
July 20th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Alan,
Your effort seems to imply that the facts and people’s reaction to them are somehow connected. This story is a perfect example of how people choose to believe what they wish to believe, the facts be damned.
If you believe that racism lurks behind every decision made by white people, then you will think this story proves your point.
If you believe that minorities twist every word spoken by white people to play the race card, then you will think this story proves your point.
The truth may lie somewhere in the middle, but don’t hold your breath waiting for intelligent discourse on the subject by the blogsphere or local TV news. That would be like drowning in a racist swimming pool.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Alan,
Are you trying to anger people to get more hits?
Please take the children’s P.O.V. - there is not a difference in the result from the “Inaccurate version” or the “Closer to reality” - the kids were eventually not allowed to swim at the club. That’s the whole point. I think your talking points are good , but when you look at the big picture, this isn’t the right time to study the media, which will sometimes get it wrong in an effort to “break news” quickly (not WHYY, of course).
Plus July 2009 has been a rough one for Black folks in our region and the world knows ALL about it despite the “inaccuracies” of the news media:
The Philly kids not allowed to swim at the Valley Club;
The Philly sanitation workers alleged racism by their white superintendent;
and my personal favorite, the idiocy of domelights.com
I can’t stress enough, the bottom line here is what’s most important. Sixty years ago the bottom line for a Black person would be a lynching, as one of many extreme results of racism. Even if the story is not told accurately, a person of color is hurt.
Note: Philadelphia is becoming known for racism more than ever. I learned about the three alleged racist cases from friends that sent me links while i was out of town. One of them lives in San Francisco. Bad news travels at the speed of light, literally.