PA: 'Whites only' club sinks to the bottom of the pool - Valley Club files for bankruptcy

good.

I hope it hurts.

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by: grover nerdkissed @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 07:03:45 PM CST

Bankruptcy?

Isn't that soash'list?

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by: bluegrassfool @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 07:08:50 AM CST

Yeah, rasicim and bigotry still exsist.

It never went away.

To many think that it got 'solved' because the highly visible advocates that used to march stopped, became less visible or were marginilized by the media.

That's one of the issues within our community. If you're not visible then you're invisible and your co-workers can say truthfully that their are no GLBTI's in thier work place or none in the schools.

Bankruptcy is the best place for such an exclusive club. Hopefully a person of color buys this place cheap. That would be ironic justice.  

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by: Gina9223 @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 07:35:31 AM CST

a farewell salute from...

Nelson from the Simpsons. Don't let the door hit you in the ass, Valley Club.

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by: DubNotDubya @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 09:04:50 AM CST

Sink.

I can't see where the Club has either "great heart" or "character", which the prez stated in his email.
It seems that at least a few of the members have neither, as well.

A club with great heart welcomes all. A club with character stands by their decisions and honors their contracts, and tells the members that don't agree to go jump in a lake.

A closed mind is like an unfed lake. It becomes stagnant, dark and unsuitable to sustain life.  

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by: ChristineW @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 09:05:10 AM CST

Exclusivity is the _point_ of country clubs

A club with great heart welcomes all

If that's true, then no country club on earth, not even the most racially-integrated ones, "have great heart", by your definition.

Exclusivity is the entire reason people belong to country clubs. Usually, it's based on economic factors (i.e., can you afford to belong here) and traditionally racism and anti-Semitism as well played a part, but there will never be a country club that "welcomes all", at least not as members. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just that that's the "business" of country clubs.

The point in this case was that a visiting kids' camp was denied; I'm sure it was, in their mind, their way of "letting some poor people in for a day". And that was where their racist underside was shown.

But good luck to you, on your quest for any country club that "welcomes all"!

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by: kmpintj @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 14:07:57 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Well, in this case "country club" may be a misnomer.

The place was small (and had been in the red for a while, the legal battle just sunk it further), and the camp rented the facility (which the swim club did for I thought 2 other camp-type groups). So it wasn't really a "let the poor kids in" but a business deal that they reneged on. They got paid. The members just didn't like the color of the hands giving the money, and the "leadership" was spineless.

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by: lyonside @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 22:27:03 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I agree

I understand what you are saying about memberships and I agree that's what makes certain clubs exclusive.
I just meant that these children had been accepted at one point by the board or whomever makes the decisions. But because some members didn't like having black children in their pool, they were no longer welcome.  

A closed mind is like an unfed lake. It becomes stagnant, dark and unsuitable to sustain life.  

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by: ChristineW @ Mon Nov 16, 2009 at 05:03:53 AM CST

[ Parent ]

northern bigots

I grew up in New Rochelle, NY.  Until I was in the 3rd grade, I went to a racially segregated school. New Rochelle was the first northern school system to be taken to the Supreme Court because of their education segregation policies. In 1958 the schools were actually forced by the Supreme Court to be integrated - not desegregated. Until 1958 the Lincoln School was the only school for African American children K-12, There were about a dozens schools for the white students.

After the Supreme Court desegretation order The Lincoln all African-American school closed, and all the children were bused throughout the city.

Then a proliferation of parochial schools opened, where white Christian children were sent.

The New Rochelle Board of Education was still fighting against this Supreme Court desegration order up until the early 1960s.

When I was in high school from 1965-1969, white students called a strike at the school because not one African-American student was allowed in the Honor Society -- not even the captain of the football team and class president. We shut the school down until the policy changed.

Pam you are absolutely right, once again, that northerners are way more outwardly bigoted. After growing up in the north, but working as a community organizer in the south, I sure saw the differences first hand.

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by: planetspinz @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 09:08:36 AM CST

That's my experience too.

I think the South gets a very unfair rap on this issue.  Not that there's not a lot of racism there--hey, this is America we're talking about.  But I've seen much more overt racism in northern cities where I've lived or visited than I ever have when I've been in the South.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  
-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

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by: QScribe @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 12:40:11 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Northern Racism v. Southern Racism...

It does work a little differently.

In the South, they don't mess around. I remember when I was in Florida, I could walk into a store and just see the look in someone's eye and...just know that I wasn't wanted...or...

I could wind up in conversation for 2 hours or something like that...long enough that I forgot what to buy.

While there are a few places in "the North" (actually, my experience is with "the Midwest") where you will get out and out racism of the Southern variety, rarely will it be said. It's the coldness of...you name it, service, etc. that gives it away.

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by: kevinchi @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 13:14:22 PM CST

[ Parent ]

I think you're right.

But on another level, what I was talking about was overt racism, the kind that's so out-in-the-open you can't possibly miss it.  For instance, here in Pittsburgh, a supposedly enlightened northeastern city (our former may once touted it as "an internationable [sic] city"), it's not uncommon to see graffiti about "n*gggers" in very public places, and I've noticed the same in Philly, Boston, etc.  In the South they at least seem to have the decency to keep it hidden.  

Also, it is "extremely rare here to see white people walking down the street, or dining out, or attending sporting events or what have you, with black friends.  That's the case in most northern cities I know, with the exception of New York (which I don't really consider a part of America).  The first time I visited South Carolina, in my teens, I was absolutely startled to see that happening everywhere.  The sight was so odd, it took me a while to realize what seemed so strange to me.  I've had similar experiences in just about every southern city I've visited, and in all the foreign countries.

Now, I don't claim to know any southern cities anywhere near as well as I know several northern ones.  And I'm sure there's a lot of less-than-obvious racism there, as you say.  I'm just talking about my own impressions, formed at first blush.

Cynic, n.  A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.  
-Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

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by: QScribe @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 17:13:49 PM CST

[ Parent ]

The only time I was ever called a n*gger to my face

Right here in the Windy City when I was attacked by a skinhead in an -el station. But graffiti saying n*gger this and that in very public places. That's rare...

But...

Also, it is extremely rare here to see white people walking down the street, or dining out, or attending sporting events or what have you, with black friends.

This is not rare at all in Chicago. In Detroit, yes, this is rare but this has a lot to do with the demographics that have emerged there over the last...40 years. I can't speak for Minneapolis, Cleveland, Cincinnati (but we know Cincinnati is deeply racist), Milwaukee, etc...

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by: kevinchi @ Mon Nov 16, 2009 at 08:11:10 AM CST

[ Parent ]

where do you eat?

"extremely rare here to see white people walking down the street, or dining out, or attending sporting events or what have you, with black friends."

I often see multi-racial groups doing just that.
but I suppose we see what we want.
I spend a lot of time in Pittsburgh and the suburbs, but live 35 miles northeast.I won't deny we have more pick 'em up trucks,pseudo-country music and rednecks out here,however
we also have integration while eating, walking, schooling.
I will agree tho that one will not see mixing of the races in such places as fox chapel and the like.

 

A faggot is the thing on the back of a Mercury dime.

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by: Jessi @ Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 05:40:03 AM CST

[ Parent ]

You do realize...

that this is just going to make them the 'victim of political correctness run amok' du jour of the Glenn Beck set, right?

>^..^<

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by: KatRose @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 09:28:26 AM CST

Yep

Sad but true - that's how these things go.  But even so, we can still take solace in the delivery of some well-deserved karma.  ;-)

Incidentally, given that it was the litigation costs which brought the Valley Club down, how long until some right-wing nutball turns this into an opportunity to rail for tort reform?  (Reform, hell - the club trampled on people's statutory right to a marketplace free of racial discrimination, and is now properly paying the price for it - but it wouldn't surprise me if all the righties can think about is the economic angle).

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by: CubPaws2008 @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 16:13:48 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Too bad, so sad

Yeah, right.

Anyway, there may (or may not be) something to Richard Posner's legal theories.

If racism like this isn't profitable and, in fact, hurts you economically then that can be a game changer.

At least to the Valley Club, that seems to apply.

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by: kevinchi @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 12:15:54 PM CST

i always say, if you can't get justice or equality, get their money

Be better, not bitter!

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by: Anthony in Nashville @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 21:12:37 PM CST

[ Parent ]

The bankruptcy of this club is only the first step

Although they may be temporarily closed, the pool and the other property aren't going away.  They still have economic and social value.

I think what needs to happen now is the formation of a new business which will serve the community better than Valley Club did.





Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.

--- Blaise Pascal, Pensées, #894

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by: Lynn Miller @ Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 13:53:24 PM CST