(Th)ink by Keith Knight: NAACP Relevance

(Th)ink is an editorial cartoon written and drawnby cartoonist Keith Knight (the K Chronicles).

This Week in Blackness: 2009 is the New 1952

Elon James White pulls no punches in this week's episode. He uses humor, sarcasm and insightful analysis in his discussion about the Valley Swim Club, Sonia Sotomayor hearings and Pat Buchanan.

Kick back and enjoy 'This Week in Blackness':



A'ight villagers ... what was your favorite part of this week's episode?

Valley Swim Club Learns 'God Don't Like Ugly'

I like the way that the Valley Swim Club story is evolving. Swim club management showed a true lack of class and commonsense back on June 29 when they kicked out 65 mostly Black young 'uns from a confirmed at the day. The swim club manager felt arrogant and privileged enough to voice the thoughts of his members when he said that the club wasn't interested in seeing the "complexion" of the pool changed.

Karma is a biyotch!

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that racial-discrimination lawsuits could cost enough to threaten the Valley Club's existence. Attorneys, club members, and tax records indicated that a pair of federal-court lawsuits - one filed, one promised - could cost the club more money than it has and possibly leave board members liable for civil-rights verdicts.

"The only asset we have is the land, which housing developers have been trying to buy for years," said Bonnie Bacich, a Valley Club member for 30 years.

Valley Club president John G. Duesler Jr. - who has offered to resign over the imbroglio - said the club was searching for an attorney.

Jim Crow swimming clubs have no place in the 21st century. I encourage villagers to sign the online petition as a means to keep the pressure on Mr. Duesler and his racist cronies!

Methinks that the Valley Swim Club should be shut down forever. What say u?

Philadelphia's Valley Club Brings Racism Back to America's Swimming Pools

Did you know that 58% of Black children can't swim? Did you know that Black children drown three times more often than white children?

These statistics would lead me to conclude that it is important for young Black children to learn how to swim. My two youngest take swimming lessons. They are both in summer programs that include weekly visits to community pool. They just returned from a trip to Jamaica where they enjoyed snorkling, swimming and just playing in the water.

Perhaps I wouldn't have these opportunities if we lived in Philadelphia.

60 young campers (mostly Black) from the Creative Steps Day Camp were kicked out of a private pool club because members didn’t want their children swimming with Black children. The Valley Club revoked the day camper’s membership after finding out they were minorities and offered a refund.

"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."

America has never been comfortable with desegregated swimming pools. Why is that? Personally, I think that the fear of white women bathing with Black men is the root cause of this dysfunctional behavior by places like The Valley Club.

"Swimming pools were really the most intensely contested public space," said Jeff Wiltse, a University of Montana historian who studied municipal pools, where deep-seated emotions often created tortured logic to justify continued segregation.

Wiltse found that Blacks and whites routinely swam together in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That changed when the migration of large numbers of rural Southern Blacks to Northern states triggered a squeamishness among whites over sharing a pool with them.

The professed concern appeared to involve hygiene, and a notion that poor Blacks coming from a farming background would have lower standards of cleanliness. Even in public schools, swimming remained segregated long after all other scholastic activities were integrated.

Whatever ... it ain't right and we need to ensure that the folks at the Valley Club in Philadelphia pay a price for unleashing this racist behavior in 2009.




I encourage all villagers to contact The Valley Club. Ask to speak with club president John Duesler. Express your outrage!

Valley Swim Club
Physical Address:
22 Tomlinson Road, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006

Club Phone Number:
(215) 947-0700

Club E-mail:
info@thevalleyclub.com

I've shared my thoughts on this issue. What say u?