This is a strange one. A Philadelphia day camp contracted with a private pool to let their kids swim their once a week, paying $1900 for the privilege. About 60 kids showed up the first week to swim…and now the day camp is being told not to come back. There seems to have been a negative racial reaction from existing pool clients, but what’s really odd is the (honest?) response of the pool administration, saying that they didn’t want to change the “complexion” of the pool’s customers. WTF?

I can see two scenarios here. One is, 60 black kids showed up, the pool didn’t realize it was a largely black day camp, they freaked out because they’re a bunch of racists. The other is, 60 black kids showed up, their behavior was terrible or they had no supervision or something, the pool people freaked out because of the bad behavior. The article doesn’t address the question; I think the second scenario is possible but the first scenario is more likely.

UPDATE: The pool club claims it was the size of the group, saying they “underestimated [sic]” their facility. This claim seems somewhat bogus to me; what it sounds like, from the comments of pool club members, is that the members raised a stink and the management caved. I’d be willing to bet the stink was 50% “I don’t want a bunch of black kids here” and 50% “I don’t want 60 kids swimming while I’m trying to do a few laps”. I can empathize with the latter; our local pool is reasonably big but 60 kids would be a melee. Still, it’s the kids who got a(nother) taste of racism. Sorry, kids.