Changing the complexion
My wife, finder of all things internetty, just sent me this article about a private swim club that kicked out a group of black children. John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club, said that “[t]here was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion . . . and the atmosphere of the club.”
Although private clubs legally can discriminate on the basis of race, I wonder if anything can be made of the fact that the club claims to have an open membership. Not to mention that the children were part of a summer camp program that had purchased a membership to the club. These children thought they were going for a refreshing swim on a hot summer day. Instead, they got to hear one woman say, “I’m scared they might do something to my child.” Like what? Play with them?
Maybe this woman fears that by playing with black children, her child will see that people are people and that a policy of racial exclusion harms both the excluder and the excluded. Maybe she fears that her child would grow up and not see black people as “other,” but as people who laugh and play as children and who do their best to get by as adults. You know, just like people with other types of pigment in their skin.
If people like this woman have their way, her children will not encounter another black person until they enter college or the workforce, at which time they will be uncomfortable and rack their brains to remember quotes from stand-up routines by Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. You know, to show that even though they’ve never had an intimate conversation with a black person, they’ve been paying attention to black culture from the outside. In an effort to bond, they will talk about Tiger and the Williams sisters and pretend they like the NBA as much as the NCAA.
It’s kind of pathetic (and I say this as someone who has gone there), but I guess it’s an effort at trying to understand someone who is “different.” I wonder if a reason for this is that white people are so insulated as to think that black people are literally different. Different in such a way that the only way to have a conversation is to talk about “black things.”
I’ve never met a black person who does something analogous. No Steve Martin quotes; no NASCAR pretense. (And to make it clear, this is not because I’ve never met a black person.) In contrast to white people, maybe black people realize that it is condescending and causes discomfort to pretend to be interested in things. Maybe they realize this because they often are on the receiving end of it.