“Yes, But . . .” Always Means “No.” 2
Think about it.
The “but” is almost always followed by a list of why whatever is being discussed is actually completely impossible and just can’t be done.
And “I am not racist, but . . .” means–well, if race were not at least part of the equation, it wouldn’t get mentioned, now, would it?
The members and the management of the swim club have denied from the beginning any racial basis. And I suspect they deny with sincerity. This racism stuff can go so deep that we may not even recognize it in ourselves when it’s in play.
Heck, when I was growing up in Jim Crow Virginia, I didn’t realize I was part of a social system founded on racism. It was just Our Way of Life(TM). And I will never be so arrogant as to claim that I have expunged all the vestiges of that upbringing–and I’m pretty good at arrogant. (Perhaps that’s why this issue is one of my hot buttons.)
We can lie about our motives, even to ourselves. But our behavior calls us out.
Aside: I was lucky; my parents were children of their times, but they taught me to be equally polite to everyone. They accepted the system in which they had grown up, just as most of us do. Two decades later, my father told me that. looking back, he was glad Jim Crow was ended.
September 23, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Something about this was on either the late news last night, or the 4:00 news this morning. They were fined $50,000.00 for their behavior (including that of their members) & have planned on disputing the fine.
At least it’s out there now. What they did, I mean.
Maybe, just maybe, someone with a brain will see what’s happening & make moves within themselves to change it. Because denying kids because of their skin color, like it’s contagious or something, is horrid beyond belief.
September 23, 2009 at 5:42 pm
It was really big news here.
The sad thing is how many persons daily do and say bigoted things without even realizing it–it reaches deep inside us without our noticing it.
If they could see themselves as others see them &c.
The official line of the pool was that they didn’t realize how many kids there would be (even though they were thoroughly informed when the arrangements were made) and that the kids were there at the busiest time of the day. They easily could have said, “Don’t come at this time; come at that time.”
I don’t think they were consciously racist and I think that, had they stopped to think, they would have reacted better, but I think racism was a strong undercurrent, maybe even a rip current.
I bet a dollar to a doughnut that, if the kids had been white, the pool association would have said “Don’t come in the afternoons, come in the mornings.”