The Valley Club, in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., denied pool access to 65 black and Hispanic children from the Creative Steps day care center on June 29. The children showed up to swim, but were told they wouldn’t be able to. The Valley Club then sent Creative Steps back the check totalling $1,950 for access to the club they already paid without any explanation.

Muddying up the waters a bit, the Valley Club also chose to end the contract of two other groups, who took the cancellation in stride.

The big problem I see with this case is there really hasn’t been a single iota of proof that racism really existed. Several children claimed they heard members of the Valley Club utter “racial comments,” although it’s hardly evidence that would hold up in court. The main evidence seems to be the camp director of the Valley Club saying that the children would change the “complexion” of the club is the main evidence that removing the children was racial discrimination. Certainly it’s an awkward phrase, and one that could have been worded better, but it’s not clear evidence of a plan for racial discrimination.

John Duesler, who runs the camp, said it was a matter of safety and not skin color that caused the children to be barred.

“It was just too many kids on top of each other,” Mr. Duesler said. “Many of them couldn’t swim.”

As soon as the shit-storm hit, the Valley Club reversed their position and attempted to apologize and invite the children back.

Not good enough for many. Now the Valley Club faces extinction as they may have to face racial discrimination lawsuits which they don’t have the money to defend.

“The only asset we have is the land, which housing developers have been trying to buy for years,” said Bonnie Bacich, who has been a club member for the last three decades. Alethea Wright. who founded Creative Steps Inc. is not interested in an apology, or in allowing the children to swim at the pool.

Wright considers the case to be of paramount importance culturally.

“This is a moral situation. This is about racism. This is about culture. This is about a breakdown in community,” she said.

The incident involved several pool members allegedly saying: “What are all these black kids doing here?” and “What are these black people going to do to my kids?”

Wright said she had heard one woman say, “The children are thieves.”

Certainly these statements, if real, are not the most racially sensitive comments one could make. But racist?

This sure seems to be one flimsy case when you really examine it. Duesler made a comment about “complexion” which was immediately taken to be racist. Allegedly a “pool member” commented about all the black kids. Then the contract was rescinded and the money sent back, presumably again because of race.

Now into the fray steps Tyler Perry, who was so upset by the incident that he decided to make the children’s hurt go away by sending them to Disney World.

“This made me so angry,” said Perry on his website. “I saw a little boy on the news crying his eyes out. Here is this kid talking about being kicked out of the Valley Swim Club outside Philadelphia because he was black. Did you hear me? I said, ‘No way, this can’t be! It’s 2009. I don’t believe this!’ But, I know it happens even in this year of Obama. . . I went from being mad to being furious.”

Perry arranged for a trip to Disney World and then explained his reasoning.

“I want them to know that for every act of evil that a few people will throw at you, there are millions more who will do something kind for them,” he said.

That statement is complete unmitigated horseshit. Plenty of evil is done in the world and no one steps up to do a damn thing about it. In fact, if Tyler Perry were completely altruistic he would just quietly donate to children’s causes Instead he grandstands and grabs his share of the limelight which will result in millions of dollars of free publicity for his new movie.

The current America we all live in is one where every imagined slight must be treated with outrage. Everyone is expected to have extreme reactions over even the smallest indignation.

The problem with that, though, is that we spend our time being emotional about things that barely matter and then we don’t focus on the really important issues facing our society.

Does racism still exist in modern America? Of course it does. Will suing the Valley Club out of existence and sending the 65 “children of color” to an amusement park really go anywhere towards curing this ill of society?

I really, really doubt it.

What is your take on this incident?