Racism

I was just accused of being a racist. A woman came in this afternoon with two children to swim. She was white and the children were black. No matter to me. They went to the pool and I didn't give her or the children a second thought. They had been here for awhile when I went outside and heard water running. The pump had been coming on and off and I wanted to see if a toilet was running and needed a quick fix. Both the showers were going full blast, only hot water and the shower head had been tilted up for maximum flooding of the floor. It was like a sauna and I burned my arm turning the water off.


As the person who pays the bills for the pump that uses electricity to pump the water and the propane to heat the hot water I was pretty pissed off. Not to mention that I had just scrubbed the bathrooms this morning (once a week I do a major scrub down and then I do a daily cleaning the rest of the week) and I was now faced with mopping up a mess that included some wet toilet paper. I went out to the pool and asked who had been in the showers. Dumb stares was all I got. I looked back at everybody (about 20 people) and told them that pranks such as these causes the rates to go up. I went up 50 cents this year and you would have thought I had doubled the price from all the negative comments. Not everyone. Most folks appreciate having a nice place to go and there are new chairs this year.


He who was watching the desk momentarily caught all of my wrath as I came back in to get the mop. He told me he knew who did it, that he saw them go into the restrooms and then heard the water come on. He was working on a problem at the time and didn't stick around, so was unaware that the water was left running. It was the black children. They were the only black children in the pool.


I have made up my mind this year to not simply complain about these situations, but to address them. I was talking to a nice gentleman about a site when the woman who had brought the children came in. She wanted to let me know that she was going to bring her camper and come back tomorrow because it would be a lot cheaper to swim if she just brought a bunch of people in her camper and rented a site. That isn't exactly how it works. I felt a headache inching up the back of my neck as I anticipated explaining that she would have to pay extra for extra people. I didn't really want to address the issue of the water with her while the other customer was in the store........... but I did. At first she told me that they weren't hers and she was going to tell the mother. I explained to her that she had brought them here, and as the adult with them she was responsible for supervising them.


"Are you sure it is not because they are black?" she asked accusingly. Then she told me that she had heard I was a racist! "No, ma'am, it has absolutely nothing to do with the color of their skin. It has to do with the fact that they were not supervised and went into the restrooms and created a mess. If they are not going to be supervised, then I don't want them back here." "Yeah, I heard all about you and it's because they are black. We just won't ever come to this place again." I am okay with that. She went out to find he who was on his tractor moving rock and told him that I had screamed at her. He told her that he was the one who saw the children doing their prank and she called him a liar and a racist. Apparently she has never seen my granddaughters. Irony.


I am happy that I did address this, because she is just the type person that I don't want here at my campground. I do hold some prejudices. We all do. Mine is not skin color, though. I suppose mine is stupidity. Not ignorance. Ignorance is simply not knowing something and is easily corrected by learning. Stupidity is a lifestyle that some choose to live.


The plot thickens............ The mother of the children just called me and told me that she is suing me for discriminating against her children. She is going to take an "ad out in the paper against me". She told me that I had not heard the last of her. Shaking in my shoes. Said she knew her rights. I am privately owned and my literature and registration forms point out that I have the right to refuse service at my discretion. I chose to let that opportunity to educate her simply go. I laid the phone down and let her go on until I heard her hang up.


Like most every one else in the world I dislike confrontations and wish that I could avoid them. I find that if I simply let these things go I end up dealing with the same problem all year. I just hope this doesn't lead to a late night prank. These are the things that disenchant me..........