In honor of MLK day…
Hartford Courant – January 16, 2006:
The complaint lodged by Millie Bonilla and Sheila Foster, the wives of former New York Mets baseball players Bobby Bonilla and George Foster, said they were denied access to the beach at Greenwich Point Park on June 7 because of their skin color. Mrs. Bonilla is Puerto Rican and Mrs. Foster is African American. They were part of an exercise group meeting at the beach.
Kelly Houston, the town’s affirmative action officer, dismissed the complaint on grounds that the women were not carrying the $25 resident beach cards that are required to enter the park.
Ms. Houston might have been able to sustain her ruling had she not sent an e-mail three weeks earlier to the exercise group leader the women had hired for their class. Her e-mail advised him to be discreet about bringing “black people” to the beach and to cut the number of black participants in the class.
Update: More in depth article from Greenwich Time.
That’s horrible. It’s sad that things like that still happen.
As a side note, I was listening to This Week in Tech, and I heard mr. Dvorak’s confusion over iWeb and dotmac. My understanding is that dotmac is the service you order through apple for 99 dollars a year. iWeb is software that is integrated to be used within dotmac that is packaged in the iLife box set of apple products. No one seemed to care enough to explain all of this on twit, so I thought I would try my best to explain.
Marshall
I’m reminded of a quote from Shepherd Book:
“You’re going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.”
Perhaps we can add “racist affirmative action officers” to that. 🙂
-=jfs=-
If Kelly Houston sent that memo, she should be summarily dismissed from the position, without compensation. She obviously has no concept of how to promote a positive agenda or protect the interests of the city, and has no business in that job.
This is serious? Good God, there’s still people that think this way in the modern world? I knew there were idiots, but this only adds fuel to the idea that idiots outnumber the rest of the decent world.
Here is a more complete story from the Greenwich Time. http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-greenwichagain.artjan16,0,1249123.story?coll=hc-headlines-editorials
An interesting twist to the story, Houston is also African American and is married to the town’s N.A.A.C.P. president.
Brady – Like the old saying goes “Think about how stupid the average person appears to be, then remember that statistically, half the people are even more stupid than that!”
This begs the questions, just what do you have to do to get fired from that job? Show up nude? Stab a coworker? What?
The problem is that the beach residents are racist, not the black affirmative action officer.
I bet not many people who live along the beach and would have beach cards are minority. So when a group with large number of minorities go running down the beach without beach cards, they stick out like a sore thumb. So the residents say, “hmm, what are the chances all those people have beach cards and/or paid the $10.”
So they complain to the city.
The affirmative action officer is just a bureaucrat who was trying to head off more complaints from the residents, to make her job easier, and she went too far. It sounds like she was trying to help them excerise on the beach without beach cards or day passes, and not get caught. Hence the “say you’re running with friends [who live nearby and have beach cards].”
From her e-mail:
“I do think that you can use the facilities. However you will have to be discreet and if you are asked you are going to have to say you are just working out with friends. If you are doing a black group, you are going to need to cut your numbers down. Welcome to Greenwich!”
Anyway, it’s a lot more plausible than a racist black person. Right?
interesting how this was overlooked by the liberal media since it was perpetrated by a woman! how did they get this email? and why didn’t the wives just get the damned cards? the wives of RICH ATHELETES should be able to afford $25!!!!