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Can YOU find 'super racist' message on this Red Cross poster?

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'I felt really angry.'

Margaret Sawyer noticed a Red Cross safety poster at a public pool in Salida, CO. She took a moment to take a closer look then internally shook her head at what she thought was an outdated guide - until she spotted it again at across town.

Highlights

By Kenya Sinclair (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
6/28/2016 (8 years ago)

Published in U.S.

Keywords: Margaret Sawyer, pool, safety, Red Cross, racism

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "I thought 'It must be really outdated. This can't possibly be a recent poster,'" Sawyer told KUSA.

Then she saw the second one.


"I saw this one, and I just kept thinking, 'It looks like they're trying to do something here that shows all kids together of all different backgrounds, but they're clearly not hitting the mark."

The poster displays a pool with two life guards and children playing in the water. At the top of the poster it reads "Be Cool, Follow The Rules."

What isn't so cool is the Red Cross' decision to make only minority children "Not Cool."

"I felt really angry," Sawyer said.

The same poster caught Ebony Rosemond's attention.

Rosemond runs Black Kids Swim, an online community dedicated to encourage African American children to swim.

She was immediately upset with the negative message. She explained: "When I saw the poster, I just, was just very saddened that the Red Cross had chosen to put out an image that might one, discourage African-Americans from trying swimming if they were new to it, and also something that would extend a negative stereotype.


"How can an organization that prides itself on being so open-minded, so understanding of the diverse populations of the world create something like this?"

Rosemond mentioned the poster was reminiscent of the days when African-Americans were discouraged from joining the Caucasian community in public pools and beaches.

William Fortune spoke on behalf of the Red Cross to say the children on the poster "were more designed to be children rather than any racial motivation" and added the Red Cross never meant for the images to be offensive.

"We're committed to diversity and inclusion in everything that we do," Fortune explained.

His response wasn't good enough for Rosemond, who stated: "It makes me really question who is sitting at the table at the executive levels at the Red Cross? What is the representation like? What is the diversity like in the people who really get to say 'yes or no?'"

The posters have since been removed and the Red Cross is working on "more appropriate material."

Meanwhile, Rosemond expects the Red Cross to do more than a simple replacement.

"I think the Red Cross can go further, they can issue a much more public apology and a much more nuanced apology that really gets to the root of what they did and what community specifically they hurt," she stated.

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