Woman Says ‘Pool’s Closed’ Notice Is Racist
| More news stories on Bizarre Racism Charges |
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Roger Croteau, San Antonio Express-News, July 15, 2008
{snip}
Mary Alice Altorfer is hosting a visit from her two grandchildren, whose father is African American. The children swam at the River Tree subdivision pool every day for about a week before someone posted a flier on the pool gate bearing a picture of a black man with a large afro haircut, his arms folded across his chest and the words “POOL’S CLOSED” superimposed.
“I didn’t even get the implication at first—then it hit me like a club,” Altorfer said. “I was furious. These are two little kids, and it just makes me angry. I was shocked and angry and hurt.”
Altorfer said only one black couple lives in the subdivision of 172 homes, which average about $200,000 in value, and they never use the pool. She added that the only African Americans who have used the pool in recent weeks are her 6-year-old granddaughter Isabel Martinez and 9-year-old grandson Nicholas Martinez.
{snip}
Altorfer filed a police report Monday afternoon. She said the officer who took the report was unsure what laws the posting of the flier violated but promised to research it. The officer could not be reached for comment.
Mel Soderberg, a member of the River Tree homeowners’ association board of directors, said he got a call asking if the pool really was closed after another resident found the flier on the gate to the pool area.
{snip}
  Internet meme with catchphrase mistaken for racism. |
[Editor’s Note: San Antonio’s KENS-TV report showing the Internet meme and also misunderstanding it can be viewed here.]
Email Roger Croteau at rcroteau@express-news.net.
(Posted on July 16, 2008)
Urban Dictionary: Pools Closed
Urban Dictionary
Pools Closed: An internet phenomenon associated with the ‘/b/’ random section of the 4chan imageboard. The users of this section anonymously logged onto Habbo Hotel, and using avatars of black people clothed in suits, along with a large afro, blockaded the Hotel’s pool from entry while shouting ‘Pools closed’ to users trying to enter.
The phenomenon has since increased in popularity, and the GNAA and myg0t trolling communities have also started to participate in the blockades.
[Editor’s Note: See also a YouTube video for a use of the “Pool’s Closed” meme here.]
Comments
I live here, I saw the story and this is my guess. The kids were probalby unwanted at the pool, maybe for rambunctious behavior and someone computer saavy, adult or child, pinned the note on the pool. What really struck me about the story is the dividing line and how you cross it once you have inter racial relatives. The Grandma is going to have a few more years of confrontation and other issues… Good luck on that!
Posted by Tim Mc Hugh at 6:35 PM on July 16
“She said the officer who took the report was unsure what laws the posting of the flier violated…”
My guess is “none.”
But if that turns out to be the case, they could always invent some NEW laws to combat the just-discovered menace to society that is pool-closing postercrime.
Posted by The Incredible Shrinking White Man at 7:35 PM on July 16
Wait, her son-in-law is black and named Martinez? Good God, they’ll let anyone pass for black these days. What happened to standards?
Posted by Nordic at 7:56 PM on July 16
HAHA saw the site. Hackers unite.
Posted by at 8:30 PM on July 16
I have to admit that I don’t fully ‘get it’, but racism?
And this foolishness was worth calling the police for?
Posted by kitty at 9:06 PM on July 16
Nothing on the flier said ‘no blacks allowed’. This is just hysteria over a harmless joke meme.
Posted by at 10:19 PM on July 16
Too funny ahahahahah….I would put up a sign and say…sorry pool closed on account of some black kid had diarhea and contaminated the pool and pool shall remained closed all this hot hot summer….that should really get a rise out of the black community!!
Posted by lydia at 11:00 PM on July 16
Pool’s Closed is basically a meme members of 4chan use to troll the chat community Habbo Hotel. Members will dress their character in a suit and afro and stand in front of the pool ladder in areas that Habbo Hotel members can make their characters swim in.
Posted by Mike at 11:04 PM on July 16
“These are two little kids…”
Please, I doubt they saw it until she made a stink over it. Pull it down before they see it and then bring it into question with the property authorities(not the media).
Posted by at 11:26 PM on July 16
I don’t get it. If the pool isn’t closed, go past the sign and use the pool.
Posted by at 12:24 AM on July 17
..could Mary Alice be angry because shes plain fed up with once again having to watch these grandchildren because her daughter was impregnated twice by a black male that only comes around for a booty call?
Posted by toonces at 12:28 AM on July 17
The libs have convinced these people that they are victims and that Whitey is out to get them. They see racism in everything.
Posted by at 6:28 AM on July 17
The San Antonio paper has caught up with the information about “memes” this morning. Also, somone last night posted a sign on the gate of a woman with a huge afro saying Pool Open…
Posted by Tim Mc Hugh at 7:31 AM on July 17
Wait, if there black, why are there names Martinez? And one of the girls name is Isabel, sounds more Hispanic to me,
Posted by C.V. at 12:39 PM on July 17
That’s right lady. So you are ‘blessed’ with a couple of Black grandkids (half breeds) and now you’ve become just like Afro-Americans. Finding racism lurking under every rock, in every nook and cranny. Maybe you’re too sensitive out of embarassment over what your daughter might be viewed as.
Like those other Texan ‘worthies’ in the Dallas news. Deliberately misinterpreting the scientific/astronomical term “black hole” and taking it as a racial slur.
I checked the blog site (access it through last week’s article on AmRen. By opening the original news story). The posters had a field day with these two bad jokes of “public servants.”
Seems like finding racism is a national sport in the Black community. The counterposts by the Black posters are even nuttier than some of the more way-out gibes by White posters.
Posted by Fed Up at 1:37 PM on July 17
Well, I’m not surprised that this black woman had no conception of the origins of this image, since it seems to be a fairly obscure part of the computer hacker culture, one that the pool custodian thought would be a cute way to announce the pool’s closing. But I guess the lesson here is, whites should have nothing to do with black culture. Whites should not use black images, phrases or anything else to do with blacks. It will only lead to misunderstandings and charges of “racism.”
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 1:41 PM on July 17
Posted bt Nordic: “Wait, the son-in-law is black and named martinez”?
They didn’t say anything about the Afican American father being the son-in-law.
He is probably long gone.
Posted by Daniel at 3:05 PM on July 17
This is quiet the amusing incident. The picture was supposed to indicate that the black man with an afro in the suit was telling people that the pool is closed, but some women with a predisposition to seeing the world through the eyes of racial victimization interpreted the picture as indicating that people who looked like that man weren’t allowed in the pool.
Now ask yourself, if the sign was really meant for denying blacks access to the pool, would they really use a picture that depicted an attractive successful looking African-American man in a business suit? You’d think if the intent was racist, they would portray African-Americans like this. Is it really to much to expect people to pickup on these things?
Posted by B.B. at 3:55 PM on July 17
The guy on the poster is black because he is “blackup”.
Durring the habbo raids, users would post on other sites calling for blackup (or “/b/lackup!”), which quickly resulted in new users actually making black characters to bring in as backup.
That’s where the black-dude-with-suit-and-afro came from; just a play on words. It was never exactly a racist thing.
Posted by at 4:24 PM on July 17
What I find hilarious is obviously this is the work of one person, yet the whole community will be branded as racist. How come guilt by association works so well against Whites, could it be the clinging to guilt? If there are any White demokrats in this neighborhood, welcome to Amren. Sit down and enjoy all the intellectual intrigue and therapy we have to offer. obama ‘08/chaos ‘09
Posted by Lars at 5:26 PM on July 17
/b/ is one of the most offensive boards on the Internet, but that’s the point! They make fun of EVERYTHING. It’s racist (of all races), sexist, misogynist, (not really misandrist though as 99% of posters are male), ageist, etc. etc. ad infinitum, and it’s wonderful to see.
As John Bryant says, “Free speech is offensive speech.”
Posted by Candace at 6:05 PM on July 17
I can’t even begin to imagine how disappointed and distressed I would be to have had black grandchildren. To have lived for so many years, worked hard all your life, and now presumably looking forward to enjoying my golden years and thinking about how my bloodlines would be passed down to future generations,, - and instead - end up looking after a “Jamal” and a “Shantique” because my foolish daughter betrayed her heritage by miscengenation,, but obviously this woman doesn’t see it that way.
Posted by at 11:06 PM on July 17
I don’t blame whoever for putting it up. The call to the police sounds like a ridiculous waste of resources. Furthermore, its the notion that any problem I might have with blacks is criminal. Ever here of free speech? No nooses and No pictures of Afro wielding black folks. Outlaw it.
My neighborhood went little Congo and the black teens harassed everybody at the pool. They hung out and obstructed the children’s swingsets, drank and did drugs. They bumped and grinded in the water. Its so disgusting to see these black teenage boys practically having sex with the teenage black girls in the water - in front of everyone.
Posted by at 12:06 AM on July 18
The funny thing is the pools closed meme started for a fight AGAINST racism.
the childrens online game, habbo hotel, had (and still has) a number of racist mods, and the forces of e/b/aums (with backup from the 4chan) proceded to ‘raid’ the game by creating accounts, and making their ingame characther be a black guy in a suit with an afro, and disrupting the game in large numbers by closing the popular pool area by simply getting in the way.
Posted by Aubrey Cottle at 5:09 AM on July 19
Ms. Altorfer should simply have taken the kids to the YMCA. It only costs a few dollars and would’ve saved alot of heartache for you and distress on the residents. Not to mention the cost of cleaning the pool out every day for a week.
Posted by at 11:23 PM on July 19
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Mary_Alice_Altorfer
More info!
Posted by Anonymous at 7:36 AM on July 20
Tie a shoestring in a loop and hang it on the gate and watch the media go berzerk. An army of FBI agents will be quickly dispatched to the scene going door to door and questioning residents all at the taxpayers expense.
Posted by at 10:12 PM on July 20