B-Rant

- submitted by M. Albright on 05/21/2008

Segregated Singles, Anyone? Tennis in a Time Warp

By Margie Albright

It's tennis season on that strange planet called Suburbia. Actually, tennis season is year-round these days. In winter, if you live in the North and you have the stomach for prolonged cat-fighting - it's a 33-week season -- you join an indoor league. I don't have the stomach for that, so in the winter I play paddle, formally known as platform tennis, which is marginally less vicious, if only because the season is half as long. But that's a whole other story.

So here it is, spring, and private clubs everywhere have spiffed up their Har-Tru tennis courts (or their authentic red clay courts if they're the Real Deal), and their members have donned their whites -- because many seasonal tennis clubs, unlike the year-round indoor courts, require whites, in a nod to a classier past -- and rushed out to celebrate. It's a pretty scene, right out of Currier and Ives, summer version.

Ah, yes. America...such a melting pot. The Gentiles are perfecting their ground strokes at the G Club, the Jews are volleying at the J Club, and the Asians and blacks are burning up the public courts.

What, you say? This is 2008. Cannot be. That's not the America I know.

Wrong! It might be 2008 in the workplace, and maybe even, kind of, mostly -- okay, sort of -- in the real estate market, but it sure ain't at the country clubs. It's 1958! At least in my tony New Jersey burb.

Okay, there is one club in my town that's a tad more up-to-date. Back in the day, it was the genteel Catholic club, versus the WASP club up the street. But during a financial crisis about 20 years ago, the doors opened to Jews, and the club now counts Asians and a black person or two among its members, too. Of course, the Old Guard has pretty much fled for "cleaner" pastures. Good riddance.

The WASP club up the street is an amazing anachronism. Lily white. Perfectly Gentile. In its defense, it does permit Catholics now. Had to. After all, there are almost fewer Episcopalians in the U.S. than Jews. At some point the elders conceded they had to pull from a wider pool to survive -- within limits.

If you think G Club's members are mostly Stone Age senior citizens, you'd be wrong. A large contingent of thirty- and forty-somethings are happily ponying up the initiation fee and dues. Some of them are my friends -- not my close friends, mind you. My suburban "friends." Sometimes I didn't know they were members there. They seem so normal. When I found out, it put me in an awkward spot. Drop them on principle? Tell my children not play with theirs? Sometimes they invite my kids to play tennis there. Dilemma!

A few years back, one well-heeled Japanese neighbor of mine, who is married to a card-carrying WASP, gently inquired of one of her friends who belongs to G Club about membership. She was told by her "friend" not to bother.

The membership process at these clubs is interesting. At one of the other clubs in the area, which, legend has it, does boast a Jewish member, photos of the applicants are posted in the clubhouse for a set period, during which current club members may blackball them. Photos. Seems odd, doesn't it?

At this particular club, the husband in a member couple is considered the member and gets the golf privileges before the wife is allowed. This male preference isn't unusual. Even at the more liberal club, the husband's name is listed first in the membership directory and placed first on all communications. Calling John Cheever!! A gay male couple has recently been granted membership -- making history! -- so whose name will go where could present a novel conundrum.

Serve'em up!

Margie Albright is the pseudonym of a New Jersey-based writer....read more rants

...We're selling this house, God help us.

...Our kids don't read, but our statue does.

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• Get it off your chest

it's about time!

- submitted by Anonymous on 05/21/2008

Finally someone writing about the dirty secret of suburbia. Summer comes and it's time to go swimming and lo and behold kids and families divide up by religion of all things for a dip in the pool or a game of tennis. Why do we still put up with this?

so true

- submitted by Anonymous on 05/21/2008

The very same people who seek out diversified schools are content with clubs confined to their own kind. hypocrisy of the highest nature, isn't it?

hold on there

- submitted by Anonymous on 05/21/2008

Just because I play tennis in a club that I joined because it's convenient, very nice and the place where a lot of my friends belonged does not make me some kind of anti-semitic or anti-catholic snob. I work, I volunteer, I have a little time for tennis - does that mean I am obligated to go campaigning to get my club to get a more diverse membership? There are just so many issues I can get riled up but sorry this is not one of them!

clubs

- submitted by Anonymous on 05/21/2008

Wow. I didn't know that sort of thing still existed. I live in the supposedly less enlightened South, but I don't think clubs like that exist here...On the other hand, real estate? Don't get me started.

A so called friend of mine

- submitted by crosstheline on 05/22/2008

A so called friend of mine just joined a club that doesn't take jews or any minorities. She's no longer my friend. For me it's principle. She may think she's not prejudiced but if you associate with places like that you're validating their values. no way I'm going to be her fiend. adios!

Everybody wants to be with

- submitted by Editor43 on 05/22/2008

Everybody wants to be with their own. If its a private club that's the way it is. No surprise here. Would've been nice if author gave us her views on this or personally condemned it instead of describing it from a distance. Wow, people still discriminate, shocking! Shocking would be a suburban lady who likes tennis taking a stand, challenging her friends.

It's a shame we don't get

- submitted by Anonymous on 05/23/2008

It's a shame we don't get past these ugly prejudices, there's hypocrisy among many people who join clubs like these, pretending they're liberal or progressive when really they're racist creeps!

If my so called friend

- submitted by KenLL on 05/23/2008

If my so called friend joined a club like these I'd tell him my reactions. If he continued being a member I'd tell him f-off. Can't have it both ways. You join clubs like that you're perpetuating their prejudcies.

It's not same as somebody

- submitted by Standup on 05/23/2008

It's not same as somebody joining KKK or an overtly racist group. But theres a slippery slope. Why do you live in a town that has so many people who want to live that way. That's my question. Surely there are many towns that don't have clubs like that and residents who wouldn't want to be a part of theem

It's great to know these things still exist

- submitted by Sunny Meadow on 05/23/2008

If this was an all black, or all latino, or all jewish, or all anything else but white, tennis club, it would be celebrated as something wonderful. It's only considered 'racist' if Whites are involved. Only Whites are not allowed to congregate together as a recognizable group.

Personally, if I wanted to join a tennis club, I would certainly pick that was all White, if I could find one. In fact, even though I don't like tennis, and have no desire to play it, I still might join an all White tennis club, just so I could escape the multicultural hell that is being forced on me.

And I am sure that of all you people posting on here, with your indignant and holier than thou feelings against the members of this tennis club, that if you have a choice as to where to live, and buy a house, that you didn't chose a black neighborhood. Even blacks don't want to live in a black neighborhood. And blacks don't want to join an all black tennis club either. If they have a choice, they would want to join the all White tennis club themselves.

Multicultural hell? Good

- submitted by Barbara K. on 05/23/2008

Multicultural hell? Good grief! You've got some problems. I am white and live, by choice, in a neighborhood that is about 60% black. I wouldn't want to lvie in an area that was "all" anything. I happen to love diversity. I feel sorry for you, but people like you cause others a lot of grief.

ISegregated Singles tennis.......

- submitted by Anonymous on 05/23/2008

Sunny Meadow.... You do have a point....

Sunny Meadow - Segregated Tennis

- submitted by Lovelyhoney on 05/23/2008

No, Sunnymeadow, most upwardly mobile Black people with an ounce of self-respect wouldn't be caught in these places or types of neighborhoods. I'm a Black professional and I live in a predominantly Black middle-working class neighborhood in Ohio. Furthermore, most Blacks don't move in neighborhoods to get away from other Blacks; they move to certain neighborhoods because they can afford to and have the right to live where they damn please - just like you do.

Also, you evidently haven't been to the South where there are many Black suburbs and Black middle working class neighborhoods - that exist simply because most Blacks are tired of living among "your kind" and putting up with your ignorance - AND THAT'S ALL IT IS. They don't want their children to have to put up with this sort of ignorance that YOU and "your kind" even have the nerve to pass on to your children.

The Blacks you described, "who supposedly don't want to live around other Blacks" are those self-loathing darkies who think living among YOU and YOUR KIND improves their quality of life. WHAT A JOKE! I'd live in the projects or a trailer park first!

vijsa

- submitted by lovelyhoney on 05/23/2008

Also, you evidently haven't been to the South where there are many Black suburbs and Black middle-working class neighborhoods that exist simply because most Blacks are tired of living among "your kind" and putting up with your ignorance - AND THAT'S ALL IT IS. They don't want their children to have to put up with this sort of ignorance that YOU and "your kind" even have the nerve to pass on to your children.

Let's Dialogue

- submitted by Anonymous on 07/08/2008

Where are these wonderful black neighborhoods? My neighborhood was lilly white, middle class, low crime and our government decided we needed to "integrate" becaues they wanted the land a project was on (city/river view..prime) so they tore it down and moved these people to our neighborhood...now we have crime, graffiti, tax paying people moving out, etc., etc. Let's open up some dialogue here. I will say that they tore the projects down and relocated those people here. I will also say that there are black middle class people that moved here and take wonderful care of their homes and are great neighbors. My beef and my husband's beef....why aren't the black middle and upper middle class speaking out against the behavior of some in their race and why are they against supporting and calling the police? Let's stop the name calling and sort this out!