An aquaintance sent the following email to the city employee who made that statement a couple days ago, they’ve not received a reply.
Ms. Martinez,
I read an article you are quoted in regarding a lack of diversity with your lifeguards in Phoenix.
Article quote:
“”The kids in the pool are all either Hispanic or black or whatever, and every lifeguard is white,” she says, “and we don’t like that. The kids don’t relate; there’s language issues.””
In the first place you don’t have to “like that.” The lifeguards are not there to “relate” they are there to save lives should an emergency arise. In fact lifeguards are not supposed to talk to people in or out of the pool when guarding, they’re supposed to stay alert and watch people
in the pool.
In the second place there should not be any language issues as long as the guards speak English, being they’re all white I would assume they speak it, this is the USA.
As lifeguarding is a field that is vital for safety it would seem guards should be selected for their ability and expertise, not their skin color.
Should an Hispanic or black person be about to drown I would think they’d want the very best qualified lifeguards guarding those Phoenix pools, it in fact could be the difference between life and death. I’m positive you and your coworkers wouldn’t “like that” if it was death.
Respectfully,
*************
What a surprise.
"Whatever"?
Uh, Ms. Martinez just WHO are you are referring to as "whatever"?
Scratch a liberal and there's a racist right under the skin.
I guess there are 3 kinds of people in this world. Hispanic, black and "whatever".
Guess I'm one of those "whatever" people.