A married couple who own a private recreation center out of #Wendell, North Carolina, are on the defense today after their swimming pool rules went viral over the weekend.
Social media users were dragging the couple because they feel their rules are racist and target Black people. The rules for the Outdoor Recreation Center of Wendell ban baggy pants, dreadlocks, weaves and hair extensions from the swimming pool.
Now John Freeman says he’s considering taking legal action against people who have been calling him and his wife racist, @abc11_wtvd reports. Freeman said his guidelines aren’t racist and he didn’t understand the attention around his rules, which have been posted inside the pool office on the property for the last six years.
Freeman said his wife Teresa would have been the one to post a picture of the pool guidelines to the ORC’s Facebook page. The post has since been deleted.
“It did look racist, a racist statement,” Diana Powell, Executive Director of Justice Served NC told ABC11.
Powell said she was tagged multiple times in the controversial Facebook posts being the community activist she is. She decided to go straight to the source Monday and ask Freeman about the rules herself.
“He told me that his wife is- they’re not racist,” said Powell. “His wife just actually made a mistake.”
Freeman said he doesn’t want people walking around the pool in front of children “with their britches down” and doesn’t want artificial hair getting stuck in the pump, which could cause the pool to shut down for three days for maintenance.
He said 381 families of varying ethnicities are members of the ORC and he tries to “accommodate any and everybody.”
In one post signed by John and Teresa Freeman, the owners apologized for their ignorance of the meaning of the word “dread-locks.”
The statement went on to say the rules should have stated “NO artificial hair” would be allowed in the pool.
Freeman said they will talk with their lawyer and may bring each and every one of the people who has publicly called them racist to court.
“If they call me racist, they can put it in writing and we will deal with it at the courthouse,” said Freeman.
Powell said she hopes the Freemans will change the wording of their rules to not directly target a specific culture.
“Maybe we can sit down and come to the table and kind of reason together,” Powell added.
by christina@theshaderoom.com