So this made international headlines–
The Red Cross apologized today after complaints were filed against its “racist” aquatics poster.
The poster depicts unsafe behavior at a swimming pool including running, diving and pushing.
The Red Cross is seeking guidance from diversity activists for guidance moving forward.
Twitchy reported:
The Red Cross has issued an apology and asked all of its partner aquatic facilities to take down a water safety poster that at least one person has interpreted as racist.
For a poster that is supposedly so racist it has been scrubbed from the Red Cross website and is being pulled down from pools across the country, media outlets are having no qualms about republishing it…
…Peter Holley of the Washington Post reported the ordeal of Margaret Sawyer, who complained to a lifeguard and then to management after the 2014 poster struck her as an unfortunate relic of the past:
After seeing the poster a second time, she posted an image of it online.
“I felt really angry,” she said.
The poster — titled “Be Cool, Follow The Rules” — depicts various children playing at the pool.
But white children are labeled as behaving in a “cool” way while children of color who are depicted defying pool rules are labeled “not cool.”
Rest assured that the Red Cross is not taking the controversy lightly and in a press release on Monday said that the organization is “currently in the process of completing a formal agreement with a diversity advocacy organization for their guidance moving forward.”
Red Cross pool safety poster called racist https://t.co/yd8U7YLXEv pic.twitter.com/35jI6zdYzL
— WUSA9 (@wusa9) June 27, 2016