#GolfingWhileBlack: White men call police on Black women for golfing ‘too slowly’
The women want more than an apology.
A group of Black women enjoying an outing at a golf club had the cops called on them for allegedly playing too slowly on the golf course.
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A group of Black women enjoying an outing at a golf club had the cops called on them for allegedly playing too slowly on the golf course.
Just a week after two black men were arrested without cause at a Philly Starbucks, five Black women said they were discriminated against at the Grandview Golf Club in Pennsylvania, asked to leave, and had the cops called on them for nothing, reports AP.
The women said they were very familiar with golf etiquette, since they are part of a larger professional group called Sisters in the Fairway, and they were doing nothing wrong.
A white co-owner of the club, they explained, came up twice to rush them along and complain about how they were playing. But they picked the wrong women to mess with that day. One of the women, Sandra Thompson, is an attorney and the head of the York chapter of the NAACP.
Thompson who met with some of the women for a day of play, said the white man said they weren’t keeping up with the pace of the play at the second hole. She said that’s not true.
Another member of the group, Sandra Harrison, said she told the man that they were fine and that they were keeping up.
Etiquette calls for players to keep up with the flow of the play on the fairway. Slower moving groups must allow those behind them to move ahead if they are holding up players behind them. The women said they fell in line with everyone else.
The women then skipped the third hole just so there would be no trouble.
Video Evidence
By the ninth hole the women took a break, which is typical to do at that time – before moving on to the next nine holes. Three of the five women decided to leave because of how they were being bothered earlier. The remaining women said former York County Commissioner Steve Chronister, his son, club co-owner Jordan Chronister and several other white, male employees approached the women and asked them to leave because they “took too long” of a break.
Thompson took a video of the Chronisters approaching the women before the police arrived.
The break they took, the women said, was the appropriate amount of time allowed. Thompson pointed out that there were white men still chugging beer on a break who hadn’t returned to playing yet.
The women were told that the police had been called on them.
“I felt we were discriminated against,” one of the women, Myneca Ojo, told the York Daily Record. “It was a horrific experience.”
The Northern York County Regional Police didn’t charge anyone because they said a crime had not been committed.
“We were called there for an issue, the issue did not warrant any charges,” Northern York County Regional Police Chief Mark Bentzel said. “All parties left and we left as well.”
An Apology
JJ Chronister, the wife of Chronister and co-owner of the club, says she wants to make amends with the women and meet with them and to personally apologize.
—Woman heads to Supreme Court over right to wear dreadlocks at work—
“We sincerely apologize to the women for making them feel uncomfortable here at Grandview, that is not our intention in any way,” she told the newspaper. “We want all of our members to feel valued and that they can come out here and have a great time, play golf and enjoy the experience.”
Thompson said she’s unsure if there needs to be a meeting when there’s a larger racial issue that needs to be addressed.
“There needs to be something more substantial to understand they don’t treat people in this manner,” she said.
The incident has also encouraged some celebrities on social media to voice their concern about the constant bogus arrests of Black people. Singer John Legend issued this plea on Twitter, saying:
Please stop calling the police on black people who are just trying to live. Please. Stop. Police shoot us for no fucking reason at all. Please. Stop. https://t.co/HOqZ6t76ca
— John Legend (@johnlegend) April 23, 2018
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