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2001-08-14 - 6:29 a.m.

FINGER IN THE DIKE

My husband grew up in a small town. As a result, he has all sorts of cultural skills I lack. For example, he can drive into any small town and, if the town has a caf� with edible food, he will find it. He can�t quite explain how he does it but he does. I grew up in the suburbs, mainly in hyper-segregated cities. My cultural skills are different. I can identify when a place is about to tip and I�m rarely wrong.

Tipping is when, all of a sudden after a slow build-up, white flight begins in earnest. I hate the whole idea of tipping but I haven�t any idea how to stop it. For a while, as a teenager, I lived in what was then perceived to be a racial Camelot�Teaneck, New Jersey�but Teaneck couldn�t hold back the tide. It managed to save the stability of its towns but, still, the whites fled the schools and the town ultimately had a race riot long after I left to go out into the world on my own.

Unfortunately, I think the YMCA where my children attend camp and where Day-Hay was on the diving team for several years is about to tip. I hope I�m wrong but I doubt I am. I�ve loved having my kids learn that African-American teenage boys can be caring counselors and that people don�t have to look like you to have similar interests.

The early symptoms began a few years ago when the Y decided to make specialty camps significantly more expensive than the regular day camp. As an economic decision, I�m sure it was great. As a social decision, I�m not sure whether it staved off tipping or encouraged it. The regular day camp has remained a racially mixed place but the specialty camps looked more and more white.

This year, I had the perception that there were more African-American faces around than there used to be. I try not to notice such stuff but I�ve never really succeeded. The danger I perceive comes not from the faces around me but from the reaction to them and I have begun to hear that reaction. All of a sudden, I am beginning to hear people question why I would send my children to a �rough� place. �Rough� is a lovely little code word, don�t you think?

I saw the latest omen a few weeks ago. The front desk now has a sign up reminding people not to leave valuable belongings in their cars because there have been a few break-ins in the area. It does not matter that the sign is intended to inform. It might as well be a neon sign flashing �unsafe, unsafe, unsafe.�

My kids are still at the Y. They are having a wonderful time and I hope to keep them there. I just wish I weren�t feeling like the little boy with his finger in the dike.

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