The American Red Cross have come under fire after a swim safety sign was deemed racist.
The sign which uses the terms “cool” and “not cool” to highlight appropriate and inappropriate pool behaviour caused quite a lot of upset amongst parents.
The problem being that the rule-breakers seem to all have one thing in common; their skin colour.
One child is seen diving dangerously into the pool and another is seen pushing someone into the water.
One parent posted her thoughts on the signs on Facebook saying:
"We need to hold the Red Cross accountable for the publication of this poster, and demand that it is retracted and replaced at pools across the country.
"Hopefully it will spark a broader dialogue about racism in pools. Staff at both of these city pools had never noticed anything wrong with this poster. Horrifying that children across the country are absorbing this message."
Since the post the Red Cross has issued an apology on their website:
"We deeply apologize for any misunderstanding, as it was absolutely not our intent to offend anyone. As one of the nation's oldest and largest humanitarian organizations, we are committed to diversity and inclusion in all that we do, every day.”
The have also decided to remove these posters from al public pools.
“To this end, we have removed the poster from our website and Swim App and have discontinued production."
