Simply Tiring

It's almost 2006 and we're still here:

When the wives of two former Mets players and other members of their physical fitness group complained this spring that they were turned away from the town's beach, they charged that it was because they are black. The town's affirmative action officer investigated, but cleared Greenwich employees of wrongdoing by concluding that they were simply enforcing the rules.

But now a series of e-mail messages shows that the affirmative action officer, Kelly J. Houston, acknowledged after the incident that racial discrimination was most likely involved. Responding to a complaint from the trainer of the group, she said she believed that town workers treated blacks differently. She even advised him on how to draw less attention to groups that included blacks visiting the beaches.

The e-mail exchange occurred on June 8, one day after an incident involving the wives of the former Mets Bobby Bonilla and George Foster, in response to a complaint by the trainer, Jason Hall, who is white, that he had problems only when he took nonwhite clients to the beach.

'I would love to tell you, you are wrong, but I am positive that you are not,' Ms. Houston wrote.

'Understand that it is not intentional,' she said, adding that she believed that the beach employees were just conditioned to seeing only white people on the beach. 'So yes, when there is a few (3-4) black people together they take notice.'

She continued: 'I do think you can use the facilities. However, you will have to be discreet.'

She further advised him, 'If you are doing a black group, you are going to need to cut your numbers down,' and told him that he might want to start the workouts earlier, before the staff arrived.