Man who challenged black family’s use of pool loses job

RALEIGH, North Carolina — A white man who challenged a black family’s use of a gated pool in a North Carolina neighbourhood has not only resigned from the homeowner’s association board — he’s also lost his job.

Sonoco announced Friday that Adam Bloom is no longer employed by the packaging and industrial products company, saying it doesn’t condone discrimination of any kind, even if it happens outside its workplace.

A video posted by Jasmine Abhulimen on Facebook on July 4, seen more than four million times, shows what happened after Bloom questioned whether she was allowed to bring her son to the pool in the Winston-Salem neighbourhood.

Bloom also called the police. In a police recording released Friday, Bloom is heard calmly telling a dispatcher he’s dealing with a “nonresident that’s at the pool who refuses to leave. … We’re just asking for a form of identification.”

But Bloom was wrong about his neighbour: Abhulimen owns a house with her husband a few blocks away in the development, according to county property records.

In the video, Bloom, Abhulimen and the responding officers all speak in measured tones. She accuses him of singling out her and her young son as AfricanAmericans by asking to see her ID. Bloom, who served as chairman of the Glenridge community’s private pool, responds that he asks pool users to see their identification “a couple times” each week.

Officers then determined that Abhulimen did in fact have keycard access to the gated pool. An officer apologized to her. When Abhulimen asked Bloom for an apology, he walked away.

On Facebook, Abhulimen accused Bloom of racial profiling: “This is a classic case of racial profiling in my half a million $$ neighbourhood pool. This happened to me and my baby today. What a shame!!” A police statement noted that the postings were on the page of Jasmine Edwards, which is Abhulimen’s Facebook screen name.

The social media backlash was fierce, and soon targeted Bloom’s employer. In a Twitter post, South Carolina-based Sonoco apologized to Abhulimen and said the situation doesn’t reflect company values.

Company spokesman Brian Risinger said Bloom was a business development manager who had been with Sonoco for about five years.