Racist is now in jobless pool
A white man accused of racial profiling after calling the police on a black woman attempting to swim in the neighborhood pool no longer has a job.
A video of the interaction, shared to Facebook by Jasmine Edwards earlier this week, netted millions of views and was shared thousands of times within the first 24 hours of its posting. It opens with Edwards pressing a man identified as Adam Bloom on why he demanded her ID as she and her son enjoyed the neighborhood pool in North Carolina.
Only residents of the Glenridge neighborhood in Winston-Salem are allowed to use the quiet community pool, which Edwards said she proved by providing her address.
“Where does it say I have to show an ID to use my pool? My own pool?” she asks Bloom from behind her cell phone. Edwards adds that “nobody else was asked for their ID. I feel this is racial profiling. I am the only black person here with my son in the pool.”
One of two police officers already on the scene at the start of the recording defended Edwards, saying that if she “has a card to get into the pool I believe that it should be enough.”
Edwards in the end hands over her key card, which the officer uses to successfully open the gate to the pool.
“I apologize for the time and the altercation that occurred,” the officer tells her.
Bloom can be seen stalking off without apology.
The video prompted widespread critique, with many on social media calling for Bloom’s firing. Until recently, he’d served as the Value Realization Leader at Sonoco, according to his LinkedIn Page.
The delivery and packaging service in a tweet announced Friday morning an employee involved in “welldocumented incident” at a pool over the Fourth of July holiday is no longer involved with the company in “any respect.”
“Our core values at Sonoco are built on dignity and respect for all, and we do not condone discrimination of any kind, inside or outside of the workplace,” the company said in a statement. “With more than 20,000 employees across the globe of all races, religions, colors and creeds, we value the diverse experiences and perspectives our teammates bring to our company, which makes us better every day.”
The neighborhood association, in a statement obtained by The Independent, similarly condemned Bloom’s actions: “By calling the police on one of our neighbors, (Bloom) escalated a situation in way that does not reflect the inclusive values Glenridge seeks to uphold as a community.”
The poolside confrontation is only the latest in a growing list of white people accused of racial profiling.