‘Super racist' pool safety poster prompts Red Cross apology

Social media users called out the American Red Cross for pool safety posters they say are racist.

Twitter user JSawyer330 wrote “Hey, @RedCross, send a new pool poster to @SalidaRec bc the current one they have w your name on it is super racist.”

The posters show children playing at a pool and list rules about what’s safe and what isn’t.

Most of the disorderly children are either black or from a minority group, while the majority of children shown behaving properly are white.

The “Be Cool, Follow the Rules” poster labeled correct behavior as cool and unsafe behavior as not cool.

The following day the American Red Cross tweeted a response addressing the poster saying “@JSawyer330 thank you for bringing this to our attention. We’re removing this from our site immediately & are creating new materials.”

The posters were mostly displayed at public swimming pools in Colorado.

The American Red Cross issued an apology Monday saying, “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.”

To read the full statement, click here.