Ghenete Wright Muir, a black law professor, and her son were forced by cops to leave a public pool following a white woman's complaint that they were talking in her lane while inside the pool. The incident took place at the public pool at Joseph C. Carter Park, located in Fort Lauderdale.
Reportedly Wright Muir, a Caribbean-American law professor, and her son, Masai, are members of the US Masters Swimming Club. The Joseph C. Carter Park , where the incident occurred, is a historically black facility.
Lifeguard Threatened For Siding With Muir
Wright Muir, the founder of Thou Art Woman, a community group for LGBTQ women in the arts, told NBC 6 that she and her son, who are both former competitive swimmers, were training in the pool when the incident occurred.
"I said something to my son and the lady in the lane between us said 'you can't talk over my lane.' I immediately asked the lifeguard if that was a rule, and she said there's no such rule," Wright Muir revealed.
She stated that the woman, who refused to switch lanes with her, started complaining to the lifeguard asking her to do something about them. "She starts threatening her job saying she's gonna talk to her supervisor," added the law professor. When the cops arrived at the scene, they asked Wright Muir and her son to leave the pool, while the white woman remained inside the pool, the outlet reported.
In the footage recorded by the police body cam, Wright Muir is heard telling the cops that they were following the rules and that it should not have come to this. "It shouldn't have come to police coming here," she said.
White Woman Identified as Former Professor Broward College
Enraged over the incident, the black law professor expressed her anguish in a Facebook post. "We told the police we needed to see her leave—simply because we are so used to being the ones who are disciplined and held to account while our white counterparts have no consequences for their actions. I felt the tension growing, and knowing our lives could be in jeopardy, I decided it was best for us to leave the pool area," she said.
"We waited in the parking lot...my son needed to see her get out...I needed to see her get out. Instead, the police told us we had to leave and were not to return to the entire park for 24 hours," she went on to add in her lengthy post.
According to Caribbean National Weekly, the white woman has been identified as Lani Kempner, a former professor at Broward College. The college's website lists Kempner as an adjunct professor in Activities and Wellness, reported the Weekly. Later, Kempner was issued a trespassing warning and banned from the park for three days.
