Aibu about Camp America 'Underprivileged Camp'

[Vixxfacee]

Can you let me know if I am being unreasonable about this and if so why.

I was looking through Camp America's website.
They have different camps and one that was called Underprivileged Camp caught my eye. Purely because I can't believe that it would actually be called that.

I clicked on it and I see a black child with a white working (presumably a privileged person ) plus numerous black children swimming in a lake.

The page warns that the camp will be more rustic (more like shitter ) than the other camps.

I am all for children from less well off backgrounds being included but I am pretty shocked that they are being grouped together in a 'rustic' camp rather than all camps being equal and all children together.

This is the website campamerica.co.uk/the-experience/types-of-camp/underprivileged-camps

Not sure how to link on my phone.

Thoughts?

I'm really pleased that the underprivileged camps exist.

But they aren't crap camps. They just aren't the camps that are going to take you Disneyland, jet skiing, etc. (Which aren't the majority by the way)

Why would you assume that the white man is privilaged?

Did you think the same about your free school meals did they offend you?

I remember being taken away on a caravan holiday for a night with other "underprivileged" kids by a charity, and I thought it was the best weekend of my life.

Never once crossed my mind to be offended. Funny that isn't it?

Also remember the boy along the road had a befriender who took him to football games once a month to see his team play, again funded by charity. He raved about it the whole weekend and thought the guy was amazing. Maybe he was just hiding how offensive it was to him?

Or maybe me and that child weren't born looking for things to find offensive.

I agree with you about the pic and I think the terminology is crass.
However I worked at a YMCA. summer camp through Bunac or CA, can't remember which, many moons ago and it was a fantastic life changing experience, and I made some money. I could go on and on about it but I won't.

I,m not sure why people are offended by this the holiday my son is going on describes itself as a holiday for children with disabilities or children that are disadvantaged he is massively disadvantaged having a brother with such complex needs but he's going to have a fantastic holiday and a great experience charities use emotive words all the time that's how they get money.

I worked at a YMCA camp. There's far more racial segregation over there than in the UK, if you're working with kids from East St Louis then it's pretty much a given that they'll be poor and black.

I worked at a YMCA camp. There's far more racial segregation over there than in the UK, if you're working with kids from East St Louis then it's pretty much a given that they'll be poor and black.

I worked at a YMCA camp. There's far more racial segregation over there than in the UK, if you're working with kids from East St Louis then it's pretty much a given that they'll be poor and black.

Camp America is a British organization, started and run by British people. All of the verbiage on the website is theirs! I looked at the "About" page to find this out.

I live in the US and I don't see this kind of language and stereotyping on camp websites here.

Save your outrage at Americans for the big stuff. This one is on the British.

My mother went to one of these camps in the 1940s in New York State, and I went to one 30 years later in Massachusetts, and neither of us knew at the time we were at a camp for poor kids. That was not something that was discussed!

I did Camp America. 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. Loved it and am a bit at these comments. You know 'underprivileged camp' is just a description for the kind of camp it is on their website for prospective counsellors? There isn't a sign at the camp entrance saying 'camp underprivileged'. It's important that young people know what they're getting themselves in for when signing up for 8 weeks at camp because it's tough! And I was at a 'privileged' camp.

Yep, it's not on the T Shirt! I've done CA twice both in what they would term underprivileged camps run by not for profits. As it happened the racial profile was fairly representative (the staff were not which was a shame). The girls who attended loved it and would not have been able to attend a private camp in a gazillion years.

The only reason they describe it like that is so that 18 year old Brits understand the different types of camps. Some people would rather be at the windsurfing daily and en-suite staff accommodation type camps, rather than the shower-works-sometimes type.

I think it's bizarre that calling kids black or coloured gets you hate email in America but calling a whole camp (or group of camps) for kids "underprivileged" is OK. As a kid I think I'd have preferred to stay at home.
I think it would have been more appropriate to name the camp my son worked at an "overprivileged" camp from his description of the kids, but no doubt they'd consider that nasty and discriminatory.

It isn't started and run by Brits, it just has UK names and addresses because you are looking at the UK site. Try looking at the German or Australian sites, they are multinational. They are also extremely secretive and it's hard to find out who actually owns the company. They tend to crack down on any negative comments as well as do all the camps. Running camps is big money

""I looked at the site some more and agree that the language is not normal American language for those topics.""

I'm looking for Dental treatment outside of the U.K., I've been sent some information.

Some of it reads as nonsense, as have German articles that I've put through 'Translate'.

It describes what it is and you click what language you want it translated into at the bottom of the page.

It makes it easier for everyone to, as a previous poster said, "call a spade a spade", for recruitment and funding purposes.

Many charities use "disadvantaged".

The issues across the US are very different to the UK and I don't think we can judge "underprivileged", without taking that onboard.

I was quoted £599, on that website.

I was going to volunteer on a Vegan farm in the EU, that site was quoting me £800, so £599 is a bargain to go to the US.

The bios on the founders of Camp America indicate that they are from the UK.

It does not run camps, but merely acts as an independent go-between, employment agency referring and coordinating staff for various camps.

The other sites are offshoots of the main business, which is British.

The level of misunderstanding of and disdain for America and Americans on this site is very demoralizing to me, as someone who has a great deal of respect for the UK, not to mention quite a few relatives there.

By "this site" I mean Mumsnet, btw.

dd and I watched one of those transformative TV shows the other day which was based around a summer camp outside of Detroit. It was very very basic and for children who were certainly underprivileged, growing up in very deprived environments with lots of crime, drugs and very few opportunities.

All the kids shown were black, which is hardly surprising as the neighbourhoods they were drawing from were also black. Poor inner city neighbourhoods in the States are disproportionately black. The people running the camp were not all black, although most of the junior counselors were as they were camp graduates (this is the role that Camp America recruits for) they were all volunteers and it was quite inspirational. I would be more than happy for either of my children to go and volunteer somewhere like that.

This type of camp has very little to do with the camps for rich families, although sometimes those camps will have special weeks for poorer families, often sponsored. This is generally seen as a great thing, most definitely part of Corporate Social Responsibility type work. Some may have children on bursaries at their normal camps too, but I think generally that would be more likely on camps focused on particular themes or activities. The writing camp we though about sending dd to had an application for help for example.

I believe in the UK public schools do similar things, and I've never seen anyone poor scorn on it or say that it's a terrible thing for the children involved.

American summer camps are amazing, and TOTALLY unlike anything in the UK.

The disadvantaged label would NEVER be used as a name for the camp; it is a description for potential foreign volunteers.

The very basic rustic conditions are one thing which makes the camps great- very simple living, close to nature.

The picture is unusual, as in general US publicity is much more PC than what you see over here. For instance, advertisements, kids books, etc, will always have racially balanced photographs, often absurdly, self-consciously so.

I'm American, and I think it is CRAZY to blatantly call it underprivileged camp. As someone said, Americans invented PC. I would be absolutely shocked to see anything phrased like this in the US. It would be called "Camp Ray of Light" or something like that. There is an organization that does this, specifically for city kids, and they are called the Fresh Air Fund.

This is very true. In order to understand the concept behind sons of these camps it's important to appreciate them in the context to which they have evolved. America has a huge level of philanthropy and a much stronger tradition of giving back to the community. It's highly likely that the disadvantaged camps were established by someone who came from that background and became successful and wanted to give back to their community. I agree that it is irk ably called Camp Have fun or something not camp disadvantaged.

In the Uk it would probably be sold as a camp for children from vulnerable and chaotic backgrounds, not to the children obviously, but to the potential staff, and that's absolutely right as it makes it clear what the situation is. Judge it in the context of what it is. Think about something like a Chikdren in Need Appeal. The charities they show are very clear about their aims and will quite rightly sell themselves as a charity offering funded holidays for disadvantaged children if that's what they do. Why ischia different?

When there is so so much deprivation in the US, I can't believe you are all getting pissy about a scheme that is actually doing some good! Just because you don't like the name. FFS.

Seriously parts of the US have got such extreme poverty you wouldn't think you were in one of the supposedly most developed countries in the world. And there are massive issues with race segregation which goes hand in hand with that. poor white kids in shit small towns. Poor black kids in the major cities, as a very simplistic way to look at it.

Issues aside I can't understand why children would be sent off voluntarily for the whole summer (the privileged ones) Surely one of the highlights of the summer holidays is spending time together?