A local chapter of Black Lives Matter has seemingly threatened to harass Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse over his continued membership to an allegedly “all-white” private country club.
“We’ll go to his club, we’ll go to his office, we’ll go to his home — wherever we need to go,” BLM chapter director Mark Fisher told WLNE on Wednesday, referencing Whitehouse’s membership at the Newport-based Bailey’s Beach Club.
According to the well-known BLM member, the senator has until next Friday to cancel his membership or resign from office before the group will follow through with the promised action.
“This is an issue that’s not going to go away, and Sen. Whitehouse needs to address it. He needs to take it on,” Fisher continued.
The Rhode Island chapter of Black Lives Matter has clashed before with Whitehouse over his membership, previously saying it was “ashamed” of him.
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“I am ashamed of Senator Whitehouse and his affiliation with this racist club,” Gary Dantzler, another executive director of Black Lives Matter Rhode Island, said last month. “Him coming out and speaking about ending systemic racism while belonging to a ‘whites only’ private club is hypocrisy as it worst.”
The initial comment prompted Whitehouse to defend his membership, citing his family’s decadeslong tradition and saying that Bailey’s Beach Club was “working on” adding diversity.
“It’s a long tradition in Rhode Island, and there are many of them, and I think we just need to work our way through the issues, thank you,” Whitehouse said at the time.
He added, “I think the people who are running the place are still working on that, and I’m sorry it hasn’t happened yet.”
Both the senator and the private club have since contested the “inaccurate and false” claim that its membership was “all-white.”
“Over many years, Club members and their families have included people of many racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds,” the club told the Providence Journal shortly after the initial controversy sparked last month.
“Recent characterizations in the press and in other commentary about Baileys Beach Club are inaccurate and false. Over many years, Club members and their families have included people of many racial, religious, and ethnic backgrounds from around the world who come to Newport every summer. Our membership comes from all over the globe to our small club and we welcome the diversity of view and background they bring to our community,” the club said.
Whitehouse similarly said his critics “got the facts wrong” and insisted that the club informed him it has “diversity of membership.”
Whitehouse’s defense was not enough to assuage the BLM chapter, however.
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“If he thinks we’re just going to forget about it, if he thinks that it’s going to get swept under the rug — it’s not,” Fisher said to WLNE. “It doesn’t matter, you know, what type of black people he brings in.”
“This club is a proven racist club with exclusive ties to supremacy and exclusion, and that’s something that’s not gonna be tolerated by me, by my associates, my affiliates, or my organization,” he concluded.
