(2 of 3)
Discrimination against Hispanics is less sweeping but nonetheless apparent. In a 1990 survey of 20 courses on the pro-golfing circuit, nine said they had Hispanics as members; one declared it had none. The other 10 courses did not respond on the issue. Says Rudy Berumen, a Tempe, Ariz., member of the Mexican-American Golf Association: "It's not that easy for a Hispanic to join some clubs around here. But it would be tougher for a black, unless he was a Governor or Senator."
For women, who were 50% of the sport's new recreational players last year, forms of clubhouse discrimination vary. They may be denied membership or admitted only as associates of their husbands. They may be excluded from certain dining rooms and bars or get lower priority for desirable weekend- morning tee times. Last year Marcia Welch charged Pittsburgh's Wildwood Country Club with most of these indignities. The crowning insult was that the club, which she joined while married, told her to reapply and pay a new membership fee after her divorce. Even female pro players can be snubbed on the job until the tour's antibias rules take effect next year. The L.P.G.A. tourney July 5 to 7 was at Highland Meadows in Sylvania, Ohio, where women are not voting members.
Veteran pro Tom Watson, whose wife and children are Jewish, resigned from the Kansas City Country Club last year after it blackballed accounting mogul Henry Bloch, a Jew. Although the club changed its mind about Bloch, Watson did not rejoin. In a New York Times column last month, he decried the "hypocrisy" of admitting a single black to "integrate" and urged, "Let's discriminate right now, each one of us, privately, between what is right and what is wrong."
The wrongs seem obvious. The highly visible act of excluding people from prominent community institutions based on skin color serves as a powerful and disturbing symbol that racism is considered tolerable in the nation's top social echelons -- just as excluding women and Jews sends a message that sexism and anti-Semitism should still be considered permissible. In addition, in almost all cases, the private clubs bring together a community's business, professional and political elites and thus perpetuate patterns of unequal opportunity.
The clubs' excuse is that the very essence of privacy is freedom of association. Most Americans accept that discrimination is wrong when it comes to work, school or government services but are queasy about social intrusions. And many all-white clubs do not see themselves as consciously discriminatory. Aronimink said it had not excluded blacks -- none had sought admission. New members are proposed by old members, who naturally choose relatives, friends and neighbors, reinforcing the circle of privilege. The web tightens if a club has a waiting list. Promptly admitting minority members would mean jumping them ahead of others who have patiently stayed in line.