A sample of Facebook comments made by former Crestwood School Board member Robert Derwin about Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Robert Derwin has no business making decisions that influence the education of children.
Thankfully his brief tenure as a member of the Crestwood School Board has come to an end, but the scandal that led up to his resignation Wednesday night underscores the ugly divisions in our community and our country.
To recap:
As we reported earlier this week, the NAACP Wilkes-Barre Branch called on Derwin to resign from the Crestwood School Board in light of revelations that he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as a “whore,” a “Black whore” and a “pig” in social media posts.
Derwin never denied what he wrote. In fact, he doubled down on those remarks in interviews with the Times Leader and other media outlets.
Derwin told us on Wednesday that he regretted “bringing race into it,” and that “if I’ve offended the Black community, I apologize. I don’t think it was racist. It wasn’t meant to be racist.” But he also stuck to his guns about calling Harris a whore, engaging in some impressive linguistic gymnastics to defend his indefensible comments.
“There’s more than one definition to whore,” he said. “It’s a scandalous person. I could call Joe Biden a whore. No one ever asked me how I mean it.”
Really, Bob?
That sounds ridiculous on its face, but even more so when you consider what Derwin has had to say on social media and in other interviews.
Derwin was quoted in another local news outlet Wednesday saying he didn’t regret calling Harris a whore because that’s how she “got where she got.”
We looked at his Facebook page on Wednesday evening after that story was posted. While some of the earlier posts about Harris were no longer visible, there was one from June 14, 2021, which shows a picture of Harris appearing to poke her tongue into the side of her cheek, under the caption: “Kamala, what do you attribute your success to?”
The implication — just to make it clear, since we aren’t sharing the photo — appears to be that Harris succeeded thanks to performing oral sex. We believe that’s how an adult of average intelligence would interpret the meme.
That would be consistent with what Derwin had previously written in posts seen by the Times Leader before being removed, as cited above.
Again, Derwin isn’t denying he posted these things. He may play games over what he considers the definition of a whore, but he’s also made it crystal clear that he believes Kamala Harris is one.
We suspect there are few rational adults in this country who don’t recognize the intent of a man calling a powerful woman a whore, and specifying her race in the process. Some commenters made sure to let us know they agreed with Derwin, so let’s not pretend it wasn’t obvious what he meant.
Likewise, other commenters saw through Derwin’s lame response and said so, one calling it “bullcrap.” We agree 100% with that lady’s assessment, and what the NAACP wrote in their recent statement:
“Freedom of speech and opinion is something we all hold dear, but when it is abused by a public official to express an opinion that reflects poorly on the community and institution they represent it needs to be called out and appropriate action must take place. We believe that Mr. Derwin should resign for these scurrilous comments.”
He did, and that was the right move. But it’s deeply unfortunate Derwin ever became a board member in the first place. He ran last year and came in sixth in a race for five seats. Translation: He lost.
When board member Randy Swank resigned late last year, the board voted to appoint Derwin to complete Swank’s term through 2025. So while the process was certainly fair — the next candidate in terms of votes was appointed — it’s worth noting that Derwin was never the choice of most voters.
Even if he were, however, Derwin’s remarks are beneath the dignity of the position. He has not shown himself to be the caliber of person qualified for a school board. Known for its excellence in academics and athletics, Crestwood is a well-respected district that counts many distinguished and accomplished individuals among its graduates, including a NASA astronaut. The community, the students, and Crestwood’s many alumni deserve better.
— Times Leader