Asshole of the Week

This is a big week for bad behavior and well deserved bad press. As reported approximately, absolutely, everywhere, sixty-five children were booted from the pool at the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley for the terrible crime of skin pigmentation. As they jumped into the pool, white children were called out of the pool by their Jim Crow throwback parents. One camper, Dymire Baylor, overheard one woman say, "Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child."

The very next day, club president John Duesler informed camp director Alethea Wright that the children would no longer be able to swim at the club, and that their $1,950 check for weekly, hour and a half swim privileges was being refunded. And that race had absolutely nothing to do with it. Of course, his public statement that "There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion... and the atmosphere of the club," suggests otherwise. But, in an interesting addition to the story, it seems that this John Duesler may be the same Dr. John Duesler, Jr. of an Obama-inauguration-themed blood drive organized by the local O-Positive Program. What a mess.

No matter Duesler's personal views on the events, he facilitated the entirely illegal and disgusting discrimination against the children of our city. We'd like to encourage the strange internet commenters, the Stormfronters, and the swimming-pool denying Neanderthals to take a look around them. You are the minority. You are going to lose.

Already, the children have been offered a new refuge from the heat and the hate at Girard College's indoor pool and Senator Arlen Specter himself has got their back. "The allegations against the swim club as they are reported are extremely disturbing," Specter said in a statement. "I am reaching out to the parties involved to ascertain the facts. Racial discrimination has no place in America today."

Image credit: Flickr user ŭn-sŭng