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A White teacher taught White students about White privilege. It cost him his job.
The Washington Post via SF Gate ^ | December 6, 2021 | By Hannah Natanson , The Washington Post

Posted on 12/06/2021 3:51:14 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer

KINGSPORT, Tenn. - Matthew Hawn checked his phone to see if the wait was finally over.

It had been five months since he was fired for teaching about White privilege at a high school in rural Tennessee. Two months since he had fought to regain his job at an emotional three-day hearing, becoming a symbol of the acrimonious debate over the way race, racism and history should be taught in America's schools.

A lifelong resident of Kingsport, Hawn was well aware his liberal views made him an outlier in his overwhelmingly White, mostly conservative community. But that had never mattered before. He had taught in the Sullivan County school system for 16 years without any trouble. And he had taught the class that got him fired, "Contemporary Issues," for nearly a decade without a single parent complaint.

Then at the start of last school year, he made a pronouncement during a discussion about police shootings that would derail his career. White privilege, he told his nearly all-White class, is "a fact."

His firing comes amid a tsunami of conservative outrage about critical race theory, an academic framework for examining systemic racism in the United States that educators contend is rarely taught in public schools.

Hawn said he'd never heard of critical race theory until he was accused of teaching it.

Hawn discovered the concept of White privilege during President Barack Obama's tenure, he said, and began mentioning it in class.

He always presented White privilege as an incontestable truth, although he said he urged students to do their own research and challenge him if they disagreed.

His classes began focusing more on race during the Trump years, especially after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 and Floyd's murder three years later.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: District of Columbia; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: bidenvoters; brandonmedia; california; criticalracetheory; crt; districtofcolumbia; hannahnatanson; indoctrination; jeffbezos; kingsport; matthewhawn; mediawingofthednc; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; race; schools; sullivancounty; systemicracism; tennessee; thebrandonmedia; washingsnotpest; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost; whiteprivilege
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1 posted on 12/06/2021 3:51:14 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Oh, gee whiz. Not this stuff again.


2 posted on 12/06/2021 3:52:10 PM PST by oldplayer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Better to stick to the subject you are paid to teach. Keep extraneous comments to yourself. You avoid trouble that way. You are hired to teach. Not start a political movement.


3 posted on 12/06/2021 3:53:11 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: Oldeconomybuyer
Hawn said he'd never heard of critical race theory until he was accused of teaching it.

So... he is a liar along with everything else.

5 posted on 12/06/2021 3:53:45 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (add a dab of lavender in milk, leave town with an orange and pretend you're laughing with it)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Now a black teacher teaching about BLM and black racism would be okay.


6 posted on 12/06/2021 3:53:53 PM PST by SkyDancer ( I make airplanes fly, what's your super power?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Teach the course material and leave your politics at home.


7 posted on 12/06/2021 3:54:20 PM PST by Petrosius
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Should have his White Privilege covered tongue cut out as well


8 posted on 12/06/2021 3:54:44 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I’m long past ready for the modern day Dims to quit feeling guilty about their party’s past centuries of slavery and segregation.


9 posted on 12/06/2021 3:55:40 PM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Are White Men Gods? (II): Getting the Facts Straight
https://web.archive.org/web/20170209104939/http://fredoneverything.org/are-white-men-gods-ii-getting-the-facts-straight/


10 posted on 12/06/2021 3:55:40 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“...he urged students to do their own research and challenge him if they disagreed.”

I’m sure he anyone who disagreed with him an A+ for showing independent thought and research.


11 posted on 12/06/2021 3:55:49 PM PST by euram
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I hope this article was not designed to create sympathy for this nut, because it didn’t. This maroon should not be allowed within 1000 ft of minors as he seeks to indoctrinate in Marxism and not transfer actual age appropriate knowledge in science, mathematics, language, shop, or even literature, and skills like critical thinking.


12 posted on 12/06/2021 3:57:25 PM PST by rigelkentaurus
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I fully understand how teaching white privilege won’t fly in Sullivan County.


13 posted on 12/06/2021 3:57:28 PM PST by Rebelbase ( State Dept. Havana Syndrome victims: Guinea pigs of 5G/graphene oxide vax experiments?)
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To: EEGator

Glad they canned the $%#@. Hope he moves to Detroit or Chicago to put his liberalism into practice. If he does, he has a good chance of being shot by a black male...


14 posted on 12/06/2021 3:57:36 PM PST by Mr Rogers (We're a nation of feelings, not thoughts.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“Hawn said he’d never heard of critical race theory until he was accused of teaching it.”

Typical Marxist game.

It could in fact be true that he never heard it called CRT. Many people of all stripes are unaware of the roots of the lies they spew. But it’s still racist nonsense.


15 posted on 12/06/2021 3:59:12 PM PST by Stravinsky
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To: EEGator

The odds are in his favor.


16 posted on 12/06/2021 3:59:20 PM PST by Trillian
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“He always presented White privilege as an incontestable truth, “

Idiot.


17 posted on 12/06/2021 4:00:23 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up....)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Parents need to chase these idiots out of the schools WE PAY for. Chase them out of town next.


18 posted on 12/06/2021 4:02:49 PM PST by wgmalabama (We will find out if the Vac or virus risk was the correct choice - can we put truth above narrativel)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Even looks like that turd Rick Wilson


19 posted on 12/06/2021 4:03:00 PM PST by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: EEGator

Unlikely. Kingsport is now about 92% white, 3% black. Back in the mid-80s it was still a sundown town.


20 posted on 12/06/2021 4:04:22 PM PST by CatHerd (If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?)
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