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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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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Actions have consequences. Move to San Francisco.


41 posted on 12/06/2021 4:42:23 PM PST by jmaroneps37
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

So I guess his “white privilege” didn’t do him any good.


42 posted on 12/06/2021 4:43:16 PM PST by Dad was my hero (Let’s go Brandon!!!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s a long article but I took the time to read it. He was warned repeatedly not to present his opinion as fact and that he had to present both sides when discussing a controversial subject.

In regards to his appeal, it states the following:
_____

Hawn wrote a letter to school officials begging them to reconsider.

He now realized, he wrote, that his discussions of White privilege “would be more appropriate for a college level . . . course” and promised to expose his students to “varying points of views.”

It did not work. In June, the school board voted 6 to 1 to uphold his termination.

______

He had plenty of warnings but decided to ignore them until he was fired. Only then did he admit he had ignored the warnings and continued to present his leftist views as fact, and maybe he should present “varying points of view”. Well, sucks to be him, but he had several chances but decided the rules didn’t apply to him.


43 posted on 12/06/2021 4:44:03 PM PST by CFW
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To: irishjuggler

I warned my daughter before sending her off (also to a large UC campus) that challenging her liberal professors was a recipe for rejection from the better grad school programs.


44 posted on 12/06/2021 4:44:53 PM PST by ETCM
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Teaching white privilege is akin to teaching flat earth theory. Good riddance.


45 posted on 12/06/2021 4:47:21 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: NohSpinZone

I’d wager that he’d be willing to travel great distances to visit a really special bath house.


46 posted on 12/06/2021 5:06:00 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Covid Is All About Mail In Balloting)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Teaching children to hate themselves because of their skin color will get you fired.


47 posted on 12/06/2021 5:11:04 PM PST by throwthebumsout
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Matthew Hawn... Liberal Dick.

May the rest of his life be a living hell.


48 posted on 12/06/2021 5:16:22 PM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
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To: glorgau

A friend of mine from my California high school/college days lives there now. Sounds like a nice town.


49 posted on 12/06/2021 5:16:29 PM PST by Prince of Space ( Let’s go, Brandon! )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Sounds like Teacher has a real White Savior Complex.


50 posted on 12/06/2021 5:18:37 PM PST by x
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“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.”

As we all know, liberals are free to spew their opinions and conservatives never, ever say boo. This liberal admits he did that for at least 16 years.

Then he got caught teaching his opinion “as fact.” He went too far.

A man’s got to know his limitations.


51 posted on 12/06/2021 5:19:04 PM PST by jeffersondem
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Good

Its pure bs


52 posted on 12/06/2021 5:20:19 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: rigelkentaurus

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.


EXACTLY.

I have zero sympathy for this loser. He is what is wrong with society today and that he tried to teach his lunacy in conservative TN shows what a moron he is. Screw him. Glad he lost his job.


53 posted on 12/06/2021 5:30:00 PM PST by hillarys cankles
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Robinette remembers a similar moment during an argument about fiscal policy, when Hawn explained that Tennessee's high sales tax led some in his family to do their grocery shopping just over the border in Virginia, where groceries are taxed less because the state also taxes income. Robinette, still a fervent Republican who voted for Trump in 2020, said that was the first time he considered there might be drawbacks to Tennessee's disdain for an income tax.

Sounds like those people have the best of both worlds.

54 posted on 12/06/2021 5:33:50 PM PST by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
especially after the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville

All the Brandon Media needs is ONE body...

55 posted on 12/06/2021 5:48:41 PM PST by kiryandil (China Joe and Paycheck Hunter - the Chink in America's defenses)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Yea, white kid in the trailer park with a methed out mom and no dad, he’s got privilege just because he’s caucasian...

This guys an idiot and should have been fired a long time ago.


56 posted on 12/06/2021 5:52:03 PM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Apparently his white privilege expired.


57 posted on 12/06/2021 5:53:33 PM PST by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I’m mostly-White* and 54. If I were really privileged, I’d have a fat retirement account, a wife, and some kids by now. But I deal with the slings and arrows of life like most other people.

*1/16 to 3/16 American Indian, depending on who’s telling the tale.


58 posted on 12/06/2021 5:55:41 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Reading, writing andvracism???


59 posted on 12/06/2021 6:05:42 PM PST by South Dakota (Patriotism is the new terrorism )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Haha! This whiny white teacher benefited from white privilege by getting a job in a white school, instead of being this guy. I wonder why this whining leftist isn’t living his values.
60 posted on 12/06/2021 6:18:32 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (When your business model depends on slave labor, you're always going to need more slaves)
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