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

[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.

[SaraJohnson]

Leftists can’t debate.

[joma89]

Good news story of the day.

[Blue Collar Christian]

Suck it up Buttercup.

I’m sure there are plenty of schools in blue states that would hire just such a dink.

[DazedVet]

I won’t tell my wife about this because she would bust a blood vessel. My wife from Hazard County Kentucky not all that far from this school district. Family lived on government cheese and powered milk. She never had a “store bought dress” until age 18 when she got a job. She finished college at age 38 after kids were in high school. Tough times make tough people and her Whiteness didn’t matter her determination made her a successful person.

[BradyLS]

If only they did feel guilty. No, they deflect and project and blame everyone else.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

I’m still waiting for my “white privilege.”

[FLT-bird]

Good. Children should not be taught racism in school. CRT is racism. So-called “anti-racism” is itself racism.

[ladyjane]

Parents need to chase these idiots out of the schools

Taxpayers and parents need to shut the public school down. The NEA has destroyed the school system.

The constitution left the education of our children to the states. The federal government, with the NEA and the AFT, have tried to control it with money. Our public school system is politically rotten. It needs to be shut down.

[NWFree]

Dumb libtard pushes racism and gets fired 🤪

Boo hoo

[Republican Wildcat]

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."

Definitely should have been fired.

He's far from the only one.

[ronnie raygun]

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,

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.

(an emotional 3 days all we need to know about this puke

[EBH]

over 20 years ago when I went back to college, one requirement was to take a civics course. Which I was fine with as I perceived going into the course it would be an easy A. It was taught by an uber-liberal guy using his own book! Needless to say during discussion sessions he did not like me very much.