teacher's t-shirt makes me deeply uncomfortable...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I want to be clear that I'm not trying to "cancel" anyone. I Googled the teacher before school began and it seems that they are outspoken about social justice in general. Great - no problem. Richard Medhurst has a vast Internet presence, so I doubt the teacher is getting their news from RT. I'd just like to know if they happened upon one or two Medhurst pocasts/shows/articles that spoke to their particular values and bought the t-shirt, or if they actually subscribe to his his whole suite of beliefs. Because Medhurst is a propagandist - and also, apparently, an accused abuser of women and groomer of underage girls.
https://medium.com/@precious_sheen_dog_960/richard-medhurst-another-cog-in-the-pedo-to-political-journalist-pipeline-17e6af3be867

In the good old days (like maybe 2009), the shirt would have served to start a conversation between the teacher and parent and, in turn, resulted in both being better informed about the world they live in and those that inhabit it and made them both better people. Now, anything anyone says, does, wears is just grist for calls to summon the cyber-hordes and ruin the lives of those with which we might potentially disagree about something. Please, have a chat with the teacher. Inevitably, you will find out you have much more in common with them than you possibly could have imagined.

OP here. This would be my hope, if I was to bring it up - with the teacher, not the school administrator. I had no intention of speaking to anyone's boss. I have only met the teacher a couple of times at this point but I like them well enough and their experience suggests that they are a good educator.

My concern is that Richard Medhurst seems to be sort of an Alex Jones-type figure, and I would definitely be concerned if my kid's teacher showed up in an Alex Jones shirt. To me, that's literally wearing an ideology on your sleeve. I would question the teacher's judgment.

I have no problem with teachers wearing whatever they want within reason, but I’d be upset if my kid’s teacher was rocking an RM shirt. That shows awful judgement, which will inevitably show up in the classroom. I guess I’d be happy they wore the shirt so I had a head’s up…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Medhurst goes on RT, the Russian propaganda network.

He’s a fraud and a liar and if your kid is being taught by this person I’d be upset.
Just shows incredibly poor judgement and unawareness of the world.

(Ps I think it’s ok to criticize Israel. This guy is a propagandist.)

OP This.

Please talk with your principal. Unacceptable for a teacher to wear that. And I am not an alarmist and believe everyone has a right to wear that shirt. However not a work shirt and the teacher is at work.

[Anonymous]

Would you think it’s ok for parents to complain about a teacher wearing a “black lives matter” t-shirt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a shirt for the podcast or YouTube channel or something of Richard Medhurst.

OP here - this was me. Richard Medhurst. He's not a real journalist.

Sorry, I really don't see what the issue is. People are allowed to support Palestine. Including your child's teacher.

Hmmm... I don't really have an opinion on what OP's kid's teacher wears, but I think it's important to draw some distinctions here.

1. Support for Palestine is not anti-Semitic. BDS is not anti-Semitic. Criticism of Israeli policy (or even the Zionist colonialist project of founding a state populated largely by Europeans in Palestine by displacing indigenous inhabitants) is not anti-Semitic.

2. Some criticism of Israel is motivated by anti-Semitism, but by no means all. Some anti-Semites are even pro-Israel (I don't understand it, but I've experienced this).

3. At this point Israel is an extremely corrupt state willing to deal with lots of unsavory people, spy on allies and commit shocking attrocities. It is exactly most Arab states and all superpowers in that regard. There is a lot to criticize about Israel.

4. Russia and China have large-scale and sophisticated disinformation campaigns that include funding and supporting both anti-Semites and critics of Israel (as well as Nazis, the Klan, Q-anon, anti-Vaxxers and all sorts of other kooks and scum).

5. Richard Medhurst seems to be a more extreme Glenn Greenwald-style Russian/Syrian stooge. I would not want my kid trying to learn anything from someone touting his brand of extremism. Although many of the things he says are true, his ideological framework is clearly in the idealogue/stooge category.

Some people who support BDS are antisemitic. Believing that Israel is a "Zionist colonialist project of founding a state populated largely by Europeans in Palestine by displacing indigenous inhabitants" is ahistorical, antisemitic, and racist - given that you are denying that majority of Jews in Israel are brown and indigenous. Plenty to criticize about Israel, the US, China, etc. (yourself, obvi)- but you don't need to wrap yourself in Jew-hatred in order to criticize.

[jsteele]

I am going to lock this thread since posters insist on fighting the Israel-Palestine conflict. I will note that the shirt (at least as described) said nothing about Israel or Palestine and the journalist in question holds controversial views on many topics. But, discussions of the conflict should be posted in the appropriate forum.