Black Man Removed From School District's CRT Event Speaks Out

A Black man who was removed from a California school district's public workshop on critical race theory (CRT) after a woman told him to leave the country has told Newsweek about his experience.

Deon Hairston, a teacher and pastor, can be heard in a video posted on Twitter, telling the Temecula Valley Unified School District's governing board how he felt about their recent decision to ban CRT in schools.

CRT is an academic framework developed by legal scholars that examines America's history through the lens of racism. However, it has become a catch-all used by conservatives to describe concepts that they find objectionable.

"It is asinine to ban CRT when it isn't even taught in any K through 12 classroom in the United States of America," Hairston said at the event. "Your continued blatant, willful ignorance of the Black experience in this country is not only shameful but also detrimental to the education and growth of our children."

As Hairston returned to his seat, a white woman told him to leave the country.

Hairston told Newsweek that he loudly repeated her comment so the board could "hear the vitriol and the language that I was getting for simply having comments." But board president Joseph Komrosky gave Hairston a warning and said he would be asked to leave if given another. When Hairston began talking about his family's history—they arrived as slaves in August 1619—the board president asked for him to be escorted from the building.

Komrosky declined to comment when contacted by Newsweek, but pointed to a statement posted online.

"During the meeting, three audience members were removed for disrupting the meeting and/or making inappropriate personal comments toward another audience member," the statement from Komrosky and board clerk Jen Wiersma read.

"The race of these individuals was irrelevant to the removal decision, just as any other personal attribute of either individual would also be completely irrelevant."

"The officers took me outside, and they asked me what happened and I explained to them why I was upset," Hairston said, adding that Komrosky's decision to remove him was "absurd."

The woman was asked to leave after Hairston was removed, board member Steven Schwartz previously told Newsweek.

Hairston said her comment was "a blatant racist response and disregard of me as a person and my historical context."

"It's hurtful, violent, and dehumanizing, and it speaks volumes about the state of her mind," Hairston added. "It's a textbook gaslighting comment... that's a historical thing that racist white people have said to people of color in this country as if we came here as immigrants. That woman needs to be held accountable."

Hairston said one member of the workshop's panel had described him as a "pro-1619 commenter." However, he added he was not speaking about The New York Times' The 1619 Project but his own family's history. That is documented in a book, The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, by historian Henry Wiencek.

"The context of my family is that we've been here under slavery and affliction with this country for over 400 years," Hairston said.

"We didn't come here as immigrants. We came here as slaves. We were forced here. We were stolen off the west coast of Africa," Hairston added. "And so, for me for somebody to tells me [to leave the country] that just really negates my family's experience. And a lot of times, we find out that my family predate a lot of these racist people who are telling me to leave my country."

Hairston said he appreciated the crowd rallying around him and calling for the woman's removal, as well as board member Allison Barclay. "She actually stood for justice on that point," he explained.

The crowd who chanted for the woman's removal were being "responsible American citizens," Hairston added. "They were saying, at that moment, racism is not OK. In our country, in our city, in this board, it's not OK. And I appreciate it."

Hairston said he stood by the comments he made at Wednesday's event. "I want to have my voice heard within this community," Hairston added that he and his wife are considering buying a home and starting a family in the area. "I know kids who are in this school district, I care about the education that they get."

He added that Christopher Arend, who was hired by the board for $15,000 to conduct a workshop on CRT for teachers and others, said that there was no evidence it had ever been taught in Temecula schools.

Hairston called the board's resolution to ban it a preemptive measure to ensure it never is, according to The Press-Enterprise.

Meanwhile, a teacher told the newspaper that many who attended a session hosted by Arend early last week left with unanswered questions.

"I find it concerning that their head expert, Chris Arend, failed to provide clear and credible sources that support his claims during the workshop," Hairston said. "How can he be considered an expert if he can't even answer basic questions about the subject he was hired to teach?"

Newsweek has contacted Arend for comment via the school board.

Hairston added: "We, as Black Americans, are perfectly capable of relaying our own experiences and perspectives. Historically speaking, white people have not been appropriate judges of the existence of systemic racism and discrimination, what it entails, or how it impacts Black lives and the Black experience."