MovieChat Forums > Lean on Me (1989) Discussion > Was Joe Clark a Little Racist?

Was Joe Clark a Little Racist?

posted 15 years ago by Lakemystery3
26 replies | jump to latest

He fired Mrs. Elliott (a white teacher) for being insubordinant. But when Mr. Darnell (a black teacher) threatened him with physical violence and dumped his desk over, Clark mearely suspended him. Is insubordination somehow worse than the threat of physical violence?

I've seen people on almost every movie board asking if the movie is racist, and I swore to myself I'd never do that. But this one kind of has me confused. It seems that Clark was playing favorites. Even Dr. Napier didn't stick up for Mrs. Elliott the way he did for Mr. Darnell. Dr. Napier says, "He is a good, young, strong black teacher." Why the double standard?

_______
"She flattened a Dear John with a John Deere." - Douglas Wambaugh

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] stevenackerman69 13 years ago

She wasn't a smartass. I think Clark just didn't care for her. Personally, I thought she looked really good. She and Mrs. Santos.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] RobSac 13 years ago

Drop the race card, will ya? The teacher was insubordinate. End of story. She was punished for her poor choice. Don't give me this, "well the black teacher wasn't fired" blah blah blah. Excuses, excuses. Accountability.

[–] Lakemystery3 13 years ago

I fully admitted that the white teacher was insubordinate. My question was - Is being suborndinate somehow worse than violent? The black teacher threatened to "Kick your black ass!" then dumped the desk over. That's an act of violence. I would think that violence is worse than insubordinate.

_______
"Guess who's got a date with a prostitute!" - Richard Castle

[–] RobSac 13 years ago

DROP THE RACE CARD! Race mongers like you are exactly what's wrong with this country. Who cares what happened to the black person vs. what happened to the white person, etc. Let her face the consequences of her actions, and STOP BRINGING RACE INTO IT! Got it?

[–] DuJen 8 years ago

Or is it about gender? The woman got fired, but the man was rehired. He said some things to the pregnant girl about girls getting pregnant and didn't even take the boys into account. The way he treated the assistant principal was horrible, etc. I see a lot of gender bias in his actions.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 2 years ago

Mrs. Elliot was a bitch though. I found myself hating her a lot more than Mr. Darnell.