Mark Wattier, Murray State Prof, Resigns After Insulting Black Student Arlene Johnson

A Murray State University professor has resigned after allegedly making racial remarks to a black student.

Mark Wattier, a political science professor, told freshman Arlene Johnson last August that he wasn't surprised that she didn't show up on time to a film he started 15 minutes before class began.

The Murray Ledger and Times has more:

Arlene Johnson, a freshman from Sikeston, Mo., told the Ledger & Times in a telephone interview that one day in August, she came to class early to find that a film was already in progress. She said that after class, she and another student asked professor Mark Wattier why the film had started before the official start time of the class, and she said he told them that when screening films, he typically started them 10-15 minutes before class.

"We said, 'Well, we didn't know that. It wasn't on the syllabus, so we were unaware,'" Johnson said. "And then he said, 'Well, it's OK, I expect it of you guys anyway.' We asked him, 'What did that mean?' And he said the slaves never showed up on time, so their owners often lashed them for it. He just didn't have the right."

Wattier was originally suspended without pay from the university. He appealed his suspension and claimed that he was depressed. According to the Western Kentucky Star, Wattier wrote in an e-mail that he challenged the suspension so he could "express his regret" to Johnson.

Johnson, at the very least, wants an in-person apology. "I deserve that," she said.

WATCH:

Comments

[NoboyukiMasaki]

06:18 PM on 02/21/2011

I don't think that the Republican or Tea Party realizes just how disenchanted, desperate, and angry America is with their racial, social, and economic intolerance.

I am afraid that if we elect another exclusionist Republican to office, the African-American neighborhoods will probably be the first to reach critical mass.

[ALiberalKidd]

12:42 PM on 02/23/2011

"I am afraid that if we elect another exclusioni­st Republican to office, the African-Am­erican neighborho­ods will probably be the first to reach critical mass."

No, if this recession has not move African American neighborhoods to action and revolt, then nothing will. I think you are missing the fact that the critical mass has already been reached and started in earnest by Wisconsin workers.

[Joseph Scott]

05:51 PM on 02/21/2011

So that's the reason Blacks can't get ahead....they were late for racism!

Makes perfect sense.
Perfect.

(just a minute, i have to go...i threw up in my mouth a little...)

[EllaBelle18]

12:06 PM on 02/21/2011

And to think that some people say racism in America ended the day Obama won the presidency.

[Ojodelgato]

01:07 PM on 02/25/2011

I sort of thought the same thing. But as a friend of mine told me the day after, "They didn't disappear just because of an election".

[zigzag1]

12:38 AM on 02/21/2011

Like slaves should have been early to be SLAVES

[Jezebelle75]

08:08 PM on 03/20/2011

hahaha awesome!

[MyThoughts2]

10:31 PM on 02/20/2011

"Allegedly making remarks" Come on HP! The guy admitted his guilt!! He did not refute the facts as stated by the students. The fact is the students were not late according to the class schedule. The teacher started the class early. I am so glad that the students had the courage to stand up and speak out against stupidity / racism. That teacher does not belong in any classroom.

[Hnorc]

09:45 PM on 02/20/2011

Ms. Johnson, move on with life. A forced apology will not be heartfelt and you will come away feeling even emptier. This fool has resigned. Let his actions follow him.

[HawaiiShira]

09:15 PM on 02/20/2011

People think they don't have to guard their tongues anymore. After Obama became President, it seems that the seething racism that had always been lurking beneath the surface, erupted explosively on the floor of the U.S. Congress when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at President Obama. When the then-Minority leader, John Boo-hoo Boehner, did not vigorously publicly reprimand or rebuke him, it gave license to not only other conservative politicians, but people nationwide, on taking cues from their political leaders, to unleash, in untold volumes of nasty rhetoric, waiting to escape for decades, upon anyone, anywhere, anytime. It is truly ugly.

Anyone who thinks the U.S. has gone post-racial, is fooling themselves.

[Proud Progressive]

10:48 PM on 02/20/2011

What electing Barak Obama president did was scare the crap out of all the bigots who were just starting to get used to the idea that a person of color could possibly be as intelligent, and sophisticated as any person of no color. The ideals of equality were only just starting to jell in their brains when, all of a sudden, a black man was elected to be President.
White America was not ready for this, I suspect that Hillary would have had much the same problem.

[ElIngeniero]

12:59 PM on 02/21/2011

You need a good dose of Sombunal (Some But Not All).

I'm white and I voted for Obama, and I'm still glad he's in office.

[WrittenbyBene]

09:46 PM on 02/23/2011

"all the bigots who were just starting to get used to the idea that a person of color could possibly be as intelligen­t, and sophistica­ted as any person of no color."

Not "could possibly be," but are. There are people of color more intelligent and educated than some non-Blacks. Let's stop pretending intellect is based in on pigmentation. Geez.

[Joseph Scott]

05:47 PM on 02/21/2011

1) Four hundred years of slavery and racism, were not solved by a civil rights law passed only fifty years ago.
2) Find someone who wants you to believe that we shouldn't be talking about this anymore, and that America is a meritocracy that is now color blind, and I'll show you a white person. That, or if you're black and saying this, why, I can get you on television immediately, as a commentator.

The treatment of Obama is disgraceful. A shame. A blight.

That this is yet another chapter in our long troubled history of race relations in this country.

[Chicos Mom]

08:57 PM on 02/20/2011

Do you really think this was the first student that he abused?

I hope that all of the others get some vicarious satisfaction to see this happen.

[zydecoguru]

08:08 PM on 02/20/2011

Nasty...what in the heck is going on in the USA?

[LittleSanityLeft]

09:40 PM on 02/20/2011

What always has gone on in the USA. What magical period are you thinking of that would remind you of the better days?

[Joseph Scott]

05:49 PM on 02/21/2011

Well, when Glenn Beck puts on that old, black and white television set, and talks about the pure, honorable fifties with Ozzie and Harriet and the boys all in front of the t.v. and everything, and the Dad wears a tie, in the house, and the mother, an apron and pearls...well, I just say to myself he's........

........no, wait. Never mind. He's BSC.

I'll get back to you.

[zydecoguru]

10:15 AM on 02/24/2011

too funny...but l like that, but save it for the racist throwbacks, i feel what you saying.

[ROBOT8]

07:13 PM on 02/20/2011

"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of an eye: the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts."
Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, U.S. Supreme Court

[Michele Allison]

07:05 PM on 02/20/2011

It seems that the nation is moving back to the dark ages.

[southernman]

05:09 PM on 02/21/2011

We've never been that far away from the dark ages just wait we will be back there completely and we will have home court advantage

[LadyXoc]

06:57 PM on 02/20/2011

If she had been an hour late for class, it doesn't excuse a racist slur from the professor. The sad thing is, that's the way he must think.

[Lynette]

06:42 PM on 02/20/2011

They probably were late because they were thinking of ways to escape or payback--was there some sort of benefit for being on time???? I'd be brewing some sort of stew to get master--seriously how would this professor know? Was he there??? One thing about it, if he thinks it will ever get back to those days, then he'd better pray they never show up...he should do his own labor and stop dreaming of free labor, those days are over.

[MG Metiva]

06:14 PM on 02/20/2011

Being tardy is not an excuse!

[Ice woman]

06:16 PM on 02/20/2011

She wasn't late. She actually got to class early and he was already 10-15 minutes into the movie.

[gettingitright]

06:22 PM on 02/20/2011

An excuse for what?!!

[Black Guy at Cornell]

05:52 PM on 02/20/2011

Shame on the professor for being candidly racist, but casual tardiness is a very disturbing trend amongst college students. I'm going to wager that this wasn't exactly a 2-hour senior seminar either, it was probably an intro poli sci class that meets for 50 minutes at a time. Come on now.

[Allie Bernhard]

06:28 PM on 02/20/2011

did you read the article? she wasn't even late, he just started early with no warning.

[zydecoguru]

08:13 PM on 02/20/2011

ok, is this person comparing "casual tardiness" with overt racism?