Joe Clark quotes from Lean on Me (1989)

Joe Clark

All right people, here we are. This is the day. In one hour, you are going to take an exam, one administered by the state to test your basic skills, along with the quality of education here at Eastside High. And I want to tell you what the people out there are saying about you and what they think about your chances. They say that you're inferior! That you are just a bunch of **** and spics and poor white trash! Education is wasted on you! You cannot learn! You're lost! I mean all of you! I want all the white students to stand up. All my white students. Stand up. Right now. Stand up. C'mon, all my white students, stand up, stand up. That's it. C'mon, stand up...These are my white children, and they're the same as all of you! They've got no place to go. If they had, they would have abandoned us a long time ago like everybody else did. But they couldn't. So here they are at Eastside High, just like the rest of us. You can sit down. Are you getting my point, people? Is it beginning to sink in? We sink, we swim, we rise, we fall. We meet our fate together! Now, it took the help of a good, good friend to make me know and understand that. And I do understand it. And I'm grateful. I'm eternally grateful...And now, I've got a message for those people out there who've abandoned you and written you off! Can you hear me? CAN YOU HEAR ME? Good!...You are not inferior! Your grades may be. Your school may have been. But you can turn all of that around and make liars out of those bastards in exactly one hour, when you take that test and pass it and win! So here's what I want you to do: When you find your minds wandering, I want you to knuckle back down and concentrate. Concentrate! Remember what's at stake. And show them what Eastside High is all about, a spirit that will not die!

Joe Clark

They used to call me Crazy Joe. Well, now they can call me Batman!

Joe Clark

I don't have to do nothin' but stay black and die!

Joe Clark

You know what he's saying right now? "Black bastard can't throw me out!" You know where he's saying it? Out in the parking lot.

Joe Clark

I want all of you to take a good look at these people on the risers behind me. These people have been here up to five years, and done absolutely nothing. These are drug dealers and drug users. They have taken up space. They have disrupted this school. They have harassed your teachers. And they have intimidated you. Well, times are about to change. You will not be bothered in Joe Clark's school. These people are incorrigible. And since none of them could graduate anyway... [to those onstage] ...you are all expurgated. You are dismissed! You are out of here, forever. I wish you well! Mr. Wright... [after Security Dean William Wright and Eastside's new guards eject all the "problem" kids from school, Clark's audience in the decaying auditorium grows silent] Next time, it may be you. If you do no better than they did, next time, it will be you. They said this school was dead, like the cemetery it's built on. But we call our Eastside teams "Ghosts", don't we? And what are ghosts? Ghosts are spirits that rise from the dead. I want you to be my ghosts. You are going to lead our resurrection, by defying the expectation that all of us are doomed to failure. My motto is simple: If you do not succeed in life, I don't want you to blame your parents. I don't want you to blame the white man. I want you to blame yourselves. The responsibility is yours! In two weeks we have a practice exam, and the Minimum Basic Skills Test on April 13. That's 110 school days from now. But it's not just about those test scores. If you do not have these basic skills, you will find yourselves locked out. Locked out of that American dream that you see advertised on TV, that they tell you is so easy to get. You are here for one reason. One reason only: To learn. To work for what you want. The alternative is to waste your time and to fall into the trap of crime, drugs, and death. Does everyone understand that? Do all of you understand me? Then welcome to the new Eastside High.

Joe Clark

Because you are failing to educate them, this is the posture that many of our students will wind up in. Only they'll be staring down the barrel of a gun!

Joe Clark

Mr. Mayor, on behalf of myself and on behalf the students of Eastside High, you can tell the State to go to Hell!

Joe Clark

Wow... Somebody tell me why I can't get this kind of turnout for study hall!

Joe Clark

Hey, son...! [removing Sams' baseball cap] Put something in your head, not on it!

Joe Clark

You'll be dead in a year, son. Hear what I'm saying? You'll be dead in a year!

Joe Clark

They say one bad apple spoils a bunch. Well what about three hundred? Rotten to the core!

Joe Clark

Get this disgrace to his race out of here!

Joe Clark

I want all of you to look at this slovenly, sloppy boy here as an example of how not to dress. Now if you look like this when you look in your mirrors in the morning, find something else to put on. Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life. If you don't have it for yourself, you're not gonna get it from anywhere.

Joe Clark

Code 10! Code 10! This is Joe Clark! Get those chains off the doors, the enemy's here!

Joe Clark

You think you can run this school? If you could, then I wouldn't be here, would I? No one talks in my meetings. NO ONE! Take out your pencils and write. I want the names of every hoodlum, drug dealer, and miscreant who's done nothing but take this place apart on my desk by noon today. Reverend Slappy...you are now the chief custodian, Reverend Slappy. You will scour this building clean. Graffiti goes up, it's off the next day. Is that clear?... Detention students can help you. Let them scrub this place for awhile, and tear down those cages in the cafeteria. You treat them like animals, that's exactly how they'll behave! This is my new Dean of Security, Mr. William Wright. He will be my Avenging Angel, as you teachers reclaim the halls. This is an institution of learning, ladies and gentlemen. If you can't control it, HOW CAN YOU TEACH?! Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm! Mr. Zorella...Mr. Zorella, you are now my new Head Football Coach. Mr. Darnell. Stand up, Mr. Darnell. Mr. Darnell will be your assistant. You know why you're being demoted, Mr. Darnell? Because I'm sick and tired of our football team getting pushed all over the field. Thank you. Sit down. I want precision. I want a weight program. And if you don't like it, Mr. Darnell, you can quit. Same goes for the rest of ya. You tried it your way for years. And your students can't even get past the Minimum Basic Skills Test. THAT MEANS THEY CAN HARDLY READ! They've given me less than one year, one school year to turn this place around, to get those test scores up, so the state will not take us over to perform the tasks which you have failed to do! TO EDUCATE OUR CHILDREN! Forget about the way it used to be. This is not a damn democracy. We are in a state of emergency and my word is law. There's only one boss in this place, and that's me - the "HNIC." Are there any questions? Mr Wright.

"HNIC"?

Ms. Levias

The "Head **** in charge".

Dr. Frank Napier(holding the newspaper): You see this yet?

Dr. Frank Napier

You know all your shit comes down on my head.

Joe Clark

Oh Frank, look-

Dr. Frank Napier

No, let me talk. It's like you're a big bird with radar, and I'm tired of getting hit!

Joe Clark

Is this my fault?

Dr. Frank Napier

This is nothing! I've got Union Lawyers threatening me, and there's talk of a walkout.

Joe Clark

Well let 'em! They're not teaching down there anyway!

Dr. Frank Napier

Then it's your job not-

Joe Clark

None of them has a personal stake in that school Frank, not one.

Dr. Frank Napier

The Fire Chief was just here, he says it's illegal to bar those doors. Mrs. Barrett is organizing a parent's group to try to get you removed, since you insulted them at that meeting the other night when you suggested that they "get off welfare".

Joe Clark

Oh, I just-

Dr. Frank Napier

Cause the fact is quite a few of them need it.

Joe Clark

I wasn't talking to all of them, Frank. Now look, you came and recruited me, man. You disappoint me brother, you disappoint me.

Dr. Frank Napier

The disappointment here is you!

Joe Clark

Me?!

Dr. Frank Napier

Yes!

Joe Clark

Look, you know who I am. You know me 30 years, you knew what I would do! You know how I'm ready.

Dr. Frank Napier

Quiet! The fact is you're screwing up. You're alienating everybody! Look at you; you have no life, your wife left you! I oughta walk out on you myself!

Joe Clark

Well, go ahead! Bail the hell on out!

Dr. Frank Napier

But I said I would back you up!

Joe Clark

That's what you said, Frank! That's what you said!

Dr. Frank Napier

Brother, I will go through the... fire with you! But you are not taking care of business! This shit you're pulling now, is just gone plain loco! And you suspend Darnell, what the hell was that?

Joe Clark

Darnell is symptomatic of the disciplinary problems that we have in this entire-

Dr. Frank Napier

He is a good, strong, young black teacher! So, he, dumped that desk right on top of your head, well right on! Good for him! You will reinstate that man, you hear? [Clark waves his hand in acknowledgment.] And then you fire Mrs. Elliot, why?! Because she didn't want to kiss your ass, well I wouldn't either, how about that?!

Joe Clark

Mrs. Elliot has an ego problem!

Dr. Frank Napier

Yeah, well, you lost the best teacher we had. We couldn't get her back now if we wanted to.

Joe Clark

I don't have time for Mrs. Elliott's problem!

Dr. Frank Napier

You better make time!

Joe Clark

We are being crucified by a process that is turning blacks into a permanent underclass here, Frank. A permanent underclass!

Joe Clark

No-oh, see? Nobody wants to talk about that. Nobody! Mrs. Elliott's missionary zeal about Mozart has nothing to do with our problem. Nothing! What good is Mozart going to do a bunch of children who can't go out and get a job?!

Dr. Frank Napier

Joe, your personal battles are gonna cost us the war. Worry about the test scores.

Joe Clark

What the hell you think I'm worried about, Frank?!

Dr. Frank Napier

End of discussion! Debate is over; you will write a formal apology!

Joe Clark

I will what?!

Dr. Frank Napier

A formal apology! For your treatment of Mrs. Elliott and Darnell and for your vicious and thoughtless insults to the women of this community! You will kowtow, you will step and fetch!

Joe Clark

Frank, if you think-

Dr. Frank Napier

Get used to it, it's the way of the world! If you're so hot on discipline, then goddamn it... [Slams a fist on his briefcase] start by accepting mine. Because contrary to popular opinion, I'm the head **** in charge! [Savagely grabs his briefcase and heads for the door, then turns back to a speechless Clark] Come on, let's get something to eat.

Joe Clark

You really think you're bad, don't you?

Joe Clark

Now let me tell you something. The trouble of being a teenager is you don't know nothing. The problem with teenagers is you think you're smarter than people who already been down the road you're traveling. You know what I'm tryin' to say to you, boy? DO YOU?!

Thomas Sams

Yes sir.

Joe Clark

Did you tell your father I threw you out of school? [Sams, with his head down, doesn't answer] [picks Sams' head up; yells] Look at me DAMN IT!

Thomas Sams

No, sir.

Joe Clark

Why not? No guts, huh? Afraid of what he's gonna say to you, aren't ya?

Thomas Sams

My father doesn't live with us anymore, sir.

Joe Clark

Oh, is that what you're doing now? Going around, feeling sorry for yourself, boy? Huh? Go on. Get outta here! You're wasting my time!

Thomas Sams

Please let me back in, sir. I have to get back to school. I can't go home and tell my mama I got kick out of school.

Joe Clark

Now why should I let you back into my school, Sams?

Thomas Sams

'Cause I'm gonna do better, sir.

Joe Clark

How?

Thomas Sams

By doin' my work.

Joe Clark

What else?

Thomas Sams

And stayin' out of trouble.

Joe Clark

What have you been thinking about all this time? Why should I believe you now?

Thomas Sams

'Cause I've changed my ways.

Joe Clark

I don't believe you, Sams. I don't think you changed a thing. Go on, jump!

Thomas Sams

No, I don't wanna jump!

Joe Clark

Yes, you do! You smoke crack, don't ya? You smoke crack, don't ya? LOOK AT ME, BOY! Don't you smoke crack?

Thomas Sams

Y-yes, sir.

Joe Clark

You know what that does to you? Huh?

Thomas Sams

No, sir.

Joe Clark

It kill your brain cells, son. It kill your brain cells! Now when you're destroying your brain cells, your doing the same thing as killing yourself. You just doing it slower! Now, when I say if wanna kill yourself, don't **** around with it. Go on and do it expeditiously! Now go on and jump! JUMP!

Thomas Sams

No! I don't wanna kill myself, sir!

Joe Clark

You're quite sure about this, are you?

Thomas Sams

Yes, sir.

Joe Clark

All right, Sams. I'll tell you what I gonna do: I'm gonna go back on my own word just this once and let you back into my school, because you're still a baby and you don't know shit. But you understand this, boy: You're not gonna get a moment's rest. I'm gonna be on your case every minute. You mess up just once and your outta here. Now you understand me? Do you understand me?

Thomas Sams

Yes, sir.

Joe Clark

Now go on back downstairs.

I would love to chat, Mr. Clark, but I have a concert next week in New York and I would like to be prepared.

Joe Clark

What?

Prepare. You do know what that means. It means capable, ready, and up to your job.

Joe Clark

What concert, Mrs. Elliott?

The one at Lincoln Center. We do it every year.

Joe Clark

Until now. Your concert is cancelled.

What?

Joe Clark

CANCELLED! You do know what cancelled means, don't you Mrs. Elliott? Over! Finished! Terminated!

WHY? These children have worked too hard!

Joe Clark

And for not telling me for one thing!

I filed a form in your office! Why don't you talk to...

Joe Clark

And for RANK insubordination! You've questioned my judgement, my intelligence!

You're the one that comes around here to bother me! You're a bully, and a despicable man! I have nothing to say to you!

Joe Clark

Alright, let's just accommodate that, Mrs. Elliott! YOU'RE FIRED!

You need a psychiatrist!

Joe Clark

GET OUT! RIGHT NOW!

Fine, fine! Fired? Fired? YOU WILL HEAR FROM MY LAWYER! [Hits the wall]

Mr. Clark, just what was that all about?

Joe Clark

I distinctly said, "No one move, during the singing of the school song". Now, if you can't understand that, find yourself another place to work!

I was picking up a piece of paper!

Joe Clark

You're contradicting me in front of my students.

They're my students, too!

Joe Clark

They are my students, Mr. Darnell!

Just what are you trying to prove? I'm working my ass off of you, took the demotion and I'm doin' my job! You're just getting your rocks off for treating me like trash!

Joe Clark

No sir, that's what you were picking up.

Goddamn it! You give me the goddamn respect you would damn well want yourself, or I will kick your black ass!

Joe Clark

You are suspended sir, as of right now! Get out!
[Mr. Darnell yells out of frustration and upturns Mr. Clark's desk. They stare at each other briefly, then Mr. Darnell angrily storms out of the room]

Joe Clark

Let's see what you got in here.

Thomas Sams

You don't want to go in there Mr. Clark, it stinks!
[Clark grabs Sams and they go into the boys restroom]

Joe Clark

Don't talk to me about saving those kids. The mayor wants to save his budget. And you wanna save your ass!

Dr. Frank Napier

Well, so what? You want the truth?

Joe Clark

Yeah, Frank. Let's have some truth.

Dr. Frank Napier

The truth is that for all your talking, all your 'Crazy Joe' routine, what have you ever done? Nothing. You're nothing but an insignificant man. It's like you were never born. Your life hasn't made one bit of difference, and neither has mine. Wanna take that to the grave?

Thomas Sams

Hey, Mr. Clark, what did they get you for?

Ms. Levias

What's the charge? What's this all about?

It's about someone finally standing up to this man instead of taking his orders like a maid.

Ms. Levias

How dare you speak about people like that? Who do you think you are?

Joe Clark

Mrs. Barrett, if you think you can-

SHUT UP! You're finished! [holds up the tape recorder] The school board's gonna hear this at 7:00, and we're gonna vote your black ass out.

Thomas Sams

Yo, bitch! Vote on THIS! [gestures angrily]

Joe Clark

Sams, you go to class. Ms. Levias you're acting principal now. I expect you to perform as I would.

I would love to chat, Mr. Clark, but we have a concert next week in New York and I want these students to be prepared for it.

Joe Clark

You want what!?

To be prepared. That's what rehearsal is for, isn't it?

Joe Clark

What concert, Mrs. Elliott?

The one at Lincoln Center. We give it every year.

Joe Clark

Until now. Your concert is cancelled.

What?

Joe Clark

CANCELLED! You do know what cancelled means, don't you? Over! Finished! Terminated!

I can't tell Lincoln Center that! These young people have worked too hard for too long!

Joe Clark

Also for not telling me!

I filed a form in your office! Didn't you see it?

Joe Clark

AND for blatant insubordination! You've openly challenged my judgement, my competence, my intelligence!

I don't want to get into this! You barged in on me to pick a fight, not the other way around! You're a despicable bully, and I have nothing more to say to you!

Joe Clark

Alright; let's just accommodate that, Mrs. Elliott! YOU'RE FIRED!

You need a psychiatrist!

Joe Clark

GET OUT! RIGHT NOW!

Fine! Fired!? You will hear from my LAWYER! [hits the wall]