As far as we can tell, Joel Poor, an associate professor of marketing, hasn’t been fired by the University of Missouri, but he has been relieved of his teaching duties after joking about putting on a mask after learning one of his (virtual) students was from Wuhan, China. KSDK reports that “Poor later apologized in an email and said the reference was meant as a joke. But many students replied to the tweet that they found the comment racist and xenophobic.”
Here’s the shocking moment caught on video:
@Mizzou, fire professor Joel Poor for his racist and xenophobic comments that he delivered to his Marketing 3000 class today. pic.twitter.com/GcKnV6drX7
— #StillConcerned (@MIZ_ISC_2020) August 24, 2020
We have submitted this video to the Office for Civil Rights and Title IX.
— Mizzou (@Mizzou) August 24, 2020
Submit the FULL video, at least. Context matters.
— Locked On Mizzou Podcast (@LockedOnMizzou) August 25, 2020
I know the guy who was on the other end of this and he is from Wuhan, China. He has told me he was not offended and he thought the professor was just joking with him. This is a modified video that makes this professor look bad. You're trying to ruin man's career to feel virtuous
— Nathan Etheridge (@NEther1dge) August 24, 2020
This barely registers on the Richter scale. Come on.
— Ire (@Its_Ire) August 24, 2020
Best professor I ever had at Mizzou. Y’all are so soft
— Jalen (@JalenM5) August 25, 2020
This society is soft
— Domo (@DomoAir) August 25, 2020
From what I can see, he didn’t mean to be harmful with what he said, seems unfair to me.
— Duello (@Duello16) August 25, 2020
Let the man teach
— Dan Connors (@RealDanConnors) August 25, 2020
It’s absolutely ridiculous that this is where we are now as a society. This shouldn’t even be a story. This man is one of the nicest and best professors at Mizzou. Truly pathetic but predictable unfortunately
— Jay Mosley (@J_Mosley4) August 25, 2020
Fired for a dad joke is pretty peak 2020 imo
— shua (@joshilles1) August 25, 2020
For making a dad joke about the literal epicenter of the pandemic? He didn’t generalize and make those comments after the student revealed that he was from China (which would be a very different story)
— Jake Watkins (@jakewatkins19) August 24, 2020
Cancel culture. No one can joke about anything anymore. Sad. I always loved humor in the classroom.
— My B Leaf (@mybleaf_) August 25, 2020
Come on. Obviously the prof was goofing.
— Ruff $h€nan!gan$ (@RuffShenanigans) August 25, 2020
Mizzou I hope you guys stretched before you reached this far.
— jaimercie (@jaimercie) August 25, 2020
Everyone needs to calm down. It’s a joke.
— Matthews (@CMatthews55) August 25, 2020
I missed it. Where was the racist and xenophobic part
— Erik Papke (@papesquire) August 25, 2020
I had this teacher for the same class and he jokes like this with everyone about everything. If you sit in one of his lectures for 10 minutes you’d see it… this was blown out of proportion…
— ashtonkomo94 (@ashtonkomo94) August 25, 2020
Snowflake generation at it’s finest
— Madeline Imig (@Mimig899) August 25, 2020
He offered a place in his home for the student! Cancel culture is wrong for this one.
— Nick O (@CNick_Ogle) August 25, 2020
Watch the entire video @Mizzou you shouldn’t have acted before getting all the information #freejoelpoor pic.twitter.com/m0pOnwlWAN
— Hunterlarr (@HazeFlave) August 25, 2020
The school isn’t saying what they plan to do with Poor because it’s a personnel matter.
Related:
Priorities: Kamala Harris wants to make it officially bad to use terms like 'Chinese virus,' 'Wuhan virus,' and 'Kung-flu' when referring to COVID19 https://t.co/FEkVfUX44I
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 20, 2020
Join the conversation as a VIP Member