Arizona Principal Demands Mural Be Repainted With Lighter Skinned Children

Recently, artists commissioned to paint a mural that featured children using different methods of green transportation did something radical. The artists, who used actual students from the Prescott, Arizona, elementary school where the mural is featured as models, dared to paint them in their actual skin color, not all of them being white. Shocking. I mean, we are living in pre-Civil Rights America and it’s an outrage to depict anything on a wall that doesn’t feature a row of gleaming, white faces, right?

Jeff Lane, the Principal of the school, seems to think so. Last week, he asked the artists to repaint the mural so that the faces appeared lighter.

It all began with Councilman Steve Blair, who felt taunted by the face of a happy non-white child working towards a greener community, and made his thoughts known on his AM radio talk show.

"I am not a racist individual," he declared. "But I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who's President of the United States today and based upon the history of this community, when I grew up we had four black families — who I have been very good friends with for years — to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, 'Why?'"

“Black guy” here actually refers to the depiction of a Mexican American student at the school. But black, brown, kind of beige … the point is that it wasn’t a white face. Why? Steve Blair, non-racist, wanted to know. Why would you have to paint students from the school in their actual skin color instead of in shades of white?

"The focus doesn't need to be on what's different; the focus doesn't need to be on the minority all the time," he continued, expressing his opinion that the dominating images of minorities in media and art are keeping the white man down.

Disturbingly, Blair’s words resonated with many people in the community. The artists and students working on the mural were subjected to racist rants from drivers passing by the work site. For two months they were greeted by such pleasantries as “"Get the ni---- off the wall" and "Get the sp-- off the wall" as they worked.

Then came the orders from the principal to lighten up the faces. He made sure to note that it wasn’t about race, but about shadowing and making the faces look like they are “coming into light.” Oh yes, of course.

Well, the good news is that some of the saner minds in the Prescott community launched protests in front of the mural that forced Principal Lane to apologize and promise to restore the original mural. Steve Blair was also removed from his radio talk show. The bad news? Someone who expresses outrage that a mural would feature a non-white child is still working as a City Councilman.

And while we’re on the topic of Arizona, SB 1070 totally bans racial profiling, people. It’s not like it could be used as a tool by inherently racist Arizonans who simply can’t stand the sight of a brown face, right?

Photo Credit: tombothetominator