Artists of a “Go Green” mural in Arizona which featured the likeness of children from a local elementary school were told to “lighten the faces” of some of the paintings following complaints “about the children’s ethnicity”.
While the principal denies any political pressure, the mural has been the target of local Prescott, AZ city councilman and radio talk show host, Steve Blair.
In a broadcast last month, Blair complains, incorrectly, about the mural saying, “To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?”
He then draws a link between the mural and Obama arguing that a black child is represented on the mural, “based upon who’s President of the United States today …”
During the painting of the mural, the artists said, “We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars. We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics).”
Four children are represented on the mural, drawn from photos of the ethnically diverse school population. A Latino boy is featured in the center.
Jeff Lane, Principal of Miller Valley Elementary School where the mural is featured, said the alterations the artists were asked to make were not political or racial in nature. “We asked them to fix the shading on the children’s faces. We were looking at it from an artistic view. Nothing at all to do with race.”
Wow, this is sad.