The last gasp of a dying order or the revitalized root music of American racism?
From NYDailyNews.com. Full story here.
Artists who painted a mural at an elementary school in Prescott depicting four students, with the most prominent being a Hispanic boy, were asked to lighten the faces amid taunts and tensions.
R.E. Wall, the artist who heads the Prescott Downtown Mural Project, told a local newspaper passersby regularly shouted racially charged comments at his group while they were creating the mural at the Miller Valley Elementary School.
“You’re desecrating our school,” “Get the ni—- off the wall,” “Get the sp– off the wall,” were common, Wall said. “The pressure stayed up consistently,” Wall said. “We had two months of cars shouting at us.”
Hinshaw/AP
Pamela J. Smith and R.E. Wall sit on the scaffolding in front of the
Miller Valley School Mural titled “Go on Green” in Prescott, Ariz.
Wall said his artists began touching up the mural earlier this week.
“They want us to lighten up the forehead and the cheeks [of the boy in the center], and make him look like he is coming into the light,” he said. The school told Wall they want the children to appear more “radiant and happy.”
The school’s principal, Jeff Lane, told the newspaper he asked the artists to “remove some shadowing that made the faces darker than they are.”
UPDATE: School reverses itself after getting international attention. (Story here.) Artists will restore original brown hue to boy’s face. Right-wing shock-jock who rallied racists against the mural fired. Even in Arizona, being the subject of worldwide scorn can have a salutary effect on behavior.
There was a fair amount of contrition from the principal and the school board member who apologized and made the announcement that the mural would not be changed. I was pretty proud of Prescott for the response from the community and the quick action to reverse the decision and make it right.
See for yourself here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PrescottDiversity