Artist Asked to Paint Children's Faces 'A Lighter Color' in Arizona School Mural?

A new mural at a public school in Prescott, Arizona is now the topic of an intense debate about color and censorship.

The artists say the mural they painted is supposed to show the diversity of the kids at the elementary school but following comments by a city council member, the school principal asked the artist to paint the kids' faces a lighter color.

The mural was painted on the wall of the Miller Valley Elementary School, at the corner of the busiest intersection in Prescott.

The controversy was sparked by a comment City Councilman Steve Blair made on his radio show two weeks ago.

"To depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person -- I would have to ask the question why," he said on The Steve Blair Show on KYCA.

After the radio show, the school principal asked the mural artists, a group called Mural Mice, to lighten the boy's face.

"When we began to paint the picture, nobody really thought about the color of the skin on the kids," says artist R.E. Wall.

The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity.

Between Arizona's recent immigration law, the erasure of ethnic studies in AZ schools, and the slew of racial slurs the artists and students endured while making the mural, to be the guy who denies racism exists here just makes his racism all the more obvious.

What Do You Think????

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/06/13/nr.artists.mural.intv.cnn?iref=allsearch

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/05/artist-asked-paint-childrens-faces-lighter-color-arizona-school-mural/

CommonSense Christian2011-06-12T12:19:28Z

Favorite Answer

All colors are the Lord's children and shouldn't be discriminated against.

That school was mostly latino so that why the Mural had Latinos on it.

Whats wrong with adding latino kids on it? Even if the area is mostly white? I wouldn't have a problem with it why do others?

Racism seem to explain it. I'll pray for them. and remember that the Lord is watching

Daniel ben Mordechai2011-06-12T18:57:15Z

In other words, we are dealing with a sense of offense because the typical body count mentality of affirmative action quotas is not being applied to the artistic world by a mural that is not closely in line with the current demographics of the area. This is frankly, extremely open-ended in terms of potential offense. After all, by that inane logic, what is considered OK at one time will one day be considered illegitimate in the event of a more than trivial demographic shift. I think that what we are dealing with here is much ado about nothing and it would be better for kids of all races and backgrounds to focus on the very reason that they are in school in the first place: namely, to learn.

Anonymous2011-06-12T18:42:25Z

It is a public school and the principal is in charge. The artist is being paid by the school, so the artist should do what the principal instructed him to do. If he doesn't he hasn't fulfilled his contractual obligations and shouldn't be paid. Sack the artist and get another artist who follows instructions.
Murals are yuk and a waste of taxpayers money. Just paint it a blended colour - like a light brown.

BekindtoAnimals222011-06-12T19:19:47Z

I have to question their choice in the picture itself unless they aren't showing the whole thing. Why would they show a huge picture of a black child and a white child in the background? 30% of the population in AZ is Hispanic. Why wouldn't you show some Hispanics, some Asians. etc, along with white and black? If this is to show diversity, then show the diversity. Show them in a sense of brotherhood and equality.

As for ethnic studies, isn't the idea for us all to be Americans? Why wouldn't the studies be about Americans of all colors rather than separated by ethnicity? There are black people in our history as well as white, Hispanic and others. Show pictures of them when they are mentioned in history rather than this separation.

Anonymous2011-06-12T18:34:12Z

Pretty pathetic. We had a mural like that on the wall of my elementary school, and that was decades ago, in Tennessee, and no one had a problem with it.

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