An Arizona school principal asks artists to "lighten the faces" of children represented in public mural. Apparently they looked too ethnic. But once again, and this is VERY important, Arizona is NOT racist! Okay?

From AZCental.com:

The "Go on Green" mural, which covers two walls outside Miller Valley Elementary School, was designed to advertise a campaign for environmentally friendly transportation. It features portraits of four children, with a Hispanic boy as the dominant figure.

R.E. Wall, director of Prescott's Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town's most prominent intersections.

"We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars," Wall said.

"We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics)."

Wall said school Principal Jeff Lane pressed him to make the children's faces appear happier and brighter.

"It is being lightened because of the controversy," Wall said, adding that "they want it to look like the children are coming into light."

Whoa!  Hold the phone here. Are we really supposed to believe that this school principal, this respected educator, would ACTUALLY cave into racism and demand that an artist change his vision?

Lane said that he received only three complaints about the mural and that his request for a touch-up had nothing to do with political pressure. "We asked them to fix the shading on the children's faces," he said. "We were looking at it from an artistic view. Nothing at all to do with race."

See?  The principal was JUST TRYING TO MAKE IT BETTER!  Because obviously an elementary school principal is much, much more knowledgeable about how a work of art should look than the artist who labored over it for two moths while being subjected to racist comments. Don't you think?

Perhaps if Principal Lane had been looking over Leonardo Da Vinci's shoulder back in the sixteenth century he could have advised him to improve the Mona Lisa as well.  "Hey Leo, don't you think she would look a lot better with less forehead and bigger jugs?  And why don't you put a smile on her face while you are at it?  She looks all constipated to me!"

Gee I wonder if Arizona Councilman Steve Blair had anything to do with the Principal's decision?

In a broadcast last month, according to the Daily Courier in Prescott, Blair mistakenly complained that the most prominent child in the painting is African-American, saying: "To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?"


Blair could not be reached for comment Thursday. In audio archives of his radio show, Blair discusses the mural. He insists the controversy isn't about racism but says the mural is intended to create racial controversy where none existed before.

Damn it is good thing that Councilman Blair declared he was NOT a racist, because to be honest I was kinda thinking he was!  And a quote like THIS does not exactly help clarify things.

"I'm not a racist by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever people start talking about diversity, it's a word I can't stand.... The focus doesn't need to be on what's different; the focus doesn't need to be on the minority all the time.... Art is in the eye of the beholder, but I say (the Miller Valley mural) looks like graffiti in L.A..... I don't see anything that ties the community into that mural."

Yep, good thing he told us he was not a racist all right.

It also needs to be stressed that "biggest picture on the building" that upset the Councilman and his KKK buddies so much was of a young boy who IS A STUDENT OF THE SCHOOL THAT THE MURAL IS PAINTED ON.

THAT is what the child looks like.  Asking the artist to "lighten" his skin is an insult to that young boy, his family, and to all of the good people in this country who are able to see people as something other than just the color of their skin.

Arizona is turning into a laughingstock.

Florida and Kansas must be thrilled these days that Arizona has taken the mantle of "stupidest state in the country" away from them. 

Though to be honest I have a lot of faith in Florida's ability to earn it back in the very near future.

Update via Huffington Post:

Good news. The gutless, carbound racists lost, and the mural is being restored to its "original theme." Jeff Lane, the principal of Miller Valley Elementary School, and Kevin Kapp, the school superintendent, showed up at a protest today to apologize for giving in to whims of mentally deranged adults, spewing racial epithets at a painting.


Wow!  Sometimes the good guys DO win!