Over the past month, the state of Arizona has been making serious waves in the media and across the nation. Whether it is the state’s new immigration law or the law banning ethnic studies, something continues to make the news in the last state in the United States to approve the Martin Luther King Jr., holiday.
In Prescott, Ariz., a new mural at Miller Valley Elementary School has caused an uproar. The mural shows a group of children of several races using “green” transportation methods. It appears to have struck a nerve among some Prescott residents.
The controversy started when comments made by Prescott City Councilman Steve Blair aired on his KYCA radio talk regarding the mural. On May 21, Blair said, “I am not a racist individual, 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?'”
Blair also admits that “whenever people start talking about diversity, it’s a word [I] can’t stand.”
Increasing pressure has resulted in people in support of Blair asking the school board to “lighten” the faces of the mural’s main subject, which is an African American child.
“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,” said R. E. Wall, director of the Prescott Downtown Mural Project.
Prescott, Arizona is located in Yavapai County, Arizona, near the Prescott National Forest. The population is almost 43,000 based on 2008 figures. It is 75 miles from Phoenix and has an average adjusted gross income of $52,072 based on 2005 figures. Just 13 percent of the residents live below the poverty level. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
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