Protesting Racism in Prescott, AZ
Barbara Brasswell is the Director of Religious Education at the Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Prescott, AZ
A perfect storm of racist behavior happened in Prescott, AZ this week. First, a mural being done on the outside of Miller Valley school depicting a Latino, black and white student caused a firestorm when the artists were asked to “lighten” the skin tone of the Latino and black kids. At the same time Steve Blair, city councilman, blasted the mural on his AM radio show, saying that having a Latino and black kid on the mural does not represent our city, and that they must have been put in there just because we have a black president. The Daily Courier, our local paper, ran a front-page story about the mural “lightening” and Blair’s racist comments.
What happened next is amazing! A friend called me to join her to protest the mural lightening, so she wouldn’t be by herself. I called, texted, emailed and Facebooked everyone I knew encouraging them to join us. A friend of a friend has media contacts, and ABC News and the local paper called me for comment. An organic, word-of-mouth protest of over 400 was pulled together in a day and a half! This morning we heard the school superintendent and Miller Valley school principal say they were wrong. They made a mistake and would allow the mural to stay true to the artists’ original plan. The children on the mural will NOT be lightened! Steve Blair was fired from his radio show last night and a petition went around at the protest to recall him from City Council. I’m so proud of the people of Prescott for standing tall and proud and making a statement that we will NOT accept racism in our town! Much thanks for all the support from those near and far!
These people should be able to represent their community as it is!!!!It is not a crime to be white.
I am very proud of the people of Prescott, AZ for rejecting the racism that showed its head in their community
“these people should be able to represent their community as it is!!!!”
And who is saying they can’t???? A few respected artists were selected by students & teachers to create some murals. The concept was to represent Prescott as, among other things, a community where children live and are trying to learn good things. Obviously it’s important to plan carefully, select experienced mural artists and invite some community input; because this form of art is large and public. I understand there was a good process and in my opinion (seeing images on google) these are very well designed/executed murals. I suppose if I felt it was my place to be personally reactive I could object that a girl wasn’t the biggest figure – females do after all comprise 50% of the population. But I accept that girls were involved in the process; and I’ll just leave it to guys like Councilman Blair to get their boxers in a twist declaring that size matters
Anyway, I hope more murals to represent other aspects of the community will be created. I don’t live in Prescott – but my sister does and I’ve enjoyed visiting her there. From what I can tell Prescott has plenty of walls, plenty of talent and plenty to celebrate!