Arizona Reclaims the Crown in Stunning Douchebag Upset
No sooner do we note that South Carolina wants its Douchebag Trophy back from Arizona, than Arizona steps up to the plate:
A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.
The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity. But the school's principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.
No, nothing at all. Not the "people shouting racial slander from their cars" while children painted, not the city councilman who complained that "the biggest picture on the building [is] a Black person" (actually Latino, but who's counting), none of that.
Worst part?
Faces in the mural were drawn from photographs of children enrolled at Miller Valley, a K-5 school with 380 students and the highest ethnic mix of any school in Prescott.
That's right: The civic leaders of Prescott, Arizona, are shitting on their own kids. We're sorry, South Carolina, but you're just gonna have to try harder.
Altered mural fuels racial debate in Prescott [Arizona Republic]
6:32 pm • Friday • June 4, 2010
When We Were 19, It Was a Very Good Year John Wooden, 1910-2010
What kind of 'artists' would agree?
SpongeBobtheBuilder
No, this is the worst part:
"City Councilman Steve Blair spearheaded a public campaign on his talk show at Prescott radio station KYCA-AM (1490) to remove the mural.
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?""
And I have to ask: Why not, Steve, why not? Please, tell us.
@SpongeBobtheBuilder: That guy is the worst. He's a Rush Limbaugh wannabe who is behind virtually all of the racist shit happening in Prescott.
Can the genie put the kray-zee back in the bottle now?
10:26 pm • Friday • June 4, 2010
@SpongeBobtheBuilder: I don't know. That's how he makes his living. But the people who painted it changed it. That's what I don't understand.
You have got to be fucking kidding me. I'm seriously at a loss for words, which y'all know doesn't happen often.
12:07 am • Saturday • June 5, 2010
@SanFranLefty: I see in Memeorandum that Ken Layne is also at a loss for words, which is even more of an achievement. But I'm not going there to read his full account.
5:48 am • Saturday • June 5, 2010
not shown: painted blonde blue eyed white jeebus?
Steve Blair fired from his radio job. Still has day job as councilor though.
lynnlightfoot
@ManchuCandidate: Delighted to hear Blair fired. Hope to hear soon that he has dropped dead. (It would be better if he saw the error of his ways and was filled with remorse and made amends to the children of Prescott, but I fear that's too much to hope for. So, I hope he perishes miserably.)
9:07 pm • Saturday • June 5, 2010
At a rally today in support of the original mural, the school's principal apologized for asking the artist to change it and it said it will go back to the way it was. I'll post a link to video as soon as the tv station posts it.
@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Great news. Let's hope this doesn't lead to a late night lynch mob in Prescott. Those people seem quite capable of anything.
@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnO6DJ8RqIE