The Racist Slime of Prescott, Arizona

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There are politicians in this state who would have us believe that the infamous racial profiling law, SB 1070, is basically harmless. (Jan Brewer, I'm looking at you!) That bigoted piece of legislation is far from harmless. Not only does it focus exclusively on one racial group, it also empowers the racist dregs of our state into thinking that their opinion matters. These slime balls have oozed out from under their rocks and become active practitioners of the basic tenet of Arizona democracy: idiotic shouting.

There is a story out of Prescott, AZ, that is so sickening and so Arizona that it needs to be heard far and wide.

A local elementary school in Prescott decided that it would be cool to have a mural promoting the concept of "green transportation" painted on the side of the school building by local artists. And to make the project even cooler, they asked the artists to populate the painting with illustrations of actual students who attend the school. Not much controversy there, right? Most communities would be proud as punch to have their children featured in a mural on the side of the school house.

Most communities, but not Prescott.

You see, the elementary school in Prescott, Arizona, is a multicultural institution, and the artists incorporated a diversity of students, many of whom were black and brown, into the mural. Enter the racist slime as they oozed out from under their rocks.

Steve Blair, a city councilman and talk show host on the local Fox-owned radio station, began railing against the project on his radio show. Some of the more vocal (and more ignorant) residents of the area started driving by the school shouting such terms of endearment as "spic" and "nigger." It was not Prescott's finest hour.

School administrators inexplicably caved and asked the artists to lighten the skin tones of the children depicted in the painting. Really. Instead of telling the mentally deranged residents who yelled at children to STFU, the school leaders sided with the loud-mouthed slime and asked that the painting be corrected to conform with local standards of bigotry. (Nice message, by the way: "The community hates us, and now it looks like our school does too.")

That was where it stood until last week when this story made the national news. After the bright light of public scrutiny washed over the controversy, school officials reversed their asinine decision and asked the artists to re-darken the skin tones of the students in the mural. The cake was frosted, so to speak, when Councilman Blair was fired from his job at the radio station.

See kiddies, what goes around can sometimes come around. Eat your veggies, and always be proud of who you are. Also, stay in school. You don't want to grow up to be ignorant like those people who were shouting at you and your school!