Whitewashing Skin in Arizona

Diego Rivera ought to be turning over in his grave. The principal of Miller Valley School in Prescott, Arizona, asked the artists of the school’s new “ecological” mural to lighten the skin of Mario.

Mario is one of the school’s Hispanic students who posed for the “Mural Mice” artists and adorns the mural with his brown skin. The multicolor wall, painted to promote bicycle use and respect for the environment, was too colorful for Steve Blair, a Prescott city councilman.

On his radio program, Blair denounced the color of Mario’s skin. “I am not a racist individual,” pointed out Blair before making an unintelligible remark. “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?’”

During the two months that the team worked on the mural, they had to endure the shouts of drivers passing by, telling them that they were “desecrating the school” and to “get that black off the wall,” instigated perhaps by Blair’s radio comments.

The principal of the school, Jeff Lane, took note of the complaints and asked R.E. Wall, one of the project artists, to lighten Mario’s skin — the painted one, not the actual child; as we’ve already clarified, he’s Hispanic, not black, as Blair appears to think.

After the principal’s orders, pro-diversity demonstrations were organized. In the end, Lane, standing on scaffolding with Mario in the background, still with a “light” forehead, admitted that “Miller Valley made a mistake when we asked them to lighten the mural,” to which the crowd reproached him with “You made a mistake!” “We’re going back to the original theme,” concluded Lane. The “theme” is Mario’s skin.

Lane admitted that 33 percent of the school’s 380 students are Hispanic, 6 percent African American, 3 percent Native American and 1 percent Asian.

“It will take a few days to put him back to his original skin tone and make him look more Hispanic,” said Wall.

Meanwhile, the radio station KYCA has canceled Blair’s radio program. Will he also lose the elections?

Still, no one has asked Mario how he feels with the change in his “look.” Maybe the boy would like to appear more as the white Mario to avoid being bothered by the police and deported in case he leaves the house without documentation.