Will you defend this?

1. 78

   CaribeMposted 10 years ago

   "An Arizona elementary school mural featuring the faces of kids who attend the school has been the subject of constant daytime drive-by racist screaming, from adults, as well as a radio talk-show campaign (by an actual city councilman, who has an AM talk-radio show) to remove the black student's face, and now the school principal has ordered the faces of the Latino and Black students to be changed to Caucasian skin."
   
   Read the whole story here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/0 … 01436.html
   
   
   Will you defend this? Why?

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      Valerie Fposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Well, the good news is that the mural will not be changed. The bad news is that the principal didn't grow a backbone until after the Huffington Post article.

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         Uninvited Writerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         That's good.
         
         Publicity really does work doesn't it?

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2. 60

   Ohmaposted 10 years ago

   That is very sad and I hope that someone steps up to put a stop to it before they actually disfigure the mural.

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   1. 78

      CaribeMposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Well, some people are asking to send e-mails to the school Director to ask him to keep the mural in its original form. Let's see what happens.
      
      On the other hand, I wonder if this issue has something to do with the "Non-racist" new Arizona law...

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         Uninvited Writerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Just what I was thinking

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3. 93

   CMHypnoposted 10 years ago

   You can't defend it because it is indefensible! The mural should be representative of all the students who attend the school.  How are these people even trying to defend this type of racism???

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   1. 78

      CaribeMposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with you... Thank God we don't have anyone around in Hubpages that will defend this.
      
      I'm very glad!!!

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      1. 81

         Uninvited Writerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Don't hold your breath...

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4. 75

   raisingmeposted 10 years ago

   Um, I don't live in or anywhere near Arizona but isn't that one giant step backwards for mankind?  I thought we were past that garbage.

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      lovemychrisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That garbage is always there...it just is allowed to flourish more now that they have "legitimate" voices behind it.
      Limbaugh makes racists statements and little innuendo's all the time. Glenn Beck does too. Sarah Palin and her "real" Americans...who do you think she means by that? It aint immigrants in Arizona!!! Or me, a liberal white person, for that matter either!
      
      Ugly is back, and legitimized by people like them.
      And it's heavy against Muslims too. Any muslim.
      
      It's real dis-heartening, but it's there, and only one way to deal with it: fight back!
      
      I

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5. 92

   Polly Cposted 10 years ago

   What an awful thing to happen! It's so disgusting that it is almost unbelievable - I am shocked for words, to be honest, that anything like this should happen in a first world country. Where are these people's minds at? And children faces as well - totally inexcusable!

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6. 81

   Uninvited Writerposted 10 years ago

   I think they should set up a camera there and plaster the faces of those who yell the racist insults all over the place. See how they like it when they are not anonymous...
   
   And the talk radio campaign must be against some FCC rule shouldn't it?

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      Ohmaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I think that is a great idea.
      The school should set up recording equipment that feeds to a projector on the courthouse step that project to one of those inflatable drive in screens and broadcasts this all over downtown. see how quick it stops.

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      1. 81

         Uninvited Writerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I like it!

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   2. 69

      lovemychrisposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Rush and co...all of them, get away with MURDER!!! Insurrection really....
      Race hate, women hate, immigrant hate, liberal hate, Obama hate...hate hate hate hate and misleading "facts".
      
      Yet, you can't talk about breasts and peepee's.
      
      Obama the Magic Negro is not offensive, but Howard Stern making fart jokes is.
      
      So glad we have a new FCC now....maybe they will reverse the trend.

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7. 79

   timorousposted 10 years ago

   I had to check my calendar..holy cow..it's 2010.
   
   Whew...for a second there I thought it was 1964 or something...

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8. 83

   Rafiniposted 10 years ago

   It must be made known that discrimination, in any form, will not be tolerated and that illegal immigrants who have entered the country illegally are breaking the law by being here and are not being discriminated against.

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   1. 81

      Uninvited Writerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      This case has nothing to do with illegal immigrants.
      
      The proponents of that bill are capitalizing on what racism really does exist against all Latinos whether you want to admit it or not. I believe that is causing things like this to happen; I doubt it would have happened otherwise.
      
      Suddenly illegal immigrants (read Mexicans) are blamed for every wrong in American society...

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      1. 83

         Rafiniposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I understand this case doesn't involve illegal immigration - it's a matter of being in Arizona. 
         
         Discrimination will soon be a concept of the past since it has been proven that a black mans DNA can be 98% white. 
         
         It isn't important whether or not I 'admit' there is racism against Latinos or illegal immigrants.  What is important is I feel discrimination, in any form, should not be tolerated - and I don't think Arizona's immigration law is discriminatory.

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9. 86

   LeanManposted 10 years ago

   Are sales of white sheets and pillow cases on the increase here??

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10. 75

    raisingmeposted 10 years ago

    I think this may well have its roots in the reactions after 911 when the entire nation and it's allies were  in a state of shock.  Out of that state of shock many decisions were made without consideration of future consequences and those whose purpose it served to push forth their adgendas such as racial prejudice, capitalized on the instability of a nation who was frantically trying to redefine itself.  At the time I lived a five minute drive from the US border (providing the traffic lights were all green).  We used to cross three or four times a week and freely visited our many friends on the other side of "the line".  I am a 5'4" female, mother of three children, retired business owner who got a speeding ticket when I was twenty.  That's it for my run in with "the law" until the last time I went down to visit friends in Washington State.  One and a half hours of being well and thoroughly interigated by three border guards (all three at once) five minutes from my home has dampened my enthusiasm for travelling anywhere in the US.  I haven't been back since.  It is a sad thing when we treat our friends as enemies.  The once bustling little town on the other side of the border is all but dead and I have heard that other border towns have suffered the same fate.  I could go on here but I will refrain.  Suffice it to say that it is the first time in my life I have been treated bady because of my nationality and it was an unwelcome experience.  My heart goes out to those who experience it on a daily basis!

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       Rafiniposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I don't quite understand...were you entering the country legally? It sounds like it, from Canada - am I wrong?  The main thing is, you were only coming to visit.  I'm sorry you had to suffer through an interrogation like that but I'm sure you can understand the reasoning behind tightened border security.

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          raisingmeposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Oh I understand the reasoning.  And I understand how an individual responds when in shock...and an entire nation was in shock and has suffered several shocks since in the form of Katrina and now the BP mess.  The incident I speak of took place quite some time after 911 and yes I was entering the country legally as I have done thousands of times in my lifetime.  It is the contrast between before and after 911...before 911 we were treated as friends, after not so much.  And yes Canada, we were not even allowed to get trained, professional crews down to help our neighbours fight an out of control fire in neighbouring Washington and Idaho last summer.  Tightened security yes, bullying and intimidating no.  The truth of the situation for me is that I have more very good friends living in the states than I do here.  When they have come to visit me they have had trouble getting home...not up here...but home.  We keep in touch by facebook for the most part and at times, though not near as frequently as in the past, one or more of them will brave the border.  Also, it is not consistant - some days it is not a problem and other days it is a royal pain in the nether regions!

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             Rafiniposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             We so rarely hear of issues with the Canadian border, I'm saddened to hear about it.  I don't understand the point in interrogating anyone at the border unless they're suspect in some way or another - and I would think the same border guards are there on a regular basis, just like any other job.  So, how ridiculous for them to remember you one day and be intimidating another.  You would think in the case of a fire the border guards could understand why a bunch of Canadians with fire trucks and/or gear would suddenly be at the border wanting across...do we really want to succumb to what Bin Ladin wanted?  To stand alone....
             
             May I suggest you write an article about your experiences?  Canadian Border Crossing Experiences before and after 9/11.  I would be very interesting in reading something like that.

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                raisingmeposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                That is an idea.  Thank you.  I haven't been on a plane since 9/11 that I don't think about those people.  And I often wonder what they would think of what our world has become since their passing.

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                   Rafiniposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                   Do you think they'd understand?

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                      raisingmeposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                      Understand, Yes!  Agree?  I'm not so sure.

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11. 75

    raisingmeposted 10 years ago

    The point I am making in my posts here is that if I as a grown woman, 3/4's of my way through my life find being treated the way I was at the border (and I had the good sense not to take it personally) difficult and uncomfortable what then is it like for a child to experience it on a daily basis in his or her own neighbourhood.  To take the pictures down on the school in Arizona is to make those children wrong for something they have no control over - the culture they were born into being their only crime.  The thought of wiping out the faces of those children makes me want to cry.  The same way I cried when I was 12 years old, living 800 miles north of the American border and seeing on the front page of our local newspaper the face of a boy, the same age as me, staring out through the bars of a jail cell - he was black.  I was very grateful that my freckles might get me teased but they were not considered an offence!

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12. 62

    lxxyposted 10 years ago

    Just to play a bit of devil's advocate here--is there any record of murals in inner city schools depicting only minorities?
    
    I'd assume not.

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    1. 83

       Rafiniposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       not in my son's school.

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