An investigation has been officially launched after NBA star LeBron James was compared to a monkey in a racist poster displayed at a school art show last weekend.
According to WIBX, officials are now investigating how an offensive and racist piece of artwork was allowed to make it into a school art show comparing LeBron James to a monkey. It’s reported that the project displayed in the exhibition was a parody of a cereal advertisement called “Monkey Premium.”
The art piece was done by a New Hartford Central School District in New York and later showed off in a school gymnasium at the New Hartford Festival of the Arts event on Saturday (May 4). The racist poster displayed in the school art show featured images of LeBron James and monkeys and had a headline that read, “Eat Monkeys, Jump Like Monkeys!”
The image of LBJ showed him mid-flight in his Los Angeles Lakers uniform next to a bowl of cereal that had shrunken monkeys with bananas splashing into tons of milk.
Additional text on the racist poster read, “These delicious monkey and banana-shaped grams [taste] like both chocolate and banana. This cereal makes you jump 2-5 inches higher for about 2 hours after [eating]. It is a great pregame meal and is also great for kids. It is fun and the most delicious cereal you will ever eat.”
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As expected, the racist poster displayed at the school art show featuring LeBron James and monkeys was obviously met with tons of backlash and subsequently, Superintendent of Schools Cosimo Tangorra Jr. released a statement to parents in the community, claiming that officials were looking into the matter.
Tangorra Jr. said, “It is disheartening that racist work was not only created but then overlooked and allowed to be displayed.” The Superintendent also said that the person who created the art piece has been identified and contacted by officials. However, due to privacy policies, details surrounding the student’s identity could not be made public, and additional information about a possible punishment could not be shared either.
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Tangorra Jr. explained, “We understand that there are students, families, staff, and community members who may not feel safe, accepted, or welcome as a result of what transpired. Our school community deserves access to a supportive learning environment where everyone feels respected, included, and safe. We have fallen short of that goal, and we must do better. As a district, we will continue working to ensure all students and their families feel valued, and it requires increased education, dialogue, and action from the entire school community.”
On Thursday (May 9), Superintendent Cosimo Tangorra Jr. told WIBX that the student in this situation was innocent and that the teacher, the one adult who should have intervened and caught the oversight, should have directed the student in another direction. Dr. Tangorra Jr. added that said teacher will be dealt with accordingly, adding, “One adult is responsible for this oversight. But the bigger issue, in my opinion, is what are we going to do, about changing the culture so these things don’t happen.”
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