Girl knocks racial exclusion in city booklet
Young girl sends letter to Rishon Lezion mayor complaining about booklet that features only fair-skinned children; Mayor complies: 'She's right'
A fourth grader sent a letter to the Rishon Lezion Municipality, in which she brought the mayor's attention to the homogenous representation of the city's children.
The girl noted in her letter that a booklet issued by a community center in the city featured only fair-skinned children and did not represent the variety of the city's youth.
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In response, Mayor Dov Tzur issued a directive ordering all future publications relating to the city to use photos of children who are in fact residents of Rishon Lezion.
No one spoke out when the promotional booklet distributed by the municipality – for a community center in the Neve Dekalim neighborhood – bore only fair-skinned children but the young girl.
Her letter read, "The booklet for the Neve Dekalim community center has at least 25 children. All the children in the pictures are fair-skinned and that does not represent all the kids in town."
"I think that dark-skinned children that would read through this booklet might feel jealous," the girl continued. "A dark-skinned child might say: I can't be a part of this because I'm dark-skinned. Anyway, it's also obvious that many children in the Neve Dekalim neighborhood are not fair-skinned."
The letter concluded with a clear request: "I would be happy to see you change that in future publications."
Sources in city hall said that the photos that were used in the booklet were taken from Israel's national photo-bank and were chosen randomly. Following the girl's letter, the municipality has decided to put together an archive of photos of the city's children.
Mayor Tzur said in response: "The girl is right. I am happy that she took the initiative and acted on this. She gave us a new perspective. Thanks to her insightful remark we will now make some changes. I urge her and others to keep drawing our attention to such issues."
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