Pictured here are three of the artists working on a mural in Sunset Park. (Photos: David Gonzalez/The New York Times)
A mural that is slowly going up on the industrial edge of Sunset Park is shaping up to be one huge Do Not Disturb sign directed at military recruiters. Its creators? A group of young women — barely out of high school — who are still smarting from what they saw as repeated and unwanted come-ons from recruiters who would stop them on the street, in school or call them at home.
“If you go to some Manhattan schools or places where the families have a higher income, you don’t see the recruiters there,” said Ebony Thurman, 18, who was once approached by recruiters at the Atlantic Avenue subway station. “But if you’re in Brooklyn or in lower income neighborhoods, that’s where you really find them trying to recruit people. They tell you that you’ll get job skills or college money. And if you’re a girl they’ll flirt with you and say there a lot of cute guys you could meet if you enlist.” Read more
