A racial attack in North Idaho is an infuriating reminder that Idaho still has much more work to do to purge ourselves of the hateful scourge of white supremacy and racism.
The Utah women’s basketball team was playing in Spokane for the NCAA Tournament but was staying in a hotel in Coeur d’Alene because of a lack of hotel rooms in Spokane, according to KSL.com, which first reported the story.
While the basketball team, the band and the cheerleading team were walking to a restaurant Thursday night, a white truck got near the team and revved its engine, and its occupants then yelled the N-word toward the team before speeding off, according to KSL.
“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that? … Everybody was in shock — our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen,” Utah deputy athletics director Charmelle Green, who is Black, told KSL.com. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can’t believe that.”
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Two hours later, after dinner, as they left the restaurant, two trucks showed up and revved their engines and their occupants yelled the N-word again.
It’s like a bad scene out of a cliche movie about racism in the segregated South in the 1950s.
But here it is happening in real life in Idaho in 2024.
That team certainly isn’t going to stay in Coeur d’Alene ever again. It likely will turn off other teams, as well. It might even convince the NCAA that Spokane is no place to hold its tournament.
“We should not have been there,” Utah athletic director Mark Harlan told KSL.com. “I do appreciate the NCAA and Gonzaga moving us from that situation, but we should never have been there in the first place.”
Apparently, Idaho is so bad now that people think they should not have to stay in our state.
If they brought back the Green Book, the midcentury guidebook informing African Americans of safe and unsafe places to travel, you’d have to wonder if Idaho would be on the “not after sunset” list.
Take note that the University of Utah was pumping money into the Coeur d’Alene economy by putting up their players, coaches, band members and cheerleaders in a local hotel and eating out at a local restaurant. Say goodbye to that money in the future.
Way to go, knuckle draggers.
Some in Idaho — typically white Republican lawmakers — like to pretend we live in a colorblind society. Sure, we should. Clearly, we don’t.
Meanwhile, Gov. Brad Little, Sen. Treg Bernt and Rep. James Petzke — all three white men — proudly pose for a photo holding up a proclamation ending diversity statements in Idaho.
Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder says Idaho needs a task force to investigate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in Idaho.
Idaho legislators fail to approve a license plate that says Idaho is “Too Great For Hate.”
Legislation has been introduced three years in a row trying to eliminate Idaho’s domestic terrorism law, which was enacted 40 years ago after the Aryan Nations white supremacist, domestic terrorist militia was successfully defeated in North Idaho.
White supremacists and Christian nationalists are once again gaining a stronghold in Idaho, particularly North Idaho, as evidenced by the emboldened racial attack against the Utah team.
What are we doing to stop them and the deplorables like the ones who accosted the Utah team in Coeur d’Alene?
Is Idaho sending the message loud and clear enough that these white supremacists and Christian nationalists have no place in Idaho?
Or are we sending the message that Idaho is exactly where they belong?
Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.
