In It Together - A Conversation About Race Racist Image Called Media Creation But Political Leaders Say Idaho Must Deal With The Perception

FOR THE RECORD (June 11, 1998, Idaho edition): Clarification: Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin last year successfully pushed a resolution declaring that English be the official and only language allowed on official county documents. A Sunday article describing the resolution did not make its purpose clear.

Idaho’s racism problems are largely a creation of the media, state and local leaders insist.

But the resulting perception that the region is a haven for racists has become a dilemma demanding attention.

“The press has decided to give it attention and it has a life, energy and dynamic separate from the community,” said David Sawyer, mayor of Sandpoint. “I just don’t see it as an issue that’s substantially affecting (Sandpoint) and its quality of life.

“It’s the sort of issue that shows how unsubstantial and immature the process by which we evaluate our communities is.”

Nearly two dozen elected leaders in Idaho and Washington were interviewed recently about racism and the Inland Northwest’s image. Whether members of Congress or small-town mayors, the vast majority of those interviewed in Idaho said reports of intolerance, neo-Nazis and racist incidents are overblown.

But in Washington, elected officials worry more that subtle forms of racism as opposed to the actions of the Aryan Nations and other extremists escape public scrutiny.

That dichotomy may hinge on a subtle distinction: North Idaho leaders tend to say the region is not racist, at least no more than any other place. Many Eastern Washington leaders said the region is racist, just as the rest of the country has problems with racism.

The region is so overwhelmingly white that many longtime residents don’t recognize a cultural blindness, said Spokane City Councilwoman Roberta Greene, who is an African American. “If you don’t know people of a different race or tradition, you lose an edge.”

Cherie Rodgers, also a Spokane City Councilwoman, said next month’s Aryan Nations march in Coeur d’Alene is far less a problem than more subtle forms of racism that pervade society: off-color comments, longer waits for restaurant service experienced by minorities, and the disproportionate number of times African-American men get stopped by police.

Idaho Gov. Phil Batt - who earlier this year spoke passionately about the need for tolerance and diversity at a Coeur d’Alene human rights conference - tags newspapers and television for manufacturing a racism problem.

“I believe the Idaho press does the state a great disservice to accept the premise we have an inordinate problem here,” Batt said.

So angry is the governor that he sent a memo to state department heads three weeks ago admonishing them to defend Idaho’s image: “I am incensed at the unfair portrayal of Idaho’s image by some members of the media … the press bemoans Idaho’s poor ‘image’ - which the press itself created.”

In an interview, Batt acknowledged that there are forms of hatred that need to be dealt with, but insisted Idaho faces no bigger problem than any other state.

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Judy was thrust into the thick of the Aryan Nations controversy when that group received permission to have its July 18 parade downtown. Judy said the perception that the town harbors racism is costly.

Businesses with multicultural workforces won’t come to North Idaho because the antics of small groups of people have tainted the area’s reputation.

“We have lost economy and we have lost jobs for local people because of that perception,” Judy said.

No Idaho politician rejects the notion of an image problem more strongly that Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin, who made his mark last year pushing an English-only resolution.

“I don’t know of anyone who looks at the newspapers or the television and says, ‘My God, that area’s racist, I won’t move there,”’ Rankin said.

Citing the region’s rapid growth, he added, “If it (racism) were a problem, people wouldn’t be moving in here.”

U.S. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne cites similar evidence: GTE just opened a call center in Coeur d’Alene.

“You don’t have a company make an investment like that if they are in an environment where their folks aren’t going to flourish,” Kempthorne said. Crowds repeatedly flocking to Idaho for the Wally Bynam Airstream trailer convention or for the annual University of Idaho Jazz Festival also show people aren’t being repelled, he said.

Plummer Mayor Harold Whitley also disagrees that the image has been earned.

Race relations have improved dramatically in the past decade between people in Plummer and residents of the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, he said.

But people are bound to stay away from the state because of its widespread reputation as having significant racial problems, he said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Crapo, a Republican who represents Idaho’s 2nd District, is in Whitley’s camp. When people see the state as racist, it affects the way they deal with Idaho, Crapo said.

Whether racism in the region is perception or reality, all but Rankin say it is their responsibility to condemn intolerance.

“As a representative of Idaho, I believe my responsibility is to use the bully pulpit to tell people what Idaho is really about,” said Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig also calls for speaking out and for evaluating “my own actions, so these actions fit a multicultural society.”

Batt pushes “zero tolerance for our small group of malcontents, personified by the Aryan Nations.”

In the 1960s, Batt worked to create the state’s first comprehensive Civil Rights Act. He later made his mark fighting to get workers compensation for the state’s largely Hispanic farm workers.

Rankin, on the other hand, said he has no responsibility in dealing with a racism problem that doesn’t exist. Instead, he slams anti-hate groups.

They are “Chicken Littles, like the (Kootenai County) Human Relations Task Force,” Rankin said. “If they couldn’t keep people spooked, there wouldn’t be any other way for them to make a living.

“I hold them in sincere and constant contempt,” Rankin said. “All of these people who think they have the answers could do wonders if they joined the Peace Corps.”

No other leaders articulated Rankin’s intolerance for anti-hate groups, but several questioned the wisdom of re-examining the racism issue.

Said Kempthorne: “Every time we ask the question, we create the headlines about racism.”

Stories about the Aryan Nations’ parade are part of that problem, others say.

“When we get into a big flap over whether or not the Aryans are going to march, we take a step backward,” said Dick Compton, chairman of the Kootenai County Commission. “With the publicity it’s gotten, there is a perception that the racist issue is here and when you live here, you never even see them.”

Sandpoint Mayor Sawyer worries that the debate over the parade is a diversion from more pressing problems.

“What are we deciding not to look at because we are looking at this?” Sawyer asked. “We have problems in Idaho with child abuse and day care.

“Let’s have the press be a partner in dealing with the body that needs to be healed.”

VIEWS ON RACISM Racism in the Inland Northwest is a topic that provokes strong views from many vantage points. And an Aryan Nations march planned in downtown Coeur d’Alene next month has brought discussion of those divergent views to the region’s dinner tables and water coolers. For the next several weeks, The Spokesman-Review will report on those discussions. This series of articles focuses on people trying to cope with prejudice, hate or the perception that the region is a sanctuary for racists. Today, elected leaders discuss their views about racism and the region’s image.

Staff writer Jim Camden contributed to this report.