Stepping out of the shadows

COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho's population is becoming more diverse all the time, but often, the national perception of the state doesn't reflect that reality.

The new Public Broadcasting Service series, "America by the Numbers," recently aired an episode titled "Our Private Idaho," which focuses on the "white" factor of Coeur d'Alene.

It presents Coeur d'Alene as "a haven for white conservatives," a city that is "still haunted by a history of extreme racism" and a "postcard picture of small-town America as it used to be - mostly white."

Coeur d'Alene resident and founder of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations Tony Stewart shared his opinion Saturday about how the series portrays Idaho and how the demographic shifts that are presently occurring reflect the changing populous of the Gem State.

"The average person viewing this in Texas, New York, Illinois, California, will say, 'Uh huh,'" Stewart said, with pages of data in hand. "It seemed like we were chosen with a pre-idea that 'this is our white enclave city.'"

Stewart and several other human rights advocates were active in tearing down the Aryan Nation brotherhood that planted itself in North Idaho in the 1980s and 1990s. The documentary discusses that time in history, and narrator Maria Hinojosa visits the site of the former Aryan compound in Hayden with human rights advocate Norm Gissel of Coeur d'Alene. Gissel was the attorney who filed the lawsuit that bankrupted the compounds.

"Starting in 1983 and going through the '80s and early '90s, our organization, the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, and others across the state, worked hard with the legislators and the governor, successfully, and we passed in this state a series of laws combating malicious harassment and hate laws," Stewart said.

He said for 30 years, Coeur d'Alene has been confronting human rights issues and it would have been great if "America by the Numbers" would have mentioned any number of things, such as the establishment of the Human Rights Education Institute and the fact that Coeur d'Alene became an All-American City in 1990 because of its ability to combat hate.

"There's been a stain on us because of the activities of the Aryan Nations," he said. "I think this documentary, unintentionally, somewhat reinforced that."

Stewart referred to research that he conducted in 2011 using U.S. Census Bureau information from 1990-2010. He found impressive increases in Idaho's minority population - which was 10.8 percent in 1990, 12 percent in 2000 and 16 percent in 2010 - and said he wished the documentary would have presented this and similar evidence of Idaho's changing demographics in a more balanced way.

"We're still far behind the rest of the country. When you start with small numbers, even with the growth, we're still not like the large cities, but this is very significant, and we are following the trend that's taking place around the nation of becoming a much more diverse society.

"The documentary is correct to say that the great majority of people living here are still in the category of white, but it's changing," he said. "And it's changing at a rate that if it continues, in the next 20 years it's going to be a really major growth in diversity."

This is partially reflected in a Pew Research Center report that was released Tuesday. According to the report, Idaho was among seven states where the number of unauthorized immigrants increased between 2009 and 2012. The report found the number decreased in 14 states, including Oregon, in that time period, and the number remained stable in the remaining states, including Washington.

Nationally, the number of unauthorized immigrants remained stable at 11.2 million between 2009 and 2012, the report found. The number of such immigrants peaked in 2007 at 12.2 million. However, changes did occur in states. Idaho grew from 35,000 unauthorized immigrants in 2009 to 50,000 in 2012, an increase of 15,000 people. Idaho's growth was "driven by increases in unauthorized immigrants from countries other than Mexico," the report said.

"I think that these trends will continue and it will bode well for Idaho's economic future," Stewart said. "When you have that kind of population growth, you build more houses and you have more public accommodations. You have more jobs, you have everything. It's going to bode well for our economy, it's going to make our state much more rich in cultural differences, it will affect our cultural events, and I think it will also, over time, create a greater knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the people that have come here from many places."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.