Human Rights Consortium: There's work to be done here

The tumult of 2020 was punctuated by the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread demonstrations for social justice in cities around the country. We know the pandemic is not over. Nor is the battle for social justice. While the majority of members of our community believe in and work for equality, we continue to struggle with deep-seated racism and bias.

The perception that North Idaho is a region where white supremacist ideas, anti-Semitism and hate have taken hold continues to concern local businesses and community members. These views and ideologies are driven by only a small segment of our population. Although they are few, their voices and actions are loud and oftentimes go unchecked. This needs to change. We’ve done it before, and we will continue to work to eliminate hate and make our community a safe place for all.

Norm Gissel and the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, heroes in our community, successfully bankrupted and disrupted the local Aryan Nations organization in 2000. While this was a great victory against hate, there remain disturbing signs of bigotry, racism and far-right terrorism ideology in our cities and towns today.

Just weeks ago, Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom was defaced with swastikas. The perpetrator of this hate crime was arrested and confessed to belonging to a known white supremacist group.

This criminal activity followed on the heels of a similar defacing of the Anne Frank memorial in Boise late last year.

To be clear, our Human Rights Consortium denounces these crimes and such white supremacist hate groups. These groups continue to create racist images, disparage local officials and spread their messages throughout our communities in the mail, social media and other tasteless ways.

At least one North Idaho resident has been arrested for participation in the unlawful insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where rioters in the mob called for the hanging of the U.S. Vice President and five people were killed.

We believe that these ideas and beliefs do not reflect the true nature of our communities. It is once again time for all of us to speak up and make it known that North Idaho is too great for hate and that these behaviors are not tolerated here.

We are regional employers that have joined together to create the Human Rights Consortium, a membership group that is a strong collective voice, actively and consistently countering racism, anti-Semitism, social inequity and all harmful extremism. The Human Rights Consortium is doing this because these damaging acts and images are simply bad for our communities, our businesses and our future.

We all know that our communities are growing. Our demographics are changing and with this rapid growth, our businesses, our schools, our law enforcement agencies, our healthcare systems and our services industries will need to recruit talent so we can serve this expanding population. Recruiting employees is made more difficult with the pall of racism, bigotry and extremism hanging over our region.

The continued attachment of our region to messages of white nationalism and neo Nazism suggests to potential employees that our region is not safe, particularly for people of color and groups that are targeted by hate mongers. These abhorrent attitudes and actions must be universally condemned.

Of course, racial injustice, political extremism, domestic terrorism, and hate group activity is also happening across our country and the world. That this is happening everywhere does not mean that our communities should not respond to and denounce it in every instance.

We are responsible for the character and image of our communities. We invite you to join us to ensure that hate does not take hold and that everyone around us can find peace, hope and equal opportunity in our beautiful region.

The Human Rights Consortium is working to provide perspective on the ways discrimination happens in our workplaces. We are creating space in our organizations for meaningful dialogue and education about human rights. We are researching the needs of historically marginalized people in North Idaho and providing employer education opportunities to strengthen and diversify our workforce.

We have engaged our Human Rights Education Institute (HREI) for learning about ways in which all community members can begin to identify and correct our own biases and inequality in our communities. We will not stop until we have more accepting, diverse and welcoming regional employers and employees. This is good for our communities; it is good for business; and it is good for the future of North Idaho.

The saying, “what you permit, you promote; what you allow, you encourage; what you condone, you own,” is a powerful guide for all of us. Every time a hateful message or action is taken that is not met with strong condemnation, it chips away at the safety and soul of our communities.

Hate is powerful and it cannot be allowed to go unchecked. Hope is a much stronger force. When we condemn hate and fight for hope, good will always prevail.

Please visit our website and like our social media platforms to follow and join this effort (https://hrei.org/human-rights-consortium/). Together we can make it known loudly that hate is not welcome here and that everyone deserves to feel safe, loved and respected in North Idaho.