OPINION: Do not be intimidated by racists
Evan Koch
Why did the racial harassment of visiting NCAA college athletes cause such a local and national stir? Racism has always been here simmering under the surface, but we have ignored it until now.
An event like this forces us to pay attention.
For example, on Friday The Press reported that a man openly slurred a Post Falls Police Officer using racist epithets. The officer responded respectfully and then arrested the man for a separate unrelated offense.
On the same day, a group of Native American women peacefully and powerfully marched through downtown Coeur d’Alene to send a message. One of the women said: “We are here, we will always be here, we will not be intimidated by racists.”
These events are both instructive and inspiring.
The officer’s patience while going about his job, and the women's persistence point us to ways to combat instances of racist behavior.
These individuals give us hope.
We should all aspire to their fortitude in the face of a problem like racism that won’t go away.
At a March 26 press conference, Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations showed fortitude when he patiently, but persistently, responded to a couple of hecklers. (https://bit.ly/KCTFHPresser)
Two right-wing agitators tried to place Stewart on the defensive by shouting out a loaded question. They wanted to know what law the racist harassers had allegedly broken?
Their heckling was designed to cause trouble and ignored the Coeur d'Alene Police Chief’s list of possible charges from just seconds before.
That press conference made clear that equivocation is unacceptable: yelling racist slurs and profanities at people is wrong. Full stop.
Racist behavior is unacceptable not just when it is illegal, but because it is always inconsistent with the American value of respect for equal rights in a civil society.
No matter what the law might say, racism disregards that norm of good behavior. Racists target specific minorities and marginalized population groups. Their actions are both immoral and cowardly.
Kootenai Democrats see bigotry and truth-twisting run rampant through the Republican Party, from the federal level all the way to our community. Former President Trump’s disregard for the norms of civil behavior and for truth gives others the implied permission to do the same.
It has trickled down to some local politicians.
Following the NCAA’s experience of racism in Coeur d'Alene, everyone released a statement. However, the KCRCC Resolution was a masterclass in moral equivocation.
In more than 400 meandering words, it bemoaned Republican victimization while never mentioning the NCAA students.
The simple issue didn’t warrant such mental gymnastics. Yelling racial slurs and profanity at others is unacceptable and must be loudly and clearly condemned. Period.
And yet, Republicans continue to hedge.
KCRCC Chair Brent Regan baselessly claimed that “disproportionate policing resources were diverted from investigating crimes against citizens” to investigate the incident involving the NCAA athletes.
He also bizarrely suggested that the University of Utah, the North Idaho Republicans, the Task Force on Human Relations and the Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee all conspired with City Councilwoman Christie Wood to coordinate a response to the NCAA affair.
Ironically, Regan was the only person I asked to collaborate on a joint statement. He declined.
Regan’s distorted claims are thinly disguised lies meant to deceive or confuse people and divert their attention from what they can see plainly using their own eyes.
Regan’s deception is in the service of bigotry. And we must overcome it.
We need to collectively demonstrate professionalism, courage and community mindedness. Together we can declare that our community is more than the long shadow of the past and the racist present. And that we echo the Shawl Marcher’s powerful statement:
“We are here. We will always be here. We will not be intimidated by racists.”
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Evan Koch is chairman of Kootenai County Democrats.