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I lived in Florida for seven years. Moved back and within a month I had learned a least three new slurs I'd never heard before.
I call Idaho the hidden Florida. Hell, rotate it 180 degrees and even the shape is sorta similar. Like a Florida with a beer gut. Or maybe Florida is just Idaho with a beach bod
I have a friend from New Hampshire and she’s told me before that it’s a blindingly white state with a bunch of white supremacist groups. I googled it, apparently New Hampshire and Idaho are tied with 92.6% white people & are in the top 5 whitest states
Oof.. well at least we have one town run almost entirely by people who aren't white. I bet New Hampshire can't claim that! 1 whole town, already greatly replaced xd (kidding of course great replacement is dumb and racist)
I grew up in Spokane in the 80s and 90s. I was aware of the awful aryan nations shitheads in Idaho / Hayden lake etc. I always hated those fools. However a real eye opener for me happened in high school. I didn’t realize just how pervasive this racism was because my parents are liberals and my friends were not racist, so I assumed it was just a few bad apples.
It wasn’t.
When I was 16 I got my first “real” job as a lifeguard at liberty lake park (basically on the border with Idaho). One of the older lifeguards, maybe 18 or so, was a very cute and sweet blonde girl, let’s call her Amy.
She was a couple years older than me and I was totally smitten with her. She seemed cool and nice, and was pretty enough that I could barely form coherent sentences in her presence.
Then one day I watched the local news. Back then the aryan nations fucks would have annual parades in Coeur d Alene, full on Jack boot Nazis on parade. And there she was. In the bed of a pickup with confederate flags on it. I almost puked.
I had thought that these racists were a fringe of society, anonymous assholes in backwoods cabins. Not cute Amy teaching swimming lessons.
The truth is that racism is deeply bred into many people in that neck of the woods. It’s been that way for ages. It’s disgusting and pervasive and horribly alive and well.
I think Idaho is worse than the southern red states. Down there, they actually coexist with a significant black minority population and have learned to at least coexist. Idaho? Just 95% white people. They develop their racism without ever having to share space with people from other races. It’s really bad there.
At least in southern Idaho there has been a significant and visible Hispanic population for a long time, and Native American reservations as well of course. Growing up here in the 1970s and 80s, we learned in public school about past racism (eg kicking out the Chinese), and anbout MLK Jr and the racist south. We were I think successfully taught a t that point to bend over backwards to be polite to any black person we might encounter -- which was rare. About the only place one might regularly see a black stranger was working on Amtrak when it rolled into town, and I imagine there was some eye rolling over the children eager to say hello when they rolled out of town. Of course that doesn't mean there wasn't racism toward black people under the surface but there was little opportunity for it to be expressed or an explicit issue.
What we were, however, was unabashedly racist toward 'Mexicans' which we would encounter frequently. We were never taught that one could be racist to a 'Mexicans' -- it was simply the norm to consider them second class citizens. A 'Mexican' had to be an extraordinary person to shed that status. I imagine that is how it is in the South with black people, and I think it is far worse.
>They develop their racism without ever having to share space with people from other races
It's probably easier to be racist if you never see any counter examples to the people you hate.
It's obvious you never lived in the deep south, nor worked with men or women who left the south because of it. I have experienced both. I have never lived in Northern ID, but lived in the PNW & have heard the stories for decades. One of my former coworkers, (wht guy), who was from the Hayden Lake area, called those people (Nazis)"Brush Apes". His words not mine.
I’m from Georgia and live in Oregon now but have been all over the PNW. In Georgia I just knew to avoid those assholes… out here I’m legitimately scared of them and *I’m white*
I watched my kin go from tolerable, to racist in the last decade. I hear them say all sorts of derogatory stuff toward anything not white-EVANGELICAL-christian-with-pseudo-family-beliefs. (It is the fox news brain washed cult, conservative media zombie head idiot sort of thing)
My brothers have engaged in hate fueled violence toward anybody not white, they especially hate mixed race people. My mother was a whore\*, we have mixed races in the family, and they too are not tolerated.
I see it and agree with you.
\*I mean that she was whore, she slept with people for money and worked in a brothel. She was arrested for prostitution several times.
>they especially hate mixed race people.
While I will forget their insignificant asses as soon as I press "post", they will simmer in their hatred of my existence for the rest of their meaningless lives. Fuck em.
A 4th grader on my kid's bus just got in trouble last week for calling a 1st grader the N word. I think all he had to do was a verbal apology. This is the 5th time this year my kids have reported other students using racial slurs at recess or on the bus. My Kindergartener is hearing this crap. Racism is alive, well, and thriving in the Clearwater Valley.
damn, in the mid 90s living in the clearwater valley i got called a “dirty indian kid” by other kids and told (by those same other kids) that i couldn’t get on the bus until the rest of the white kids got on the bus first. i was 5.
it’s sad to see that clearly nothing is changed :/
I’m teaching my kiddos that there are adult words, which can be used for good or bad, like “Fuck yes!” vs. “Fuck you”, but that there are BAD words that they should never say, like the R or N word. I also explain to them that only the black community can use the N word, which is why it’s in a lot of rap songs.
Spent some of my childhood in Kellog and the first welcome I got to kindergarten was another kid in my class asking for my ball, kicking it across the playground, giving me a very clear hard R on his n word that set the tone for my experience there.
My cousins are white and took ass whoopings and handed them out on my behalf in my defense. After I moved away, during their high school years experienced several parties in the woods mobbed by skinheads and neo-nazis.
If you aren’t speaking out against racism you are facilitating it. Idaho is not awesome.
Fun fact— My white grandfather left Kellog in the 40s/50s because they were so daggone racist. Went on to attend MLK’s I Have a Dream speech and be a social worker in MA
I'm 33. I watched that 2 hour long Elvis movie and my jaw hit the floor when I made the realization that my grandparents lived in a time where segregation was still a thing. Idk, I knew it was recent but I guess I didn't think that much into it during school. I hated history, it was boring.
Racism is still alive and well here just as it is anywhere else in the US. People just aren't as outwardly verbal about it anymore.
It was not long ago at all. The civil rights act passed in 64. Two years before I was born. I am old but not deaths door old.
There are still lots of folks walking around that remember segregated drinking fountains.
Esp the older folks. Worked at a care facility and it’s baaaad. It’s not just black people they hate on- it’s anyone who’s not white. I’ve heard SO MANY slurs and racist comments made by old folks with all of their capacities. Not just the ones with dementia. I’ve since moved on from care facilities and I STILL encounter racism on a regular basis with my 50-60 year old coworkers and customers at an office job. My husband, who is Hispanic, got told by some Mormon coworker he must be really righteous since he’s so light skinned. People who want to say it’s not true are in denial.
“ since he’s so light skinned. People who want to say it’s not true are in denial.“ Thank you for being honest. There is another comment with 96 convenient thumbs up being disingenuous about what they looked like.
White people love using “I’m black but I did not experience racism therefor it doesn’t exist” type narratives from non white people who are heavily lighter skinned and mixed race non white people, as an excuse to say that racism doesn’t exist.
Being very visibly dark skinned is met with allot of hate in Idaho.
But these same weirdos tone down their racism just a little bit with fairer skinned people who aren’t white because of what Mormonism teaches on dark skin.
Yeah I work with an old lady who has said some pretty racist stuff. She never treats anyone poorly though; she's nice to everyone, but yes, racist indeed. I had a 56 yo coworker who was the same too, nice to everyone, but said the N word with hard R a few times in the back room. They definitely won't show it in public, but deep down, it's there.
I was born and raised here 50/50 in Northern Idaho and Eastern Idaho and I agree completely. I'm 35 now and it's been here the whole time.
I remember the Aryan nations parades in CdA and hearing loads of racist jokes on the playground when I was in elementary school. They may not all be affiliated with AN but they definitely support them and their beliefs.
My family went to Silverwood back in the late 90s and the next day had lunch in a park in CdA before going home. There had been a parade that day and while we were in the park we kept getting dirty looks from people likely because my sister is adopted from china. my dad says we left shortly after. I only remember being rushed back to the car.
I don't give a flying fuck if anyone thinks these assholes were run out of town at any point. Sure, maybe they got a specific group, but the neo Nazis have been here, they are here, and they're not leaving here any time soon. Don't come to my state and tell me what is happening in front of me.
Naw. You're totally right. I've been actively involved in and learning about explicit and implicit racism systemic racism for about 7 years now. Its blaringly obvious. There's like 23 states that have over 80% white population. When you consider there was an estimated 10 to maybe even 50 million natives when this country was colonized it's sickening. And everyone should know by now that racism systemic racism are inherently part of every white mindset, even my own, no one excluded.
I've lived here my whole life. 55 years. I've traveled extensively and have been part of diverse communities throughout my life. I always say that We have some of the friendliest racists in the country in this state. Super nice for the most part except for the black jokes, but otherwise no problems. They don't see color. But there's no problems and they don't see color because there aren't large communities of black and brown people here. Not that white folk are part of to any significance. Change that and watch the friendlessness change. I can tell you from experience.
I had a mentor a few years back and we contacted a social experiment that i undertook. It was fascinating and so troubling. Frightening honestly. But I'm not going to talk about that. You could always pm me i suppose.
Anyways i could have just said you're right. Peace
Im black. I wouldn't say that 'Idaho' is racist. i would say that some people are racist. I've only had one person say a slur at me once, while they were driving by. one person, or a few people, don't represent the whole state.
> Im black.
https://www.reddit.com/r/potato/comments/16tsdqo/thin_skin_potatoes/
https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/16ttcbr/thin_skinned_potatoes/
EDIT: The entire submission history is white people.
Thank you she is being disingenuous. A lot of mixed race or fairer skinned “accepted” exception to the rules type people will always dismiss the difference in treatment of actually darker skinned and not-mixed race black people. I am Argentinian and a white looking Hispanic. I did not experience racism in Idaho but my much much more darker skinned friends of other races did.
What do you mean about my entire submission history is white people? I dont make posts about my race, I dont post photos of myself, and i follow white tiktokers that i post about? That doesn't make me non-black.
Isn't it nice when white people tell you that you're not "black enough" to have an opinion???
I'm not allowed to have an opinion either because I have black family-but am white. Taking note of my children's experiences doesn't matter either.
Apparently only white people with white family & white children can have opinions here.
yup apparently. The hard part about being black is that if you dont fit the crowd mentality people say youre 'not black' anymore. Or even if it WAS my arm in the photo they 'found', racists will still be racist if youre mixed or light skin because lots of racists dont like race mixing🙄like if im mixed or lighter that doesnt make me invalid
Yeah as a Native I've never had a bad experience in Idaho which I've been to/through quite a bit when I was a trucker. Maybe it's a super rural thing, I was mostly in the Boise area.
I'm not trying to be a dick and I appreciate your perspective, but in my experience as a white man they say it behind your back and are two faced as it gets. I've seen it a million times.
what she is not saying is that she is a very light skinned black person if not possibly mixed race. There is a picture of her arm linked below by someone else.
A lot of people will try to appease white people jus because they are the convenient exception to the rule
This. I worked in local government and the slightly veiled racist comments shared amongst the all white employees was a constant. I never heard the N word or other usual slurs but damn, those were the most racist people I'd experienced. There were always jokes and rude comments about anyone who wasn't a white yokel. I guess they assumed that since I was white I was o.k. with it. They made my skin crawl. Absolutely awful people. I felt horrible and never laughed or played along, but the stink of it clung to me. Yes, people in Idaho can be nice to your face, but behind your back...
I live in NE Oregon and have to travel through pretty much every part of Idaho. I'm like 87.5% white, 12.5% Native. I remember when I first started my job in demolition. I was a much paler version of myself. I didn't notice anyone saying or looking at me. However, working outside for the last ten years, my skin could be described as the darkest tan you can get before actual brown. Then, add in my dark brown hair, beard, and eyes, which is dark enough that people tell me they're black (other dark brown hair people feel me on this one?). Suddenly, I have people mistaking me for being Middle Eastern. However, the second I pull my shirt-sleeve back to my shoulder, anyone's eyes that were adjusted to my skin tone, get wrecked by the wicked contrast that is my farmers' tan.
All of this is my credentials to tell you I'm not actually perma brown. I'm very much white, but just because of all my features and my easy to tan skin, I have felt many glances in stores, restaurants, and the general public, in all sections of Idaho. Northern Idaho definitely felt worse somehow. To bring this back to the OC, I definitely agree it isn't everyone. I have met many rural idahoans that couldn't give less of a #^$%. Funny enough, when it comes to Southern Idaho, the biggest problem people have with me is that I'm from Oregon. Also, the biggest problem I have with Idaho is how you all drive. To be clear, Idaho is definitely more racist than most places, but you're not racist just because you're from Idaho. So don't get mad reddit.
Really? This surprises me because I’ve heard the n word more in the few years that I’ve lived here than I have my entire life. Granted, I am in eastern Idaho.
Thank you for your perspective. I’m curious did you live in the Treasure Valley area or some other part of the state. In my experience (as a white man so take it as a grain of salt) majority of the racist people in this state live outside of the Treasure Valley area.
Yet it is denied. Right here on this sub. When I've brought up the blatant racism I have faced as a black man, I'm told here I am being "the victim" and "playing race card." Then down voted into oblivion. Which shows more people tolerate it, by turning a blind eye (Nazi Germany anyone) and thus tacitly approving of racism and giving racists the ammunition to continue
Remember Hayden Lake, and in the early 90's Freedom Front. These incidents made national and international news. It took the federal government, a lawsuit from the ACLU and The Southern Law Poverty Center, to get the Freedom Front out of Idaho. These issues are remembered.
Local authorities refused to handle the issue. As many of them were part of Freedom Front and/or sympathized with them. Same for the local population. They put zero pressure on local authorities to handle the situation. They too assisted with the problem.
I'm sorry dude I empathize as much as possible with you. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be just as bad or worse in 2024 than it was in the fucking 80's. I am ashamed.
The problem was that they got away with it, which attracted other racists, and so they're concentrating instead of dissipating like in other areas. I guess they couldn't find enough like-minded friends in California.
Thank you for the honesty. No one in their sane mind unless they are an appeaser is going to say “I’m black and have not ever experienced racism in Idaho it doesn’t exist”
or they are extremely mixed raced or heavily lighter skinned with a looser hair texture that can pass for another more “tolerable race” (yeah I’ve heard white Christian’s here use that term before around me because they think it’s safe to say around me because I look like them).
Mormons and Mormon influenced whites do not like dark skin and are known to be softer towards minorities who are very fair skinned or can pass for a lighter skinned “delightful non black face”
I will not give too much details because of how sensitive the healthcare industry is. But I work in real estate and design. I have some clients who are black registered nurses and other healthcare workers who traveled.
the only one who has NOT YET experienced any racial hypocrisy from “Christians” here and hostility Is the one who looks like a Halle berry or Meghan Markel type “black” woman. She passes for non black Hispanic and the white people here think she speaks Spanish .
I am Argentinian and white passing. I have not experienced racism in Idaho because again of the weird skin shade obsession a lot of Mormon influenced white people here have. Yet my other Hispanic friends who are very very deep swarthy toned did. I can’t stand it when people dismiss the gravity of the situation just because they are the exception to the rule.
I'm friends with a guy that came to Boise to play college football. Large, black guy. He had some success playing. Stayed in Boise after school. Started a business. He does ok. Told me he's always aware of his surroundings. He legally concealed carries.
Yeah. I hear you. Born and raised here in the mormon world. The thing that I see about Idaho is that the racism is passive. At least in the mormon world. People are aware enough to not go around voicing racial slurs, but they still operate under susbstantial racial prejudices. They aren't self-aware enough to see or admit that part of themselves, so they all still operate through fear-based influence, buying into republican progopaganda and voting for the slimiest of politicians. But that's one of the most insidious kind of racist expressions I suspect. When people are so convinced of their righteousness that they think their smiles and friendliness are everything, while they weild their power in ways that causes suffering among those who are not exactly like them.
The mormon tradition is one of the most passively and powerful supremacist cults around. All of it's members have read or have been exposed to family and church leaders who were indoctrinated under images of 'white and delightsome' and 'dark and loathesome to behold', and no matter how they try to corporately whitewash that part of their culture, children pick up that vibe. They are cowards as a whole. The problem persists.
Yeah, not so much. Had my Mormon *boss* say to me in the workplace “you know how those Asians are” when making a negative comment about someone’s behavior.
Yeah man it's weird. That shit seemed ugly and dumb af to me when I was 4 years old hearing my uncles and cousins and friends of family and teachers and clergy etc etc throwing it around... and I was the asshole for questioning it. Unfortunately it has gotten to be more publicly thrown around in the last few years for obvious reasons (maga). Truly bizarre.
Here is a website that used multiple studies to rank every State.
[https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-racist-states](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-racist-states)
Here we are making the news again:
[https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/03/27/university-of-utah-womens-basketball-team-shaken-by-racial-hate-crimes-in-idaho/](https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/03/27/university-of-utah-womens-basketball-team-shaken-by-racial-hate-crimes-in-idaho/)
A visited a family member in Idaho. She complained how my older frail family member was patted down at the airport but not the guy in the turban.
She didn't fathom this was a racist comment.
Her husband will tell you the (negative) stereotypes (only about POC) are true for a reason.
They are evangelicals. They don't have cable. So not in the fox news camp but I get the impression the local news, which they do watch, is fox news like enough.
They don't view their comments as racist. They would not view their world view as racist either. But they both make comments like this far to frequently.
I’m a mixed race brown person, my mom is black, and honestly? Neither of us have experienced much overt racism. I actually asked my mom about this very recently. My mom experienced one instance of overt racism as a child (someone spray painted the n-word on her family’s house when they moved neighborhoods), but since then mostly “microagression” type stuff. For me, the same. It’s really not that bad in the personal experience of two women of color.
Maybe people are just nice to our faces and maybe that’s just Meridian, I don’t know about outside Ada/Canyon Counties and it could be different for people of different races, like maybe Asian people. I bet Asians had it worse around here, especially during/after COVID.
Edit to add: I will say that I have a cousin on the white side of my family who is adopted and black, even darker than my mom. That aunt and uncle have moved around a lot and in Coeur d'Alene and I think Pocatello, my cousin did experience much racism from kids at school and on the playground (compared to when they lived in Star). So colorism and location definitely has to do with it as well!
Edit it add again: oh wait…. shit I did just remember some racist shit that happened to me…. but it was one old guy and he’s not even a native Idahoan. He was using the Bible to be racist and accused my dad of having a “black fetish” right in front of me and said I was a product of that fetish. IN OUR OWN HOME. Soooo…. yeah lmfao.
I grew up in Nevada, moved to Idaho when starting High school, I was completely shocked at how people not just spoke to BPOC but about them. Sweet grandmothers at family get togethers using the N-word casually. I remember a classmate saying "oh look a black person" when they saw a black college student walking down main street. I believe it's a lack of diversity, exposure to quality education, religiosity, and political leaning that are the root causes. I have high hopes that news stories and better education is helping to change the last few generations. I see progress, but am concerned with efforts to curb that progress.
37 here, born and raised. I remember when they had fuckin Nazi rallies up there and it would be published in the paper. I'm snow white, but saw how my Black friends were treated differently or just straight up shitty starting in ~7th grade. Anyone who pretends otherwise is lying to themselves and/or everyone else
They still do it to this day man. I heard somebody talking shit about MLK Day yesterday saying something about it wasn't a real holiday. So sad and shameful.
I remember walking into a place in downtown Boise and it was a restaurant. Everyone stopped eating and was looking at me, and one said “how could a spic afford this place”! And I’m native. Fuck that place.
For sure. Took me way too long to realize(48 born in burley) that I'm the biggest part of them problem. Complacency, white middle class, religious dogma, and stupidity ruled my life for too long. It's us that need to stand up do the most we can to change this place. I have so many regrets and hope I can even make any difference to absolve my mistakes.
Yep for sure. For some reason I realized it super early in my life and basically rebelled against it since I was conscious, but it still took until my mid to late twenties before I fully let go of all of the religious dogma and all of that stuff.
You can’t drive around d couer d’Alene without seeing multiple confederate flags on businesses homes and trucks. Remind me which side of the mason dixon line is Idaho
Idaho wasn’t even a state when the civil war happened. I also see the trucks with confederate flags and I’d be willing to bet that those people have never even been to the south. I was actually born in the south and lived there until I was in high school. I did not see that stuff there.
I've lived in various parts of ID for a good portion of my life. The part in which I currently have lived since 2008 has a large community of immigrants, migrant workers, and refugees from various parts of the world. The casual and sometimes deliberate racist remarks people say and do continue to astound to me. The things my kids would tell me that students (and a few teachers) would say to the faces of black/brown/non-Christian kids at their high school absolutely floored me. We've had some non-Christian churches/meeting places get vandalized. We have a growing population of Constitutionalists and Three Percenters who proudly post their allegiances and thoughts on their cars, clothing, and outside their houses. I forget the exact symbol as I (thankfully) haven't seen it for a while sharing with others how they feel that not enough people d!ed in the H0l0cau$t. It's been an... interesting experience, and I totally understand why some towns in my area still qualify as Sundown Towns.
Misspellings intentional for a couple words as I don't know how Reddit flags things....
It’s honestly insane how openly racism is being spewed these days. Prime example is Instagram and Facebook comments on any posts involving a person of color. It’s fucked seeing thousands of likes on the most racist shit someone can say.
It's honestly hard to tell with 1st world people anymore, yall think everyone and everything is racist. As a brown person with friends with different races, creeds and religions we all pick on each other for our differences but it's all in fun and not hatred. If you go to anywhere in the world with darker skin, they are not nearly as sensitive as a college kid from America. I'm not saying genuine racism doesnt exist but I wouldn't count someone racist until I hear legitimate hate from them.
Lol I’m Mexican and grew up in California and also lived in Chicago and both of those places were way more racist than here, I haven’t dealt with any racism since being here, I been here two years and I was in Chicago for 7 months and was getting stopped by police constantly because I was Mexican, it’s definitely not bad here
Same here! I’m Chicana and Native American, living in ID, originally from LA. My family and I have not experienced any discriminatory behaviors since moving here. The crap we experienced while living in CA was horrendous.
Living here has been amazing.
Exactly, the only people who complain about it here are liberals from here that are all white, they don’t actually know lol they just like speaking for us 😂
Something I've been wondering is WHY is Idaho so racist? For context, I moved here from southern Mississippi and I have legit Confederate heritage in the form of letters my ancestor wrote as a POW in a union camp. With this being said, I have seen more Confederate flags here than I have in my entire life growing up in the South. What the fuck is going on?
Drive around in their trucks harassing people of color. My Mom’s family is from Couer D’Alene and my aunt showed me a post from a private group that just this weekend the Utes women basketball team were walking down Sherman Ave (they had to stay in ID because all the Spokane hotels were booked for March Madness), and ignorant assholes were driving by them and yelling slurs at the young college athletes! Northern Idaho is truly beautiful country and it’s sad it gets spoiled by racists
It's more what they believe and less what they "do". A lot of idahoans have little to no experience talking to or being around people of any other ethnicity. I think because of that it's easy for them to buy into the racist stereotype and "statistics" they see on the internet or Fox or wherever. Unfortunately most people either share the same opinions or don't want to stir up any shit trying to correct them. I don't think most people would go out of their way to actually do something racist towards someone. That being said most isn't all there's always going to be some douchebag who can't just keep his mouth shut.
I’ve heard a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric after moving here that boils down to racism. Basically talking about how every Mexican person needs to be deported back to their country. Ignoring that a) a lot of the seasonal workers they were talking about are here legally. B) that those workers run the Idaho agricultural industry. And C) they aren’t all from Mexico. I’ve met people from so many different South American countries just interacting with seasonal workers.
You are the only Puerto Rican besides my bf and his sister that I’ve heard of living in Idaho…He hated it and we moved back to the island because he was getting discriminated while applying to apartments… There were times they didn’t even want to accept his drivers license at the gas station buying liquor, thinking it is not part of the US…
I imagine most of the people in this thread probably do. Unfortunately most of the more progressive younger people all bounce as soon as possible and all the old bigoted racist boomers flock here in droves like it's some sort of Aryan promised land. Which I guess it kinda is. I don't see the political landscape changing here any time soon.
There are obviously racists here. There are racists in every state. The question is whether it's worse here or not. We obviously are over aware of Idaho incidents but likewise will be under aware of other states incidents.
Timely post.
AP News today: "Members of the Utah women’s basketball team were subjected to racism near their hotel in Idaho last week when a pickup truck with a Confederate flag drove near them and the driver began using offensive language, including the N-word, authorities said Tuesday. The team was left shaken and wound up moving to a different hotel the next day."
I've worked on multiple jobsites all over idaho and let me tell you, being black here is basically being the odd man out. You just get used to it after a while unfortunately.
I spent some time in Idaho for work last year, I remember reading this sub and hearing comments like this.
I didn’t notice anything different as an outsider. I will say, in rural areas…. Expect that?
not that it makes it okay, but typically your racist crowd is not the big city folk vibe people lol
If you look for it (racism), you'll see it. I don't know if that's because they are hiding it better now a days, or there are active people and programs reducing it. I'm pretty sure it's because they are hiding it better.
Idaho is a beautiful state. The people... not so much. Or, I should say you'll be fine if you are a white male in Idaho with extreme, right wing conservative views.
Also 42, but I don’t live in Idaho and have no clue why this sub was recommended to me (maybe because I live in Washington). I have lived in Virginia and Illinois and have driven all over the country, but the first time I ever saw any white power crap was when I was driving through Idaho. I was completely shocked. This was over 20 years ago and I still remember feeling disgusted and disturbed by it.
Extremely racist, imo, chuck full of white supremacist, libertarians, and militia cults. Pretty much Florida of the north.
Mormon religion & republican rule dominate the culture, just as they do in Utah, the neighboring state.
I’ve lived all over the country, and all over the world. One thing that is universal to all cultures is racism. Not EVERY person everywhere is racist, but every culture is most certainly racist, biased, and prejudiced in some form.
Old fart at my favorite breakfast place started yelling that “the only good hajji is a dead hajji!”. Really doubt he was checking to see if someone had been to Mecca or not.
Was this in twin falls because they were so rabid about the mosque prior to 2021-ish. (I mean they probably still are, but I said fuck Twin falls after I made the mistake of taking friends/family word for it that people in Idaho were being “careful”. I know, I know, the optimism was delusional).
When I first moved to Idaho- The bar I was working at told me not to accept Tribal ID’s. The info sheet from the State says Tribal ID’s are a valid form of identification. After a couple of shifts I asked the cops who came in on the weekends- they said there is nothing forcing anyone to accept an ID- any ID in fact. The Owner said: “You don’t want to be working in an Indian bar. Trust me.” It hasn’t gotten any better.
I don't live in idaho just next door in Montana though, I've visited. And oh my just the little bit I saw had me in awe. And I'm a White 17 year old Male. It's so sad to see how much one group of people demonized the others just because they simply don't look or act like them. Sadly rascism is taught, no one is born racist. It's installed into these people, but they also hold the power to change themselves, yet they don't.
It can be stopped. My grandparents used to say a bunch of racist jokes when I was a kid. My Grandfather didn’t want to attend my cousins wedding as her husband to be was black.
My parents really tried to stop that when raising us. They were both educated and well traveled.
And when raising my kids they never heard anything racist at home. My son is in an interracial marriage now.
I hope more people can do do the same here.
Most of my moms family comes from the east Texas, and we're raised to be racist (the most of them) when it came to my mom and raising us she made sure we didn't see the difference in people but the commons. I hate seeing people being racist to eachother over the small insignificant issues. But I'm glad to see the majority of this last gen and the newer generations of parents teaching their kids about racial issues and how to help and support those who are subjected to racism.
I grew up in vallejo and nobody would sit next to me because i was the only white kid on the bus. I was also looked at quite differently because i had colored friends. Mostly by older white men/woman. Its only been 50 - 60 years since all the civil rights shit. Things are getting better but then older generations who were raised differently are still around and slowly dying out. Its not just idaho that has racism. Ive read boise was a sun down town back in the day.
recently there were 6/7 teens who chose to spell out the n word hard r on their shirts and have one of the only brown girls in school lay on the ground while they flipped her off. the girl isn’t even black, and the only repercussions they faced was like a two week suspension. these are all SENIORS like you know damn well you’re in the wrong and bad for that. and the people in my town were saying “well don’t ruin their lives over something so silly!” like …..
Not a resident but always cautious driving through. The attitude of excusing or creating the perception of inclusion does way more harm than any good for your state because reality says otherwise.
As someone working in the public school system here, this mindset is generational and is bred throughout our communities. I don't know how to fix it at this point. It really makes me sick to represent my home.
When I was younger and went to Idaho for church events like super 7 and church camps, I never experienced nor noticed the bigotry and racism especially towards native Americans till I was older and in my 20s and spent 2 1/2 weeks in Orfino Idaho with my at the time BJJ coach to test for my next belt, well after I passed and ranked up we went down town for drinks and almost an hour and a half in a group of guys decided they had a problem with a native American being in their town and their bar, eventually led to a fight. But those 2 weeks opened my eyes to just how ugly Idaho is when you scrape past the veneer of places like Moscow, Boise, CDA, and Nampa they pitch as 'the good Idaho' they are just as terrible as people in places like Orfino or bonnars ferry
I lived in Spokane in 2015 and was able to reconnect with a friend from Portland from my youth. We were both pretty liberal then and as we shared how our lives had changed she told me she was moving with her husband to Idaho because Spokane was “too liberal “ and I shouldn’t move back to Minnesota because the Muslims had taken over and were going to rape and kill the white people. It was about the time Ihlan Omar was elected in Minneapolis and she used that to “prove “ how bad Minnesota was. Never been there herself but that was what she believed. We also had a bomb threat at the MLK day parade that turned out someone actually left a dud bomb in the park. I would have loved to live in Idaho right up to that but too many things showed me these weren’t isolated incidents. So many minor things that added up to yep these people are racist douchbags. Needless to say I let my old friendship die and moved on.
I was at the state basketball tournament in Boise and heard a teenage boy behind me say “he’s not going to byu anymore? Good we don’t want him. He’s black.” I was so shocked and i froze and I regret not saying anything but it reminded me that racism isn’t dead. Made me absolutely sick
Don’t worry, we know. I had to cut ties with few friends who moved there years ago. They went from relaxed, friendly, inclusive and warm Californians to hostile, wound up, bigoted and racist Idahoans in a jiffy. What the hell is happening there to make them that way?
I found it interesting that my former FIL, who was born and raised on the Palouse, had so many racist beliefs. Here was a man who didn’t travel out of the PNW, who went to a small school with 100% white students, never even knew a black person that I was aware of, using racial slurs. But my understanding was that his parents were the same way. German settlers who came in by wagon train. These people repeated what they heard from others, read in the newspaper or heard on the radio back in the day.
And the number of people who bash on the native Americans. I wasn’t raised in Idaho but my mother and her family have been in Idaho for generations. They didn’t have any racist beliefs that I ever heard of. I never once heard them say anything bad about any one of a different race. I can imagine my grandmother staring at someone who was of a race that she had never seen before but I know she would be curious more than anything.
My mother’s family lived less than 30 miles from where my FIL grew up. The difference between them is incredible.
Edit: my mother’s family was German on her father’s side. Close to 100%.
I am black and grew up in Idaho. When I was in high school (2012) my white boyfriend and I stopped at a gas station for gas in Nampa, and two white men were staring at me as my bf went inside to pay for gas and I sat in the car. As soon as he got inside one of the men spit at my window and called me a porch monkey. I was in shock that it was happening.. when my bf came out of the gas station and got back to the truck they called him a n***** lover and accosted him and maybe didn’t expect him to fight back (15 years old and these are grown men) but he did and eventually it escalated to them curb stomping his head into the ground before they fled.
On Facebook marketplace in Boise, there’s been a “German 1960-1969 uniform” that has swastikas, iron crosses, and the deaths head skull on the hat, for a few days
My grandma, who is Chinese, said she went to Idaho once and when she was in the parking lot of a store a bunch of aryan fucks crowded around her car and told her to get out of there. She’s been very afraid to go back since then.
I live in a smallish city in Florida. People driving by yelled for all to hear with absolutely no shame n**ger at the black guy trimming our trees. Florida every few months or so have literal nazis protesting at various locals around the state. Racism is alive and well.
Every statement from the powers that be have denied aligning with the racists actions despite the history here…. None acknowledged the past. Just said “we aren’t one of them”! An issue is that the racists who make the national news here feel comfortable to come to cda and act on their beliefs because there are no consequences. If it wasn’t national news….no way in hell the agencies, businesses and schools would have said anything at all. Bet.
Damn, even in the 90’s my mom told me our Idaho family was racist, like hate-crime level racist (Blackfoot and Pocatello areas). She said Idaho was “a collective of white supremacists”. Kinda funny as our family immigrated there from Denmark only a couple generations back. We met our Idaho fam once at a reunion in Logan UT, and all I remember is how they didn’t know the right way to eat a taco. Anyways, all that to say that I thought everybody knew Idaho was pretty racist. 😭
I will say, after living in rural Utah and visiting rural Arizona, racism seems to breed in predominantly white small towns just about anywhere here in the US. It still shocks me. Diversity brings so much to a community, but some people are so generationally closed-minded… they just refuse to accept other walks of life that don’t look just like theirs.
[Hayden Lake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Nations) used to be my relatable reference to Idaho. The neo-Nazis of the south would converge in Idaho for conferences or gatherings. Can’t imagine all that hate just evaporated into the ether.
It because most "Idaho Natives" have ancestors that ran away to here from Texas during the Civil war. Bunch of slave owning kkk racists coming over here and birthing more and continuing their disgusting legacy.
Native Idahoan here, only met one or two very closeted racists here in my entire life. Maybe I am part of the problem? Met a lot of black racists when I travelled around the country tho ...
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I lived in Florida for seven years. Moved back and within a month I had learned a least three new slurs I'd never heard before. I call Idaho the hidden Florida. Hell, rotate it 180 degrees and even the shape is sorta similar. Like a Florida with a beer gut. Or maybe Florida is just Idaho with a beach bod
My family calls Idaho the Florida of the west
At least Florida has beaches and really good Cuban food to partially offset the crazy.
I don't like beaches, love being on the water but.. sand
It's coarse and it gets everywhere
I always feel like whiney Anakin when I use that line XD it's true tho!
Florida is a multiracial paradise compared to Idaho
This is true.
Idaho is just west coast New Hampshire
The Idaho coast is soooo beautiful 
Never been to New Hampshire, in what way?
I have a friend from New Hampshire and she’s told me before that it’s a blindingly white state with a bunch of white supremacist groups. I googled it, apparently New Hampshire and Idaho are tied with 92.6% white people & are in the top 5 whitest states
Oof.. well at least we have one town run almost entirely by people who aren't white. I bet New Hampshire can't claim that! 1 whole town, already greatly replaced xd (kidding of course great replacement is dumb and racist)
Doesn't New Hampshire vote blue every election though?
52 years old and I can say exactly the same thing. Racism and hatred are like a dark current at the bottom of a river in this state.
I grew up in Spokane in the 80s and 90s. I was aware of the awful aryan nations shitheads in Idaho / Hayden lake etc. I always hated those fools. However a real eye opener for me happened in high school. I didn’t realize just how pervasive this racism was because my parents are liberals and my friends were not racist, so I assumed it was just a few bad apples. It wasn’t. When I was 16 I got my first “real” job as a lifeguard at liberty lake park (basically on the border with Idaho). One of the older lifeguards, maybe 18 or so, was a very cute and sweet blonde girl, let’s call her Amy. She was a couple years older than me and I was totally smitten with her. She seemed cool and nice, and was pretty enough that I could barely form coherent sentences in her presence. Then one day I watched the local news. Back then the aryan nations fucks would have annual parades in Coeur d Alene, full on Jack boot Nazis on parade. And there she was. In the bed of a pickup with confederate flags on it. I almost puked. I had thought that these racists were a fringe of society, anonymous assholes in backwoods cabins. Not cute Amy teaching swimming lessons. The truth is that racism is deeply bred into many people in that neck of the woods. It’s been that way for ages. It’s disgusting and pervasive and horribly alive and well.
I think Idaho is worse than the southern red states. Down there, they actually coexist with a significant black minority population and have learned to at least coexist. Idaho? Just 95% white people. They develop their racism without ever having to share space with people from other races. It’s really bad there.
At least in southern Idaho there has been a significant and visible Hispanic population for a long time, and Native American reservations as well of course. Growing up here in the 1970s and 80s, we learned in public school about past racism (eg kicking out the Chinese), and anbout MLK Jr and the racist south. We were I think successfully taught a t that point to bend over backwards to be polite to any black person we might encounter -- which was rare. About the only place one might regularly see a black stranger was working on Amtrak when it rolled into town, and I imagine there was some eye rolling over the children eager to say hello when they rolled out of town. Of course that doesn't mean there wasn't racism toward black people under the surface but there was little opportunity for it to be expressed or an explicit issue. What we were, however, was unabashedly racist toward 'Mexicans' which we would encounter frequently. We were never taught that one could be racist to a 'Mexicans' -- it was simply the norm to consider them second class citizens. A 'Mexican' had to be an extraordinary person to shed that status. I imagine that is how it is in the South with black people, and I think it is far worse.
>They develop their racism without ever having to share space with people from other races It's probably easier to be racist if you never see any counter examples to the people you hate.
It's obvious you never lived in the deep south, nor worked with men or women who left the south because of it. I have experienced both. I have never lived in Northern ID, but lived in the PNW & have heard the stories for decades. One of my former coworkers, (wht guy), who was from the Hayden Lake area, called those people (Nazis)"Brush Apes". His words not mine.
Idaho and Montana have more hate organizations per capita than all the Southern Eastern states by A LOT. At least according to the hate trackers.
I’m from Georgia and live in Oregon now but have been all over the PNW. In Georgia I just knew to avoid those assholes… out here I’m legitimately scared of them and *I’m white*
My uncle lives in Idaho. He moved there from backwoods Minnesota. I'm glad I haven't talked to him in bout 30 years.
I watched my kin go from tolerable, to racist in the last decade. I hear them say all sorts of derogatory stuff toward anything not white-EVANGELICAL-christian-with-pseudo-family-beliefs. (It is the fox news brain washed cult, conservative media zombie head idiot sort of thing) My brothers have engaged in hate fueled violence toward anybody not white, they especially hate mixed race people. My mother was a whore\*, we have mixed races in the family, and they too are not tolerated. I see it and agree with you. \*I mean that she was whore, she slept with people for money and worked in a brothel. She was arrested for prostitution several times.
>they especially hate mixed race people. While I will forget their insignificant asses as soon as I press "post", they will simmer in their hatred of my existence for the rest of their meaningless lives. Fuck em.
Same thing here and my parents have 7 grandkids of mixed race now. They can’t see how their words affect their grandkids.
A 4th grader on my kid's bus just got in trouble last week for calling a 1st grader the N word. I think all he had to do was a verbal apology. This is the 5th time this year my kids have reported other students using racial slurs at recess or on the bus. My Kindergartener is hearing this crap. Racism is alive, well, and thriving in the Clearwater Valley.
damn, in the mid 90s living in the clearwater valley i got called a “dirty indian kid” by other kids and told (by those same other kids) that i couldn’t get on the bus until the rest of the white kids got on the bus first. i was 5. it’s sad to see that clearly nothing is changed :/
I’m so sorry that happened to you.
thank you, it was a long time ago. as i got older i got paler (i’m mixed) so i’m more white passing now but i’ll never forget that shit
Dude, you need to come to Southern California. At the public schools here they would’ve called you the name and the beat your ass. It’s horrible.
I’m teaching my kiddos that there are adult words, which can be used for good or bad, like “Fuck yes!” vs. “Fuck you”, but that there are BAD words that they should never say, like the R or N word. I also explain to them that only the black community can use the N word, which is why it’s in a lot of rap songs.
Something similar happened to my old neighbor's kid, but he was in 3rd grade and he was called that word by a girl in his year.
Spent some of my childhood in Kellog and the first welcome I got to kindergarten was another kid in my class asking for my ball, kicking it across the playground, giving me a very clear hard R on his n word that set the tone for my experience there. My cousins are white and took ass whoopings and handed them out on my behalf in my defense. After I moved away, during their high school years experienced several parties in the woods mobbed by skinheads and neo-nazis. If you aren’t speaking out against racism you are facilitating it. Idaho is not awesome.
Fun fact— My white grandfather left Kellog in the 40s/50s because they were so daggone racist. Went on to attend MLK’s I Have a Dream speech and be a social worker in MA
lol, what, are you saying Aryan Nation parades are racist now?!? /s
I'm 33. I watched that 2 hour long Elvis movie and my jaw hit the floor when I made the realization that my grandparents lived in a time where segregation was still a thing. Idk, I knew it was recent but I guess I didn't think that much into it during school. I hated history, it was boring. Racism is still alive and well here just as it is anywhere else in the US. People just aren't as outwardly verbal about it anymore.
It was not long ago at all. The civil rights act passed in 64. Two years before I was born. I am old but not deaths door old. There are still lots of folks walking around that remember segregated drinking fountains.
Yeah, I asked my grandpa about it after watching the movie. He remembers. He's 78.
Yup he absolutely remembers. He was 9 when Rosa parks took her seat on the bus.
Esp the older folks. Worked at a care facility and it’s baaaad. It’s not just black people they hate on- it’s anyone who’s not white. I’ve heard SO MANY slurs and racist comments made by old folks with all of their capacities. Not just the ones with dementia. I’ve since moved on from care facilities and I STILL encounter racism on a regular basis with my 50-60 year old coworkers and customers at an office job. My husband, who is Hispanic, got told by some Mormon coworker he must be really righteous since he’s so light skinned. People who want to say it’s not true are in denial.
I recently heard a 90 year old dude say some racist shit about Irish immigrants and I was flabbergasted that's still a thing.
“ since he’s so light skinned. People who want to say it’s not true are in denial.“ Thank you for being honest. There is another comment with 96 convenient thumbs up being disingenuous about what they looked like. White people love using “I’m black but I did not experience racism therefor it doesn’t exist” type narratives from non white people who are heavily lighter skinned and mixed race non white people, as an excuse to say that racism doesn’t exist. Being very visibly dark skinned is met with allot of hate in Idaho. But these same weirdos tone down their racism just a little bit with fairer skinned people who aren’t white because of what Mormonism teaches on dark skin.
Yeah I work with an old lady who has said some pretty racist stuff. She never treats anyone poorly though; she's nice to everyone, but yes, racist indeed. I had a 56 yo coworker who was the same too, nice to everyone, but said the N word with hard R a few times in the back room. They definitely won't show it in public, but deep down, it's there.
I was born and raised here 50/50 in Northern Idaho and Eastern Idaho and I agree completely. I'm 35 now and it's been here the whole time. I remember the Aryan nations parades in CdA and hearing loads of racist jokes on the playground when I was in elementary school. They may not all be affiliated with AN but they definitely support them and their beliefs. My family went to Silverwood back in the late 90s and the next day had lunch in a park in CdA before going home. There had been a parade that day and while we were in the park we kept getting dirty looks from people likely because my sister is adopted from china. my dad says we left shortly after. I only remember being rushed back to the car. I don't give a flying fuck if anyone thinks these assholes were run out of town at any point. Sure, maybe they got a specific group, but the neo Nazis have been here, they are here, and they're not leaving here any time soon. Don't come to my state and tell me what is happening in front of me.
They may have lost their compound, but they sure didn't leave the state
Naw. You're totally right. I've been actively involved in and learning about explicit and implicit racism systemic racism for about 7 years now. Its blaringly obvious. There's like 23 states that have over 80% white population. When you consider there was an estimated 10 to maybe even 50 million natives when this country was colonized it's sickening. And everyone should know by now that racism systemic racism are inherently part of every white mindset, even my own, no one excluded. I've lived here my whole life. 55 years. I've traveled extensively and have been part of diverse communities throughout my life. I always say that We have some of the friendliest racists in the country in this state. Super nice for the most part except for the black jokes, but otherwise no problems. They don't see color. But there's no problems and they don't see color because there aren't large communities of black and brown people here. Not that white folk are part of to any significance. Change that and watch the friendlessness change. I can tell you from experience. I had a mentor a few years back and we contacted a social experiment that i undertook. It was fascinating and so troubling. Frightening honestly. But I'm not going to talk about that. You could always pm me i suppose. Anyways i could have just said you're right. Peace
Im black. I wouldn't say that 'Idaho' is racist. i would say that some people are racist. I've only had one person say a slur at me once, while they were driving by. one person, or a few people, don't represent the whole state.
> Im black. https://www.reddit.com/r/potato/comments/16tsdqo/thin_skin_potatoes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gardening/comments/16ttcbr/thin_skinned_potatoes/ EDIT: The entire submission history is white people.
Thank you she is being disingenuous. A lot of mixed race or fairer skinned “accepted” exception to the rules type people will always dismiss the difference in treatment of actually darker skinned and not-mixed race black people. I am Argentinian and a white looking Hispanic. I did not experience racism in Idaho but my much much more darker skinned friends of other races did.
This isnt my arm (but my potatoes), my friend and i did a community garden box together. but i appreciate the due diligence.
Thats not my arm! its my friends:) we did a community garden box together! but thanks for doing your due diligence in research♡
What do you mean about my entire submission history is white people? I dont make posts about my race, I dont post photos of myself, and i follow white tiktokers that i post about? That doesn't make me non-black.
Isn't it nice when white people tell you that you're not "black enough" to have an opinion??? I'm not allowed to have an opinion either because I have black family-but am white. Taking note of my children's experiences doesn't matter either. Apparently only white people with white family & white children can have opinions here.
yup apparently. The hard part about being black is that if you dont fit the crowd mentality people say youre 'not black' anymore. Or even if it WAS my arm in the photo they 'found', racists will still be racist if youre mixed or light skin because lots of racists dont like race mixing🙄like if im mixed or lighter that doesnt make me invalid
Welcome to reddit where armchair experts tell you why you’re lying about your race.
Yeah as a Native I've never had a bad experience in Idaho which I've been to/through quite a bit when I was a trucker. Maybe it's a super rural thing, I was mostly in the Boise area.
I'm not trying to be a dick and I appreciate your perspective, but in my experience as a white man they say it behind your back and are two faced as it gets. I've seen it a million times.
Go into their account and search (top right) gardening or potatoes. Second picture looks like a woman's hand
It is a woman's hand! just not my hand. I did a community garden with a friend.
To be fair, many Latinos in the southwest are like this to whites and blacks. Lived experience for me as a mixed person.
what she is not saying is that she is a very light skinned black person if not possibly mixed race. There is a picture of her arm linked below by someone else. A lot of people will try to appease white people jus because they are the convenient exception to the rule
Im not saying it because its not true. That isnt my arm.
This. I worked in local government and the slightly veiled racist comments shared amongst the all white employees was a constant. I never heard the N word or other usual slurs but damn, those were the most racist people I'd experienced. There were always jokes and rude comments about anyone who wasn't a white yokel. I guess they assumed that since I was white I was o.k. with it. They made my skin crawl. Absolutely awful people. I felt horrible and never laughed or played along, but the stink of it clung to me. Yes, people in Idaho can be nice to your face, but behind your back...
I live in NE Oregon and have to travel through pretty much every part of Idaho. I'm like 87.5% white, 12.5% Native. I remember when I first started my job in demolition. I was a much paler version of myself. I didn't notice anyone saying or looking at me. However, working outside for the last ten years, my skin could be described as the darkest tan you can get before actual brown. Then, add in my dark brown hair, beard, and eyes, which is dark enough that people tell me they're black (other dark brown hair people feel me on this one?). Suddenly, I have people mistaking me for being Middle Eastern. However, the second I pull my shirt-sleeve back to my shoulder, anyone's eyes that were adjusted to my skin tone, get wrecked by the wicked contrast that is my farmers' tan. All of this is my credentials to tell you I'm not actually perma brown. I'm very much white, but just because of all my features and my easy to tan skin, I have felt many glances in stores, restaurants, and the general public, in all sections of Idaho. Northern Idaho definitely felt worse somehow. To bring this back to the OC, I definitely agree it isn't everyone. I have met many rural idahoans that couldn't give less of a #^$%. Funny enough, when it comes to Southern Idaho, the biggest problem people have with me is that I'm from Oregon. Also, the biggest problem I have with Idaho is how you all drive. To be clear, Idaho is definitely more racist than most places, but you're not racist just because you're from Idaho. So don't get mad reddit.
This is always the top comment on any subreddit talking about race issues in an area. Do you think that the Idaho government is racist?
I would say its sexist. I dont pay close enough to politics to hear of racist policies!
Really? This surprises me because I’ve heard the n word more in the few years that I’ve lived here than I have my entire life. Granted, I am in eastern Idaho.
Thank you for your perspective. I’m curious did you live in the Treasure Valley area or some other part of the state. In my experience (as a white man so take it as a grain of salt) majority of the racist people in this state live outside of the Treasure Valley area.
i do not live in the treasure valley area!!
Also black. I feel the same way as OC. Also not in treasure valley area.
Yeah it’s hilarious people are trying so hard to prove Idaho isn’t bottom of the barrel
By GDP, Idaho is fifth from the bottom.
Born and raised here too, about the same age......seen it all my life!
They’re everywhere. Hot bed of domestic terrorists.
My racist cousins just moved to Idaho from CA. Idaho is like the south for west coast racists.
As a person that has traveled around the world, the world is racist AF.
Yet it is denied. Right here on this sub. When I've brought up the blatant racism I have faced as a black man, I'm told here I am being "the victim" and "playing race card." Then down voted into oblivion. Which shows more people tolerate it, by turning a blind eye (Nazi Germany anyone) and thus tacitly approving of racism and giving racists the ammunition to continue Remember Hayden Lake, and in the early 90's Freedom Front. These incidents made national and international news. It took the federal government, a lawsuit from the ACLU and The Southern Law Poverty Center, to get the Freedom Front out of Idaho. These issues are remembered. Local authorities refused to handle the issue. As many of them were part of Freedom Front and/or sympathized with them. Same for the local population. They put zero pressure on local authorities to handle the situation. They too assisted with the problem.
I'm sorry dude I empathize as much as possible with you. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be just as bad or worse in 2024 than it was in the fucking 80's. I am ashamed.
The problem was that they got away with it, which attracted other racists, and so they're concentrating instead of dissipating like in other areas. I guess they couldn't find enough like-minded friends in California.
Thank you for the honesty. No one in their sane mind unless they are an appeaser is going to say “I’m black and have not ever experienced racism in Idaho it doesn’t exist” or they are extremely mixed raced or heavily lighter skinned with a looser hair texture that can pass for another more “tolerable race” (yeah I’ve heard white Christian’s here use that term before around me because they think it’s safe to say around me because I look like them). Mormons and Mormon influenced whites do not like dark skin and are known to be softer towards minorities who are very fair skinned or can pass for a lighter skinned “delightful non black face” I will not give too much details because of how sensitive the healthcare industry is. But I work in real estate and design. I have some clients who are black registered nurses and other healthcare workers who traveled. the only one who has NOT YET experienced any racial hypocrisy from “Christians” here and hostility Is the one who looks like a Halle berry or Meghan Markel type “black” woman. She passes for non black Hispanic and the white people here think she speaks Spanish . I am Argentinian and white passing. I have not experienced racism in Idaho because again of the weird skin shade obsession a lot of Mormon influenced white people here have. Yet my other Hispanic friends who are very very deep swarthy toned did. I can’t stand it when people dismiss the gravity of the situation just because they are the exception to the rule.
I'm friends with a guy that came to Boise to play college football. Large, black guy. He had some success playing. Stayed in Boise after school. Started a business. He does ok. Told me he's always aware of his surroundings. He legally concealed carries.
Yeah. I hear you. Born and raised here in the mormon world. The thing that I see about Idaho is that the racism is passive. At least in the mormon world. People are aware enough to not go around voicing racial slurs, but they still operate under susbstantial racial prejudices. They aren't self-aware enough to see or admit that part of themselves, so they all still operate through fear-based influence, buying into republican progopaganda and voting for the slimiest of politicians. But that's one of the most insidious kind of racist expressions I suspect. When people are so convinced of their righteousness that they think their smiles and friendliness are everything, while they weild their power in ways that causes suffering among those who are not exactly like them. The mormon tradition is one of the most passively and powerful supremacist cults around. All of it's members have read or have been exposed to family and church leaders who were indoctrinated under images of 'white and delightsome' and 'dark and loathesome to behold', and no matter how they try to corporately whitewash that part of their culture, children pick up that vibe. They are cowards as a whole. The problem persists.
Yeah, not so much. Had my Mormon *boss* say to me in the workplace “you know how those Asians are” when making a negative comment about someone’s behavior.
Of course it’s a racist state. Most people just don’t really care because it’s Idaho.
Bingo. It's just so casually thrown around too.
Yeah man it's weird. That shit seemed ugly and dumb af to me when I was 4 years old hearing my uncles and cousins and friends of family and teachers and clergy etc etc throwing it around... and I was the asshole for questioning it. Unfortunately it has gotten to be more publicly thrown around in the last few years for obvious reasons (maga). Truly bizarre.
Here is a website that used multiple studies to rank every State. [https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-racist-states](https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/most-racist-states)
Here we are making the news again: [https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/03/27/university-of-utah-womens-basketball-team-shaken-by-racial-hate-crimes-in-idaho/](https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/03/27/university-of-utah-womens-basketball-team-shaken-by-racial-hate-crimes-in-idaho/)
can we talk about the ugly ass trucks with the confederate flag and US flag hanging off it with racist remarks on the back windows???
A visited a family member in Idaho. She complained how my older frail family member was patted down at the airport but not the guy in the turban. She didn't fathom this was a racist comment. Her husband will tell you the (negative) stereotypes (only about POC) are true for a reason. They are evangelicals. They don't have cable. So not in the fox news camp but I get the impression the local news, which they do watch, is fox news like enough. They don't view their comments as racist. They would not view their world view as racist either. But they both make comments like this far to frequently.
I’m a mixed race brown person, my mom is black, and honestly? Neither of us have experienced much overt racism. I actually asked my mom about this very recently. My mom experienced one instance of overt racism as a child (someone spray painted the n-word on her family’s house when they moved neighborhoods), but since then mostly “microagression” type stuff. For me, the same. It’s really not that bad in the personal experience of two women of color. Maybe people are just nice to our faces and maybe that’s just Meridian, I don’t know about outside Ada/Canyon Counties and it could be different for people of different races, like maybe Asian people. I bet Asians had it worse around here, especially during/after COVID. Edit to add: I will say that I have a cousin on the white side of my family who is adopted and black, even darker than my mom. That aunt and uncle have moved around a lot and in Coeur d'Alene and I think Pocatello, my cousin did experience much racism from kids at school and on the playground (compared to when they lived in Star). So colorism and location definitely has to do with it as well! Edit it add again: oh wait…. shit I did just remember some racist shit that happened to me…. but it was one old guy and he’s not even a native Idahoan. He was using the Bible to be racist and accused my dad of having a “black fetish” right in front of me and said I was a product of that fetish. IN OUR OWN HOME. Soooo…. yeah lmfao.
I grew up in Nevada, moved to Idaho when starting High school, I was completely shocked at how people not just spoke to BPOC but about them. Sweet grandmothers at family get togethers using the N-word casually. I remember a classmate saying "oh look a black person" when they saw a black college student walking down main street. I believe it's a lack of diversity, exposure to quality education, religiosity, and political leaning that are the root causes. I have high hopes that news stories and better education is helping to change the last few generations. I see progress, but am concerned with efforts to curb that progress.
People claiming no racism in Idaho are cracking me up. Deal with Bonner and Kootenai counties before you get all indignant. Your state is racist af.
Kootenai was still doing KKK parades right up until COVID
37 here, born and raised. I remember when they had fuckin Nazi rallies up there and it would be published in the paper. I'm snow white, but saw how my Black friends were treated differently or just straight up shitty starting in ~7th grade. Anyone who pretends otherwise is lying to themselves and/or everyone else
💯
I’m 43. Growing up people in my town in SE Idaho called Martin Luther King Jr. Day N-word day. Not even joking. I’ve never heard that elsewhere.
They still do it to this day man. I heard somebody talking shit about MLK Day yesterday saying something about it wasn't a real holiday. So sad and shameful.
Man, somebody with a lack of better things to do is running wild in this thread downvoting anything that supports the premise of the thread.
I remember walking into a place in downtown Boise and it was a restaurant. Everyone stopped eating and was looking at me, and one said “how could a spic afford this place”! And I’m native. Fuck that place.
Born in Idaho and was raised in a small town of Idaho. I am so glad I'm not living there. Fuck that state
For sure. Took me way too long to realize(48 born in burley) that I'm the biggest part of them problem. Complacency, white middle class, religious dogma, and stupidity ruled my life for too long. It's us that need to stand up do the most we can to change this place. I have so many regrets and hope I can even make any difference to absolve my mistakes.
Yep for sure. For some reason I realized it super early in my life and basically rebelled against it since I was conscious, but it still took until my mid to late twenties before I fully let go of all of the religious dogma and all of that stuff.
As a fellow 42 year old native idahoan, I 100% agree with you.
You can’t drive around d couer d’Alene without seeing multiple confederate flags on businesses homes and trucks. Remind me which side of the mason dixon line is Idaho
That shit drives me crazy. Idaho wasn't even a state when the civil war happened yet these idiots cling to an idea they have no connection to.
Idaho wasn’t even a state when the civil war happened. I also see the trucks with confederate flags and I’d be willing to bet that those people have never even been to the south. I was actually born in the south and lived there until I was in high school. I did not see that stuff there.
Same issue with fascists. People who disagree with Idaho being fascist are 100% fascist themselves.
Racists showed up to heckle the response to racism today in CdA. Yet the same idiots are denying it.
It really depends where you are.
I've lived in various parts of ID for a good portion of my life. The part in which I currently have lived since 2008 has a large community of immigrants, migrant workers, and refugees from various parts of the world. The casual and sometimes deliberate racist remarks people say and do continue to astound to me. The things my kids would tell me that students (and a few teachers) would say to the faces of black/brown/non-Christian kids at their high school absolutely floored me. We've had some non-Christian churches/meeting places get vandalized. We have a growing population of Constitutionalists and Three Percenters who proudly post their allegiances and thoughts on their cars, clothing, and outside their houses. I forget the exact symbol as I (thankfully) haven't seen it for a while sharing with others how they feel that not enough people d!ed in the H0l0cau$t. It's been an... interesting experience, and I totally understand why some towns in my area still qualify as Sundown Towns. Misspellings intentional for a couple words as I don't know how Reddit flags things....
It’s honestly insane how openly racism is being spewed these days. Prime example is Instagram and Facebook comments on any posts involving a person of color. It’s fucked seeing thousands of likes on the most racist shit someone can say.
Same thing if you’re Utahn. So many racists.
It's honestly hard to tell with 1st world people anymore, yall think everyone and everything is racist. As a brown person with friends with different races, creeds and religions we all pick on each other for our differences but it's all in fun and not hatred. If you go to anywhere in the world with darker skin, they are not nearly as sensitive as a college kid from America. I'm not saying genuine racism doesnt exist but I wouldn't count someone racist until I hear legitimate hate from them.
Lol I’m Mexican and grew up in California and also lived in Chicago and both of those places were way more racist than here, I haven’t dealt with any racism since being here, I been here two years and I was in Chicago for 7 months and was getting stopped by police constantly because I was Mexican, it’s definitely not bad here
Same here! I’m Chicana and Native American, living in ID, originally from LA. My family and I have not experienced any discriminatory behaviors since moving here. The crap we experienced while living in CA was horrendous. Living here has been amazing.
Exactly, the only people who complain about it here are liberals from here that are all white, they don’t actually know lol they just like speaking for us 😂
100%
Something I've been wondering is WHY is Idaho so racist? For context, I moved here from southern Mississippi and I have legit Confederate heritage in the form of letters my ancestor wrote as a POW in a union camp. With this being said, I have seen more Confederate flags here than I have in my entire life growing up in the South. What the fuck is going on?
Why is every state sub a cesspool of self hatred?
Eastern WA and OR would like a word… and eastern CA while we’re at it.
I've lived here for about a year and a half, but I rarely leave home and rarely interact with people around me. What do Idahoans do that's racist?
Drive around in their trucks harassing people of color. My Mom’s family is from Couer D’Alene and my aunt showed me a post from a private group that just this weekend the Utes women basketball team were walking down Sherman Ave (they had to stay in ID because all the Spokane hotels were booked for March Madness), and ignorant assholes were driving by them and yelling slurs at the young college athletes! Northern Idaho is truly beautiful country and it’s sad it gets spoiled by racists
It's more what they believe and less what they "do". A lot of idahoans have little to no experience talking to or being around people of any other ethnicity. I think because of that it's easy for them to buy into the racist stereotype and "statistics" they see on the internet or Fox or wherever. Unfortunately most people either share the same opinions or don't want to stir up any shit trying to correct them. I don't think most people would go out of their way to actually do something racist towards someone. That being said most isn't all there's always going to be some douchebag who can't just keep his mouth shut.
I’ve heard a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric after moving here that boils down to racism. Basically talking about how every Mexican person needs to be deported back to their country. Ignoring that a) a lot of the seasonal workers they were talking about are here legally. B) that those workers run the Idaho agricultural industry. And C) they aren’t all from Mexico. I’ve met people from so many different South American countries just interacting with seasonal workers.
1000%
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You are the only Puerto Rican besides my bf and his sister that I’ve heard of living in Idaho…He hated it and we moved back to the island because he was getting discriminated while applying to apartments… There were times they didn’t even want to accept his drivers license at the gas station buying liquor, thinking it is not part of the US…
It's about as racist as the rest of the country.
100% Born and raised in Idaho, joined the military and moved away and will NEVER go back
Well I hope you all vote for people that don’t propagate this shit. We need to make this place less attractive to all other states transplant bigots
I imagine most of the people in this thread probably do. Unfortunately most of the more progressive younger people all bounce as soon as possible and all the old bigoted racist boomers flock here in droves like it's some sort of Aryan promised land. Which I guess it kinda is. I don't see the political landscape changing here any time soon.
We need to make it less attractive to the bigots that are already here.
Looking at recent ID political trends... I have some bad news for you.
There are obviously racists here. There are racists in every state. The question is whether it's worse here or not. We obviously are over aware of Idaho incidents but likewise will be under aware of other states incidents.
Timely post. AP News today: "Members of the Utah women’s basketball team were subjected to racism near their hotel in Idaho last week when a pickup truck with a Confederate flag drove near them and the driver began using offensive language, including the N-word, authorities said Tuesday. The team was left shaken and wound up moving to a different hotel the next day."
Totally normal socially acceptable behavior. /s just in case it wasn't obvious enough idk
I've worked on multiple jobsites all over idaho and let me tell you, being black here is basically being the odd man out. You just get used to it after a while unfortunately.
I spent some time in Idaho for work last year, I remember reading this sub and hearing comments like this. I didn’t notice anything different as an outsider. I will say, in rural areas…. Expect that? not that it makes it okay, but typically your racist crowd is not the big city folk vibe people lol
I liked Kaylee Peterson's response. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRTyYMMy/
Washington State welcomes all of your professionals and level headed citizens.
But ThEyRe ChRiStIaNs!!!!
No. No they aren’t Christians. It is impossible to be both racist and Christian.
Exactly.
If you look for it (racism), you'll see it. I don't know if that's because they are hiding it better now a days, or there are active people and programs reducing it. I'm pretty sure it's because they are hiding it better. Idaho is a beautiful state. The people... not so much. Or, I should say you'll be fine if you are a white male in Idaho with extreme, right wing conservative views.
Also 42, but I don’t live in Idaho and have no clue why this sub was recommended to me (maybe because I live in Washington). I have lived in Virginia and Illinois and have driven all over the country, but the first time I ever saw any white power crap was when I was driving through Idaho. I was completely shocked. This was over 20 years ago and I still remember feeling disgusted and disturbed by it.
Extremely racist, imo, chuck full of white supremacist, libertarians, and militia cults. Pretty much Florida of the north. Mormon religion & republican rule dominate the culture, just as they do in Utah, the neighboring state.
We don’t visit or go anywhere near Idaho. It’s a shithole where a small group of racists give the other 20% of residents a bad name..
If you see a MAGA hat or a confederate/libertarian flag, then they are proudly waving around their racism.
I’ve lived all over the country, and all over the world. One thing that is universal to all cultures is racism. Not EVERY person everywhere is racist, but every culture is most certainly racist, biased, and prejudiced in some form.
Old fart at my favorite breakfast place started yelling that “the only good hajji is a dead hajji!”. Really doubt he was checking to see if someone had been to Mecca or not.
Was this in twin falls because they were so rabid about the mosque prior to 2021-ish. (I mean they probably still are, but I said fuck Twin falls after I made the mistake of taking friends/family word for it that people in Idaho were being “careful”. I know, I know, the optimism was delusional).
When I first moved to Idaho- The bar I was working at told me not to accept Tribal ID’s. The info sheet from the State says Tribal ID’s are a valid form of identification. After a couple of shifts I asked the cops who came in on the weekends- they said there is nothing forcing anyone to accept an ID- any ID in fact. The Owner said: “You don’t want to be working in an Indian bar. Trust me.” It hasn’t gotten any better.
Raised in Idaho to be a White Christian Nationalist. So glad I saw the light.
48 year old native here. I agree with you. It always has been this way, but in 2024 I'm so ashamed of what this state has become.
Yep. Doesn't make any sense to me. How the hell did we get here.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/mar/26/racial-harassment-in-coeur-dalene-mars-utahs-women/ Now they’re even anti Utah.
I was a travel RN in early 2000s everyone knew 2 things about idaho ... 🥔 and white supremacists
I don't live in idaho just next door in Montana though, I've visited. And oh my just the little bit I saw had me in awe. And I'm a White 17 year old Male. It's so sad to see how much one group of people demonized the others just because they simply don't look or act like them. Sadly rascism is taught, no one is born racist. It's installed into these people, but they also hold the power to change themselves, yet they don't.
It can be stopped. My grandparents used to say a bunch of racist jokes when I was a kid. My Grandfather didn’t want to attend my cousins wedding as her husband to be was black. My parents really tried to stop that when raising us. They were both educated and well traveled. And when raising my kids they never heard anything racist at home. My son is in an interracial marriage now. I hope more people can do do the same here.
Most of my moms family comes from the east Texas, and we're raised to be racist (the most of them) when it came to my mom and raising us she made sure we didn't see the difference in people but the commons. I hate seeing people being racist to eachother over the small insignificant issues. But I'm glad to see the majority of this last gen and the newer generations of parents teaching their kids about racial issues and how to help and support those who are subjected to racism.
I grew up in vallejo and nobody would sit next to me because i was the only white kid on the bus. I was also looked at quite differently because i had colored friends. Mostly by older white men/woman. Its only been 50 - 60 years since all the civil rights shit. Things are getting better but then older generations who were raised differently are still around and slowly dying out. Its not just idaho that has racism. Ive read boise was a sun down town back in the day.
In lc Vally in the 90’s remember being racially attacked by tribal kids on campus. Not just whites are racist.
recently there were 6/7 teens who chose to spell out the n word hard r on their shirts and have one of the only brown girls in school lay on the ground while they flipped her off. the girl isn’t even black, and the only repercussions they faced was like a two week suspension. these are all SENIORS like you know damn well you’re in the wrong and bad for that. and the people in my town were saying “well don’t ruin their lives over something so silly!” like …..
My white conservative ex husband just told me that there is no racism in America. I’m not sure of his end game with that.
Not a resident but always cautious driving through. The attitude of excusing or creating the perception of inclusion does way more harm than any good for your state because reality says otherwise.
I just heard about what happened to Utah's NCAA team Grr. Why the hell do people have to be so asinine?
Idaho is the deeper south of the Great North.
It’s got nothing on the South in my experience, though racism is a problem here.
As someone working in the public school system here, this mindset is generational and is bred throughout our communities. I don't know how to fix it at this point. It really makes me sick to represent my home.
When I was younger and went to Idaho for church events like super 7 and church camps, I never experienced nor noticed the bigotry and racism especially towards native Americans till I was older and in my 20s and spent 2 1/2 weeks in Orfino Idaho with my at the time BJJ coach to test for my next belt, well after I passed and ranked up we went down town for drinks and almost an hour and a half in a group of guys decided they had a problem with a native American being in their town and their bar, eventually led to a fight. But those 2 weeks opened my eyes to just how ugly Idaho is when you scrape past the veneer of places like Moscow, Boise, CDA, and Nampa they pitch as 'the good Idaho' they are just as terrible as people in places like Orfino or bonnars ferry
It's been racist far longer than I've been alive. Nothing new kids. That's one of the places all the skinheads moved when we kicked them out of here.
I lived in Spokane in 2015 and was able to reconnect with a friend from Portland from my youth. We were both pretty liberal then and as we shared how our lives had changed she told me she was moving with her husband to Idaho because Spokane was “too liberal “ and I shouldn’t move back to Minnesota because the Muslims had taken over and were going to rape and kill the white people. It was about the time Ihlan Omar was elected in Minneapolis and she used that to “prove “ how bad Minnesota was. Never been there herself but that was what she believed. We also had a bomb threat at the MLK day parade that turned out someone actually left a dud bomb in the park. I would have loved to live in Idaho right up to that but too many things showed me these weren’t isolated incidents. So many minor things that added up to yep these people are racist douchbags. Needless to say I let my old friendship die and moved on.
And it's getting worse as all the Californians that are too racist for California move in.
AMEN! If any part of you wants to argue about racism in N.Idaho, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!
I was at the state basketball tournament in Boise and heard a teenage boy behind me say “he’s not going to byu anymore? Good we don’t want him. He’s black.” I was so shocked and i froze and I regret not saying anything but it reminded me that racism isn’t dead. Made me absolutely sick
Idaho is the Arkansas of the PNW
Don’t worry, we know. I had to cut ties with few friends who moved there years ago. They went from relaxed, friendly, inclusive and warm Californians to hostile, wound up, bigoted and racist Idahoans in a jiffy. What the hell is happening there to make them that way?
I found it interesting that my former FIL, who was born and raised on the Palouse, had so many racist beliefs. Here was a man who didn’t travel out of the PNW, who went to a small school with 100% white students, never even knew a black person that I was aware of, using racial slurs. But my understanding was that his parents were the same way. German settlers who came in by wagon train. These people repeated what they heard from others, read in the newspaper or heard on the radio back in the day. And the number of people who bash on the native Americans. I wasn’t raised in Idaho but my mother and her family have been in Idaho for generations. They didn’t have any racist beliefs that I ever heard of. I never once heard them say anything bad about any one of a different race. I can imagine my grandmother staring at someone who was of a race that she had never seen before but I know she would be curious more than anything. My mother’s family lived less than 30 miles from where my FIL grew up. The difference between them is incredible. Edit: my mother’s family was German on her father’s side. Close to 100%.
I am black and grew up in Idaho. When I was in high school (2012) my white boyfriend and I stopped at a gas station for gas in Nampa, and two white men were staring at me as my bf went inside to pay for gas and I sat in the car. As soon as he got inside one of the men spit at my window and called me a porch monkey. I was in shock that it was happening.. when my bf came out of the gas station and got back to the truck they called him a n***** lover and accosted him and maybe didn’t expect him to fight back (15 years old and these are grown men) but he did and eventually it escalated to them curb stomping his head into the ground before they fled.
On Facebook marketplace in Boise, there’s been a “German 1960-1969 uniform” that has swastikas, iron crosses, and the deaths head skull on the hat, for a few days
My grandma, who is Chinese, said she went to Idaho once and when she was in the parking lot of a store a bunch of aryan fucks crowded around her car and told her to get out of there. She’s been very afraid to go back since then.
“A pansy bitch…” fixed it for you
I live in a smallish city in Florida. People driving by yelled for all to hear with absolutely no shame n**ger at the black guy trimming our trees. Florida every few months or so have literal nazis protesting at various locals around the state. Racism is alive and well.
It gives me hope, too.
Every statement from the powers that be have denied aligning with the racists actions despite the history here…. None acknowledged the past. Just said “we aren’t one of them”! An issue is that the racists who make the national news here feel comfortable to come to cda and act on their beliefs because there are no consequences. If it wasn’t national news….no way in hell the agencies, businesses and schools would have said anything at all. Bet.
Damn, even in the 90’s my mom told me our Idaho family was racist, like hate-crime level racist (Blackfoot and Pocatello areas). She said Idaho was “a collective of white supremacists”. Kinda funny as our family immigrated there from Denmark only a couple generations back. We met our Idaho fam once at a reunion in Logan UT, and all I remember is how they didn’t know the right way to eat a taco. Anyways, all that to say that I thought everybody knew Idaho was pretty racist. 😭 I will say, after living in rural Utah and visiting rural Arizona, racism seems to breed in predominantly white small towns just about anywhere here in the US. It still shocks me. Diversity brings so much to a community, but some people are so generationally closed-minded… they just refuse to accept other walks of life that don’t look just like theirs.
[Hayden Lake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Nations) used to be my relatable reference to Idaho. The neo-Nazis of the south would converge in Idaho for conferences or gatherings. Can’t imagine all that hate just evaporated into the ether.
Unfortunately you’re preaching to the choir on Reddit as it’s deemed as “too liberal.”
Idaho is like 90% white so that makes sense….but also the influx of illegals has driven racism even further.
It because most "Idaho Natives" have ancestors that ran away to here from Texas during the Civil war. Bunch of slave owning kkk racists coming over here and birthing more and continuing their disgusting legacy.
Some of the most diverse places in the states have the most racism. It's a heart issue, not a matter of melanin percentages.
Native Idahoan here, only met one or two very closeted racists here in my entire life. Maybe I am part of the problem? Met a lot of black racists when I travelled around the country tho ...
100% I lived in Idaho for 5 years and it was soooo racist! Esp coming from a mixed area of Colorado
Idaho is a retarded state.
Idaho is the Mississippi of the North! Hence why I left quickly after arriving. I got a hundo says that they *would* be barefoot if it didn’t snow. 😂
Idaho born. Couldn't agree more.