Stewart: Racism still a problem

For the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, the fight against racism in North Idaho has been going on for more than 43 years.

It continues today.

Tony Stewart, the task force’s secretary, said the racism faced by women basketball players in downtown Coeur d’Alene on Thursday when racial slurs were reportedly shouted at them, “is once again a stain on our community that we have worked so hard to erase since the early days of the Aryan Nations.”

During a press conference Tuesday, Stewart said, “a reliable third party” told the task force that as University of Utah players were walking to dinner on Sherman Avenue when “they encountered a truck displaying a Confederate flag as the driver began spewing appalling racial slurs at them, including the “N” word. As the players left the restaurant after dinner, the same perpetrator with reinforcements from fellow racists followed the women back to The Coeur d’Alene Resort continuing the racial threats while revving up their engines in a serious threat to the players' safety. The players were so traumatized they rushed back to the hotel and on Friday and Saturday they left Coeur d’Alene with their coaches and staff as hotels opened in Spokane.”

Stewart said the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations condemned “in the strongest terms these horrendous acts of hatred and if the perpetrators are identified they must account for their actions.”

He fears racism may be returning to North Idaho and growing nationwide.

“We are witnessing a troubling growth of a very toxic environment both nationally and locally by individuals and organized extremist groups to advance many forms of hatred by labeling others as traitors, communists, vermin thus suggesting that some individuals are less than human,” Stewart said. "These words and actions are creating a serious divide among people. We must speak out against this destructive trend.”

Stewart said there is “clear evidence that such a toxic environment often leads to violence as we witnessed during the Aryan Nations period in northern Idaho.”

From the early 1980s through the '90s, neo-Nazis gathered annually at the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake.

On Sept. 15, 1986, a bomb exploded outside the back door of the home of Bill Wassmuth, a priest at St. Pius X. The bombing was later connected to the Aryan Nations. Wassmuth had become the leader of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations two years prior and received threats.

He survived the blast but was shaken.

Stewart and the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations were instrumental in the civil lawsuit that awarded $6.3 million to Victoria and Jason Keenan, a mother and son who had been shot at and held at gunpoint by Aryan Nations security guards.

The lawsuit bankrupted the neo-Nazi group. The compound was later bulldozed and burned.

“After the bombings in Coeur d’Alene in the 1980s by associates of the Aryan Nations, we are reminded of Gov. John Evans' eloquent words during an address at North Idaho College when he states, ‘To be tolerant of intolerance is to become part of it,’” Stewart said.

He said progress has been made in race relations, “but we are far from a nation free of bigotry, prejudice and hatred.

“Racism, as well as many other forms of bigotry, are still very much alive in the United States and around the world,” Stewart said. “This is yet another example to those individuals who incorrectly claim racism is no longer a problem in our country.”