This past weekend, while staying in Coeur D’Alene in anticipation of the NCAA tournament, one of the most important tournaments of their lives, members of the University of Utah women’s basketball team were verbally harassed and assaulted by a local resident.
Immediately after the event, local community members and organizations across the state expressed support for the athletes and sympathy for their experience. There was an outpouring of support for the team, restating over and over again that “Idaho is too Great for Hate.”
But it’s funny how that same statement does not stand when the Vandal volleyball team is allegedly verbally harassed and abused by their coach for two whole seasons before the university starts investigating.
It does not stand when the Idaho Legislature wants to get rid of the diversity offices and positions in Idaho colleges and universities that protect students from hate speech.
“Idaho leaders and community members at all levels have been consistent and clear about our values. We fully reject racism in all its forms,” Little said in his social media statement.
All leaders in Idaho, you say. An interesting phrase when District 1 representative Heather Scott is well known for defending white nationalists on her social media. When you are depicted grinning on your Twitter at the signing of a bill intended to strip the university of its statements protecting students of color.
For all leaders in Idaho to be against racism in all forms, we would expect these actions to be condemned by the very leaders we are supposed to trust.
But Little is not the only one to have put his foot in his mouth. The University let out a very similar statement about the incident.
“At the University of Idaho, we pride ourselves on creating a welcoming environment for all people,” the university said in a statement released on their Instagram. “We hope those who were hurt by these actions know that we, at the University of Idaho, in no way condone this behavior, beliefs or action.”
They do not condone this behavior, and yet the university dismissed two entire rosters of Vandal volleyball players complaining, and round after round of letters sent to both senior leaders in Vandal Athletics and the university administration, only beginning their investigation when players went public with their complaints.
We, as people who love and believe in the state of Idaho, want to say that Idaho is too Great for Hate, but first, our institutions need to actually act like it.