Racial Justice

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With protesters taking to the streets nationwide to demand justice for George Floyd and confront police brutality and systemic racism, Mountain West News Bureau reporters are gathering perspectives of people of color from around the region.

A rally this week in Boise included Nazi imagery and other racist symbols, conjuring the darkest corners of Idaho history.  

Journalism, broadcasting and podcasting in Idaho has a big problem. The overwhelming majority of reporters, hosts and producers speak from one perspective: whiteness. 

As the movement for racial justice presses on in Idaho and across the country, we’re hearing from people of color in the Mountain West who feel like this moment is long overdue. 

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers nearly one month ago, the conversation about race changed rapidly in the U.S. Calls for white people to educate themselves about systemic racism and how they benefit from it were brought to the forefront. And many white people who hadn’t engaged before seemed to listen.

Over the weekend, folks gathered at the Idaho Statehouse steps to hold a rally in support of Black Lives Matter. But this protest had a very specific angle: health care and its connection to systemic racismc. 

Protests against racism and police brutality are not new to the U.S. or to our region. However, large, sustained turnout, especially in small, mostly-white towns, is something we’ve not seen before. For many of those protestors, it’s been their first time demonstrating—ever.

Hundreds of people came to the Idaho State Capitol in Boise Saturday to decry racial injustice in the health care system. 

The Idaho Matters Reporter Roundtable has another weekly breakdown of the news you might have missed from around the state this past week. 

Besides updates on COVID-19, we'll cover Juneteenth, regional protests in support of racial justice, planning for the new library in Boise, and more. 

Today is the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates the freedom of the last slaves in the nation, as news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally made its way to slaves in Texas two years after President Lincoln’s speech. This year, as calls for racial justice and an end to systemic racism ring across the country, the day has special significance to one Idaho family. 

On Saturday in Boise, a group of health care workers are planning to gather at the capitol steps for a rally in support of Black Lives Matter. Speakers are set to address the connection between systemic racism and medical care in the United States. 

Friday, June 19 will be the 155th anniversary of a unique moment in history when, two months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee conceded defeat in the Civil War, enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas were told they were free. Now known as Juneteenth, the holiday combines June and 19; and is also sometimes called Juneteenth Independence Day or Emancipation Day.

As protests and media attention continue three weeks after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, community organizers are working to maintain the momentum towards racial justice this moment has created. But at the same time that the conversation of racial justice is being pushed to the forefront, many organizers are taking care to recognize that those facing racial injustice may also experience other oppression from their other marginalized identities.

The recent police killings of Black people like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others have sparked a movement unlike any in recent memory, as calls to defund the police and dismantle white supremacy have moved into the mainstream. 

Our Reporter Roundtable has shares fresh perspectives and stories you might have missed from around the Gem State this week.

Dele Ogunrinola is a Boise State University student studying biochemistry and physics. He’s been involved in community organizing and activism since he was in high school, and recently participated at the Boise vigil in honor of George Floyd and other Black people who have been killed by police. Idaho Matters host Gemma Gaudette talks with him about his experience being Black in Boise and in America. 

A couple hundred people gathered to protest racism and police violence in Missoula, Montana last Friday. It looked and sounded like a usual rally. 

Since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago, protests demanding an end to police brutality and racial injustice have swelled across the country. Of course, the right to peacefully assemble and petition the government are both protected rights under the First Amendment.