COEUR D’ ALENE, Idaho – J McDay, the President of Kootenai County’s NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), released a statement that he wasn’t shocked by the racist harassment faced by the University of Utah’s Women’s Basketball team on March 21.
“It comes as no surprise to me that Coeur d’Alene is again making regional and national news for the wrong reasons,” says J McDay. “I have personally experienced similar racist slurs, attacks, and profiling still daily.”
The statement is in response to the major racial incident that occurred in Coeur d’Alene where the Utah women’s basketball team walked from their hotel at the Coeur d’Alene Resort to a local favorite restaurant, Crafted Tap House + Kitchen on Thursday.
Along the way, they encountered a truck on Sherman Avenue displaying a confederate flag then began to yell racial slurs at the women.
After dining at Crafted, the women left, only to be followed to their hotel by more men who continued to make racial remarks towards them.
“As a person of color who has lived in Coeur d’Alene for 22 years, since 2001. It became blatantly clear to me,” J McDay continued. “The city of CDA’s leadership’s status quo insider/outsider bias that perpetuates the racial bias. These twin biases have a profound negative impact on our city and community’s efforts.”
