The Race Issue - The Color of Injustice in the Lilac City

While a hallmark of Spokane is often its friendliness, our city is not immune to the effects of racist rhetoric and behavior. Here are examples:

• County statistics from 2014 show that 19 percent of the jail population is Black and Native American while those same groups represent 3 percent of our county population.
• Where income is concerned, Blacks and Hispanics are two times more likely – and Native Americans are three times as likely – to live in poverty than whites.
• Two organizations serving minorities were the recipients of hateful graffiti on their properties in less than a year: The Martin Luther King Center, and the Salish School of Spokane.
• This spring, white supremacist stickers appeared on multiple college campuses in Spokane.

Did you know? According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which maps hate groups and hate crimes across the nation, there are 917 hate groups operating in the U.S. There are 130 Ku Klux Klan groups (including one in Spokane and one in North Idaho) and 99 neo-Nazi groups, including one in Spokane.

Learn to identify white supremacy efforts: Visit the Anti-Defamation League (adl.org) for the State of White Supremacy in the United States.