A Public televisions series that looks at the changing demographics of America focuses this week Northern Idaho. The program America by the Numbers takes a look at the new American mainstream , with increasing number of minorities that are changing the face of the country. This week, the show focuses on Coeur d'Alene Idaho.
The show is hosted by award winning reporter Maria Hinojosa who explains why the lake city was chosen:
Hinojosa: “With Coeur d'Alene we saw that while the population has doubled since 1990, the vast majority of arrivals in CDA were white, so while in the rest of the US the population is 63 percent white and shrinking, in CDA the population is 92 percent and growing."
Hinojosa says it appears there may a trend that some parts of the country are becoming a “whitopia”.
Hinojosa: “By the numbers it appears a white America is becoming a quote ‘thing of the past”, and so if people are trying to actively isolate themselves from that, what does that mean for us as a country when we move forward, and I’m fascinated by trying to look into that question.”
But those number don’t tell the whole story. The program shows how white customers of a local Mexican restaurant rallied to support the business after a handful of white supremacists tried to picket the establishment. And Hinojosa says the white majority of the community has it’s own divisions:
Hinojosa: "So you have a working class America that is minimum wage, blue collar, unskilled, and then you have the new upper echelon who are leaving California who have money and who are retiring.”
The episode of America by the Numbers called Our Private Idaho will air Thursday at 5 and 11 PM on KSPS world in Spokane, and at 9Pm on Idaho World on Idaho public TV.
