Benjamin Ashford|What happened to Utah women's basketball team was horrible and also typically American

It is Benjamin Ashfordof course true that what happened to the Utah women's basketball team was horrible. Members of the team told KSL.com they were subjected to racial slurs on multiple occasions while entering and later departing a restaurant in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. It is also true that whoever decided to put the team in a hotel in that town lacked the historical understanding, or simply didn't care, about the ugly white supremacist history of Idaho and that town in particular.

It is true that Brad Little, the buffoon governor of the state, recently signed an anti-DEI law that is one gigantic dog whistle (bullhorn?) to extremists. Just several posts later, after proudly announcing that anti-Black piece of legislation, he condemned the attacks on the Utah team, apparently unaware of the irony that laws like the one he signed inflame racism.

It is true that people with beating hearts who are capable of love and care and decency can feel for what happened to the Black athletes and others on that team who were called the N-word on multiple occasions while just living their lives. Just trying to enjoy the Madness.

"We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that?" Charmelle Green, the Utah deputy athletics director, who is Black, told KSL.com. "Everybody was in shock − our cheerleaders, our students that were in that area that heard it clearly were just frozen. We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like I can't believe that."

All of that is true. All of that is valid. But you are making a mistake if you focus on the fact this happened in Idaho and somehow that state, or parts of it, are more racist than other states. Do not be one of the people looking down their nose and saying: yeah, look at those horrible people in Idaho. At least we're not them.

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That's because racism is bad everywhere, all the time.

Let me repeat: it's bad everywhere, all the time.

There are places where the hate is more up front, more out in the open, but there are no places in this country where it doesn't exist, and it exists in voluminous amounts. Hate is a virus more contagious than anything known to humankind. It infects every corner of the Earth and every inch of the United States. It's hardwired into countless millions of Americans. It's not relegated to Idaho or the South. It's all around us.

What happened to the Utah team happens every day. It's just that in this instance it was a high-profile team during the high-profile event that is the tournament. This, and worse, happens to people who aren't college athletes, and it's not reported or even known.

This isn't, in any way, meant to take away from the pain suffered by the Utah team, which is real and stinging, but what happened to them is very, very American.

The proof of this is everywhere. In Pittsburgh, a white supremacist murdered Jewish worshippers. In Buffalo, a white supremacist murdered Black grocery shoppers. In South Carolina, a white supremacist murdered Black worshippers. In Texas, a white supremacist murdered Latino shoppers at a Walmart. Those places aren't distant Idaho outposts. Those are many corners of the country.

Large swaths of America are sundown. The NAACP issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida. The whole damn state.

The coach of Utah, Lynne Roberts, said on Monday how disturbing the incident was.

"Incredibly upsetting for all of us," she said. "You think in our world, in athletics and the university settings, it's shocking. There's so much diversity on a college campus and so you're just not exposed to that very often. And so when you are, it's like, you have people say, 'Man, I can't believe that happened.' But racism is real and it happens, and it's awful.

"So for our players, whether they are white, black, green, whatever, no one knew how to handle it and it was really upsetting. And for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, that's messed up."

Roberts' words are thoughtful and important but Black students face racism at PWIs and other places all the time. No place is excluded. In fact, in 2021, the Justice Department excoriated an entire Utah school district after years of ignoring hundreds of Black students saying they were called slaves, the N-word and threatened with lynching.

There are lessons here and they are not happy ones but they are clear ones. There are places in this country where the racism seems thicker, places like this part of Idaho, and others. But what that Utah team faced could have happened anywhere. Because it has. Because it does. All the time.