Black Nontraditional Looking At Univ. of Idaho MFA Theatre

[Keim]

Originally Posted by Disciple1975

It does seem pretty isolated to me.

To someone from the Spokane-CDA metro area, it is. To someone from, for instance, eastern MT its downright overpopulated.

[Disciple1975]

Originally Posted by Keim

To someone from the Spokane-CDA metro area, it is. To someone from, for instance, eastern MT its downright overpopulated.

Now that is a good point. Then again, to someone from a huge metro area in other parts of the country, the Spokane-CDA metro area may seem isolated.

[Keim]

Originally Posted by Disciple1975

Now that is a good point. Then again, to someone from a huge metro area in other parts of the country, the Spokane-CDA metro area may seem isolated.

Exactly!

[LS35a]

It's a college town. A black liberal? You'll be worshipped.

[Disciple1975]

Originally Posted by LS35a

It's a college town. A black liberal? You'll be worshipped.

Exactly! Fortunately, I've not personally come across anyone with white guilt but supposedly it is rampant these days.

[Skipjack_50]

Hello there!

We're recent transplants back to Idaho (originally from CDA but my wife, son, dog, and myself just moved to Moscow after 13 years in Chicago). I know a handful of folks who have gone through the BA program and maybe one or two that have started the graduate program. More than happy to connect you with them if that would be helpful.

On the diversity front I will say, as a native Idahoan, Moscow is pretty diverse (for Idaho). Case in point my wife is Korean and having grown up in some other areas of ID and having a few various negative experiences as a kid (and we're talking 30 years ago so keep that in mind) she is really astounded and happy with just how diverse Moscow is.

Another nice aspect that I appreciate is how many folks here are from somewhere else. Kinda the nature of a University town (which is right next to another University town - WSU in Pullman). I feel that adds so much to the culture personally.

Good luck man and let me know if I can help connect you with the theater folks from the program.

[KwasiBuff]

Thank you for advise. Sounds like a nice little town!

[KwasiBuff]

Originally Posted by banjomike

[MOD CUT]

Idaho, despite its reputation, is not any different that all the other red states in the West. Conservatives have a majority, but Idaho has always had all political shades here and always will.

You are free to express your personal beliefs, but don't try to represent the rest of us in them. people with all shades of political belief are still very welcome here, as are people of all races and faiths.

There will never come a day when barricades and loyalty oaths will be needed to move to Idaho. Trying to claim such an anti-American offense exists is both repugnant and completely false.

Kwasibuff- This post shows opposite sides of what exists here. While idaho doesn't have a sizeable number of black folks, the number is increasing slowly and steadily of where it was when I was a kid growing up here.

I've lived in the top, middle and bottom areas of this state over my lifetime. And in each, I have known a few black folks who lived here with no trouble. If anything, we are much more racially tolerant now than in my earlier times in all our larger cities.
If you were to move to one of our small towns, I'm sure you would be met with more curiosity than hostility.

While its obvious a few exceptions still remain, Idaho's brief period of militant racism, brought in by white supremacists largely by the actions of one Californian transplant, ended over 25 years ago when the Aryan Nations compound and the group was driven into bankruptcy by the Southern Poverty Law Center's lawyers.

The lawyer's fees were paid by a native Idahoan, and the city of Coeur d'Alene had fought that little bunch of losers from the first. Richard Butler, their leader died alone and forgotten in western Washington, and his group and the compound itself are both long gone. Idaho got branded, and no matter what the facts are, we never approved of them nor wanted them living amongst us.

So there you have it. I'm completely sure you won't have discrimination problems here anywhere. Moscow is a good school for liberal arts, but so is Boise State. You might want to check them both out before you make a decision on one alone. I have attended both, never graduated from either.

Great information...thank you for taking the time to reply!

[sheena12]

I'd visit it out first, but MFA programs are not generally "hot beds of conservatism". It's a good school, and I think you will be fine.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by Disciple1975

It does seem pretty isolated to me.

While it may seem so, the truth is anyone who moves to Moscow gets two towns in one.

Pullman, Washington, is less than 9 miles away and is growing at the same rate. Pullman is the home of Washington Sate U., so the two towns' economies are very similar. Together, the combined population is over 50,000. That's larger than CDA alone.

Going to Spokane from Pullman is also a lot faster than driving up on the Idaho side. Spokane is only about an hour away, going up US 195.
There isn't as much need to go to Spokane or CDA for shopping or whatever than there is in all the small towns that surround CDA on 3 sides.

It's nowhere as isolated as you think. The reason why you don't hear more about folks from Moscow in CDA is because both towns combined have plenty of stuff already. It's all one big retail center, but those 9 miles of separation still give both a small-town feel.