A photograph showing a racial slur drawn in the snow on the back window of a car parked in a Boise State University residence hall parking lot began circulating among BSU students the morning of Jan. 27, 2025.
The Arbiter reached out to the Department of Public Safety to ask if they were aware of the incident. Associate Vice President Tana Monroe provided the following statement:
“Boise State does not tolerate harassment or discrimination. We are investigating the incident,” Monroe said.
Boise State University has not issued a public statement on the matter.
Charles Jones III, a Boise State student, chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Committee and vice president of the Black Student Association, was not surprised at the university’s lack of response.
“The inaction from the university is not surprising to me at all,” said Jones.
“I feel that the university’s inaction is due to the fact that, I guess in their sense, if they feel like it’s an isolated incident there’s no need to make it a bigger thing,” Jones explained.
Jones said racial tension is on the rise and that he feels it has something to do with the result of the recent presidential election. Jones said people committing acts of hate like writing a slur in a car window may feel emboldened with President Trump in office.
“What I’ve always wanted the university to do is to stand by their students in these instances. Most students, most schools have that [support],” said Jones.
Boise State is the largest university in the state of Idaho, and thus subject to thorough scrutiny by Idaho legislators. The recent Joint Financial Appropriation Committee meeting pointed many critical questions at Boise State President Marlene Tromp about subjects like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
Jones said this level of legislative scrutiny is unique when compared to other Idaho universities and often leaves Boise State with its hands tied. Jones said that being only a 25-minute walk from campus to the Idaho State Capitol, the legislators “look down hard” on the university.
“What I would like for the university to know is that even though [the legislators] are their bosses, the students are their bosses too,” Jones said.
Sociology Professor Arthur Scarritt also spoke about political tension in an interview with The Arbiter.
“These [incidents] definitely happen with some frequency,” said Scarritt.
He explained that incidents like this have to be interpreted by taking the long history of racism into account.
“One of the most important contexts is knowing why these things are so powerful. In sociology we call [them] overt displays of racism. They really tap into the long history of a group being persecuted and otherwise through race … There is no group experience of white people, as ‘white’, being persecuted for being white. So those symbols and those words just don’t have the same power,” said Scarritt.
Scarritt said people in the middle class are losing their representation in government and social and economic mobility, driving some to lash out against people they perceive as a threat by committing overtly racist acts.
“A lot of this overt racism is not poor people, it’s middle-class people who are down [in social mobility]. They’re sort of bitter people who feel like they’ve been betrayed. And they have,” said Scarritt. “The people who are supposed to represent them are not … I think [we’re] seeing these overt racist expressions as a function of that.”
The political climates’ effect on the perception of race and racial issues continues to change as people in positions of power make statements and declarations that seem to undermine issues of racism.
Just this month, Idaho governor Brad Little proclaimed that February, nationally recognized as Black History Month for four decades, be called “The War on Women’s Sports is Over Month” for 2025.
The Arbiter does not have information regarding the investigation of the incident.
