racism

When you think of pioneers, you might imagine Little House on the Prairie. Or the Oregon Trail game we all played in the nineties. One thing these popular depictions of pioneers have in common is they're White. But pioneers weren't all White, and historians argue it's important to set the record straight.

The wind roars at an archaeological dig outside the 200 person town of Fort Bridger in the southwestern corner of the state. The historic site is remembered as a supply shop and a military outpost. It was also the first place where Chinese immigrants were recorded in Wyoming back in 1857.

Wyoming is majority White, but the state is more diverse than people think. The Wyoming Community Foundation says that misconception allows for racism and racial disparities to go unchecked. It's a problem the foundation explored in a report titled: "Does Race Matter In Wyoming?"

Wyoming Public Radio's Tennessee Watson sat down with the foundation's chief operating officer Samin Dadelahi to learn more.

Since 1980, more than three million refugees from around the world have resettled in the United States. Wyoming is the only state in the country to not participate in a refugee resettlement program, meaning those seeking a new home cannot be directly settled in the state's borders.

Wyoming Public Radio's Catherine Wheeler spoke with University of Wyoming Assistant Law Professor Jerry Fowler, who is also the supervisor of the UW Law School's International Human Rights Clinic, about the impact this can have on our state.

Part of the University of Wyoming's mission is to value and nurture diversity. But that's hard to do when the university struggles to attract and retain faculty and administrators of color. To help, Dr. Emily Monago was hired as UW's chief diversity officer three years ago.

The Defender Aid Clinic at the University of Wyoming's College of Law is behind a new podcast that dives into the racial disparities in the United States criminal justice system.

Wyoming Public Radio's Maggie Mullen spoke with Law professor Lauren McLane and student Nathan Yanchek who says the podcast grew out of the outrage he and students in the clinic felt over police killings of African American men.

Every September, 24 hunters gather in Lander and compete to see who can down an antelope with a single bullet. The One Shot Antelope Hunt is an 80-year-tradition with a powerful alumni list- past shooters include former Vice President Dick Cheney, Donald Trump Jr., and governors of 31 states. Officially, the men who are invited to participate (women are excluded) come to shoot, hunt, and raise money for wildlife conservation. But they spend a good portion of the weekend playing Indian.

In 2015 two Northern Arapaho men were shot at the Center of Hope detox center in Riverton Wyoming. They were shot by a white city park employee with a 40-cal. handgun while they slept. The confessed shooter said he was targeting homeless people who he perceived as a nuisance to the city's public spaces. The thing is neither man was homeless. This was a racially motivated shooting, but change has been slow.

This summer, the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers sparked a wave of protests across the country. The first Wyoming community to join that national movement wasn't Laramie or Cheyenne, or even Jackson Hole. It was Riverton.

Many places around the world have towns with predominantly white populations living in close proximity or directly on tribal land. Dr. Jeffrey Denis is an Associate professor at McMaster University in Canada wanted to see how small border towns like this talk about race. Wyoming Public Radio’s Taylar Stagner talked with Denis about his new book and the connections he made in Northwest Ontario.

Protesting racism and police brutality is nothing new. But large, sustained turnouts, especially in small, mostly white towns, is something we've not seen before. For many of these protesters, it's their first time demonstrating - ever.

Buffalo, Wyoming is a small Western town with fewer than 5,000 residents. The historic Occidental Hotel still stands on Main Street. Murals of horses paint the sides of old brick buildings. Buffalo's most widely attended event is a four-day long festival that celebrates a fictional sheriff in town based on Buffalo and Johnson County.