I Was Racially Profiled While Covering a BLM Protest in Idaho
I’m Asian American, and I want to give people the benefit of the doubt. But at what cost?
My photographer and I were called in to work three hours earlier than usual to cover a Black Lives Matter protest at the Idaho State Capitol. Just a week ago, we covered another Black Lives Matter protest at the same place.
A group of protesters were on the top of the steps, chanting and holding signs. As we got closer to them to take photos and videos, many started to point at us and talk among themselves.
“Leave them alone,” one female protester said, defending us. “They’re just doing their jobs, let them.”
We had planned to go live, but then the group started gathering toward us. They chanted “f*ck the media” at my photographer and me, shouting at us saying that we should leave. The majority of the protestors were white, but there were also a few Hispanic and Black protestors in the crowd. The woman that just told his friends to “leave us alone” started saying that all “the media does is twist the stories.” How could she go from defending us one second, to shouting at us the next? She was a white woman and most of the people she came with were white. We ended up just shooting some quick videos and pictures for the…
