KIM BOLAND: Here you can run into people that are just very like-minded.

It's a conservative area.

I have conservative values.

MARIA HINOJOSA: Northern Idaho: a haven for white conservatives.

NORM GISSEL: They come up here because they're exhausted with multicultural issues.

JOHN ALDEN: We've had problems for 50 years now with any prayer in schools.

HINOJOSA: Still haunted by a history of extreme racism.

JOSHUA HOSTON: We'll see swastikas, we'll see various verses that are offensive.

And he went like this.

Don't come change Idaho.

Come and fit into Idaho, and we'd love to have you.

This is the new America-- black, brown, Asian, LGBT, immigrants.

The country is going through a major demographic shift, and the numbers show it.

The face of the U.S. has changed.

CHRISTINA IBANEZ: We're American.

We care about the same things.

But yet we also want to preserve our culture.

I just see it destroying what we had planned to happen here.

HINOJOSA: By 2043, we will be a majority non-white nation.

NORM GISSEL: We are making, as we speak, a new America.

And it's a marvelous moment in American history.

Everybody's voice is important to this debate.

HINOJOSA: America by the Numbers.

I'm Maria Hinojosa.

This program was made possible in part by: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

And by contributions to your PBS station from: Behind every number, there's a story.

And today's numbers tell a dramatic one.

As our cities and suburbs become more diverse, many white Americans are moving to homogeneous exurbs.

In the last 15 years, whites were responsible for only 6% of the growth of the U.S. population as a whole, but they accounted for 53% of the growth of America's exurbs.

With its scenic beauty and a Main Street where everyone waves, whether they know you or not, Coeur d'Alene in Northern Idaho is a postcard picture of small-town America as it used to be-- mostly white.

ANNOUNCER: Three, two, one... Go!

HINOJOSA: Of its 49,000 residents, 90% are white, compared to 62% of the U.S. Coeur d'Alene's population has doubled since 1990, and the vast majority of new arrivals are white.

I came here to understand the reasons behind this white migration, and to find out what it's like to live in an overwhelmingly white community at a time of so much demographic change.

Kim Boland, a real estate broker who moved here 15 years ago from suburban Los Angeles, offered to show me around.

BOLAND: So this is what's considered the prairie, off to your right.

And on our left is the trailer park.

HINOJOSA: So your clientele ranges from... BOLAND: That to... nice.

So you have poor whites and very wealthy whites.

Right.

HINOJOSA: Kim took me to a house for sale on the Spokane River.

Go ahead.

And if you go back straight down this hall, you'll see the amazing views.

HINOJOSA: Wow... wow.

BOLAND: And there's a rock right there you could stand on and fish from the rock right there.

That would be very fun to do.

HINOJOSA: Do you remember there being something that was just kind of like, "This is the reason why I came to Northern Idaho?"

Yes, the DMVs in California were horrendous, long, long lines.

Nobody spoke English anywhere.

Where here, we walked in the door, and the person that was at the counter just, "Hi, can I help you?"

"Yes.

You're talking to me."

Everybody's speaking English.

Yes, I didn't have to try to figure it out, or nobody's figuring anybody out.

It's just... it was just easy.

We are going over the Spokane River.

HINOJOSA: Ten minutes by car from downtown Coeur d'Alene, Kim lives on ten acres with her husband Pat and their two children, Kelly and Jimmy.

BOLAND: Okay, here's home.

And there's the creek.

HINOJOSA: "Beware of wife?"

Yeah, Pat thought it was funny.

So you are a powerful woman, on this land.

Yeah, apparently.

HINOJOSA: Both Kim and Pat worked in law enforcement in Los Angeles during the 1990s, a decade of racial unrest.

They're part of the so-called "blue migration"-- hundreds of retired LAPD and county police who have moved to Northern Idaho.

The Bolands relocated in 2001, when Kelly and Jimmy were still pre-schoolers.

You like this kind of outdoor work?

Mom likes it.

So we all get to like it.

(laughter) HINOJOSA: As we turned their timber into firewood, I could see the appeal of the Bolands' lifestyle-- the connection to the land that city dwellers like me rarely get to experience.

So this is pretty different than when you were with the sheriff's department in Los Angeles.

It's very different, yes.

I was blessed that I was able to leave early.

And I'll be honest with you, I've never looked back.

I miss the fun part about being a deputy sheriff, but I don't miss the politics.

HINOJOSA: Pat grew up in Bozeman, Montana, and moved to Los Angeles for better job opportunities in law enforcement.

PAT: Have a seat, relax, enjoy the fire.

HINOJOSA: But he wasn't prepared for the racial politics of L.A. in the 1990s.

Something that I noticed when I went to Southern California was that ethnicity mattered all of a sudden.

You know, when I was in law enforcement, it was huge.

It seemed like that was all that mattered.

And it just seemed ridiculous to me.

What do you mean?

I can give you a couple of personal examples.

Yeah.

I was on a promotion list, so I was excited.

And the next day the promotion list came out, and I wasn't on it.

And my supervisor, you know, called the chain of command and found out why my name was removed from the list, and it was removed because I was white.

It just made no sense at all to me.

So, everything when I was in law enforcement in California revolved around that.

Did you feel like you were being discriminated, because of the fact that you were a white man?

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I mean...

I mean, based on that story, wouldn't you feel that way?

Is part of the reason for wanting to be here wanting to be with people who share your kind of outlook on life?

Being with people who are like you?

I would agree with that.

It's a conservative area, I have conservative values.

It's a very Christian area.

There's a lot of churches here.

That's a big part of our life, so that works out.

HINOJOSA: According to a 2014 study by Pew Research Center, only 20% of conservatives say it's important to live somewhere with a mix of people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, compared to 76% of liberals.

Have you thought about the fact that you're living in a part of the country that in a lot of ways is very different from what's happening demographically in the rest of the country?

It's not like this is our little bubble.

I mean, it is, but we also understand that this is not how it is everywhere.

It is absolutely something we have never talked about, because...

I don't know, we just don't.

There's too many other things to talk about-- the kids, how their school day went, what happened at work.

So to sit down and have a discussion, "Gee, I didn't meet anybody today that wasn't white."

I mean, that just would be weird.

PAT: I don't want to turn this into a race thing.

I understand that things have happened in the past that shouldn't have.

From what I see, it's not occurring at the rate that it was.

And, uh, I don't know, I think people just need to be judged for who they are.

HINOJOSA: Race is a sensitive subject in Coeur d'Alene.

Before the Bolands arrived, this town was a hotbed of white supremacy.

Richard Butler moved here from California in 1974 to found the Aryan Nations and to establish a whites-only homeland in the Pacific Northwest.

The alien is now flooding in.

They are displacing the people of Los Angeles, San Diego.

They're displacing the people out of Chicago and out of New York.

There is nothing more that the white Aryan can do but separate himself.

HINOJOSA: At the Aryan Nations headquarters, Butler incited his followers to commit hate crimes, including fire bombings and attempted murders.

But local citizens fought back.

Finally, in 2000, with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, attorney Norm Gissel filed the lawsuit that bankrupted the Aryan Nations.

Norm met me at the former site of the Aryan Nations compound.

Their little church was right here.

You walked into it and right alongside the pulpit was a bust of Hitler on a pedestal.

The compound was bought at auction by an Idaho philanthropist, who had it burned to the ground.

GISSEL: We won.

We won the civil rights argument in North Idaho.

We won it.

And we'll continue to win it.

What do you believe, then, are the reasons behind this white migration that is, by the numbers, we know, happening in this area?

How do you explain that?

I think it's big city hassle based for the most part.

But some of the white flight people come up here because they're exhausted with multicultural issues in Los Angeles and places like that.

They feel disenfranchised and bewildered by the cultural changes that have swept this nation since the 1960s.

They think that African Americans actually getting freedom somehow threatens them, and then you get an African American president.

That is a huge destabilizer because they understood themselves in terms of... this white male-dominated society's hierarchy.

Is there a generational thing?

Oh, absolutely.

I have met maybe only one or two young racists that were more racist than their parents.

Almost 100% of the time, they're less racist than their parents.

So, part of this greater America that we see on the horizon and that is arriving daily is just simply waiting for old white guys like me to die off, and we're gonna have a new America.

And you're okay saying that?

Oh, absolutely.

With a smile!

Oh, yeah, sure.

Everybody's gonna be better off when my generation is gone.

Everybody's gonna be better off.

HINOJOSA: Hate crimes in Coeur d'Alene and surrounding Kootenai County went down after the ouster of the Aryan Nations in 2000 and stayed close to the national average until 2008, when President Obama was elected.

And then they really spiked.

In 2012, white supremacists picketed a Mexican restaurant with signs saying "Keep Coeur d'Alene white."

Manager Patricia Gonzรกles watched from the drive-through window.

One of them had a gun, you can totally see it in his jeans.

And he turned around and looked at me.

And he went like this.

I was like, what did I do wrong?

HINOJOSA: But word spread quickly among Patricia's loyal customers.

PATRICIA: In less than 15 minutes, I have this place full of customers.

People were suddenly...

Some of them didn't even come to eat.

They only come to support us, saying, "We're with you guys.

"We don't want you guys to leave.

We want you guys here."

HINOJOSA: Still, the Latino workers I interviewed had all experienced some form of discrimination.

This young construction worker, who didn't want to show his face on camera, said it got so bad he moved 34 miles away to Spokane, Washington.

I love Coeur d'Alene, it's really beautiful, but the discrimination here is pretty bad, so sometimes we have to hide.

When you say the discrimination here is pretty bad, what do you mean?

You cannot speak Spanish here.

They say, "Go back to your country, "go back where you come from.

"This is America.

You have to speak English."

I just try to ignore it, keep walking, you know?

Would you have stayed in Coeur d'Alene if you had felt more welcome?

Yeah.

This is why I still come over here, because I like Coeur d'Alene.

ANNOUNCER: Ready?

Three, two, one... HINOJOSA: At the dedication of a park in downtown Coeur d'Alene, I watched an honor guard from the fire department raise the flag with a black man giving the commands.

The son of a master sergeant in the Air Force, Joshua Hoston, known as Hoss, grew up in Southern Idaho.

He served a combat tour in Iraq and in 2007 became Coeur d'Alene's first black firefighter.

That was big news in this overwhelmingly white town.

But Hoss wasn't happy with the coverage.

HOSTON: "First black firefighter."

"Coeur d'Alene hires first black firefighter."

I thought it was in poor taste.

There are four other guys that I was with, that I got hired with.

They risk their lives just the same.

So, it's important that we all get covered.

It didn't happen.

I was proud to be a firefighter for Coeur d'Alene.

I happen to be black.

I didn't want someone to think, "Oh, affirmative action kid."

When someone says something like that, it negates all the hard work that you do.

Cheapens it.

You know, I made sure no one outworked me, and I did all my stuff, plus then some.

I didn't want to leave any doubt.

HINOJOSA: In his nine years with the fire department, which also handles medical emergencies, Hoss has rescued some who hold extreme views on race.

HOSTON: I've seen things that normally I'd be like, "I could be offended."

We'll see tattoos, we'll see swastikas.

We'll see various verses that are offensive.

People can think a certain way, but they don't think that way when they call 911.

No one says anything when I'm putting a blood pressure cuff over a big questionable tattoo.

No one says a word.

They're just, "Help me, help me."

And that's what we do, that's what we're there to do.

We're not there to judge.

We're pretty much a big family, man.

We're a brotherhood.

It means something.

If I went down, and my leg broke, Matt Smith would rip the building down, and he'd pull me out.

(laughing) And he'd die trying.

HINOJOSA: I visited Hoss and his Mexican-American wife Sarah at their home about a half-mile from the fire station.

Their two little girls were napping inside.

Nice to meet you.

So, tell me about your neighborhood.

During political season, the attitudes of the neighborhood come out, and you can see who stands where and whatnot.

There's a gentleman down on the-- on the other end of the street, he hangs a flag upside down with a, uh, a "Don't Tread on Me" flag underneath.

I would hang a poster all day saying, "I disagree with the government," but I would never hang our nation's flag upside-down.

HINOJOSA: The influx of white conservatives has reshaped Kootenai County's political landscape.

In 1994, eight of the area's nine state legislators and its U.S. congressman were Democrats.

Today, they're all Republicans.

And the most conservative candidates swept the 2014 primary.

Come on inside here.

I've been the first black friend of a lot of different people.

And they're good people.

They just didn't know.

That actually makes me feel good that I am able to educate people that Idaho is different.

You just have to experience it.

Most of the education comes on, on-- with other black people.

Because I tell them that I'm from Idaho, they're like, "Whoa, are you okay?"

"I'm okay."

(laughter) It seems like your husband is really happy to be the pioneer, the United Nations ambassador.

Yes.

You know, for diversity in Idaho.

Do you feel that way, Sarah?

I think there's still... uh, a lot of opportunities, like my husband says, to educate people.

So, give me an example of... My brother-in-law was up visiting for a few days, and we were coming back from the park, and a lady stood up in her front yard and asked me if he was bothering me.

And we were just coming down the street talking, laughing, and something about that situation made her feel like maybe I was in trouble.

Because you were with a black man?

Mm-hmm, and I just...

I shrugged it off again.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head and just kept walking, and I just said, "No, this is my brother-in-law.

This is my daughter's uncle."

Like, "We're good.

You know, thanks for your concern."

It's frustrating.

You know if this happens to me right now, what's gonna happen with our girls... you know, if the mindsets don't change a little bit, if people aren't getting educated or exposed?

When your daughters get a little bit older, will you talk to them about these things, and how will you talk to them?

JOSHUA: Yes, I will, because I do know that there will be a time when they're going to be singled out because they're different, and they won't understand why.

And it happens-- happened to me when I was a kid.

Probably happened to you when you were a kid.

It still sucks.

But you learn how to deal with it.

So what will you say to your daughters?

I will say, if someone says something to you, you leave, and you come talk about it with us.

So you understand what happened.

Because I don't want them to be put in a situation where they are now in trouble because they reacted.

Because it's very easy to react emotionally.

I know I will tell them, you know, it's okay to be different.

And to just be strong.

That, you know, it gets better.

It got better for me, it got better for my husband, and maybe by the time they're in high school, Idaho may have changed.

You know, I can hope.

HINOJOSA: Coeur d'Alene is not completely insulated from the demographic changes sweeping America.

Though still small, the percentage of non-whites has tripled since 1990.

(school bell rings) At the Lakes Magnet Middle School, one teacher is fighting an uphill battle to prepare children for a more diverse future.

BROOKE D'ANN DOERR: There are some people around our town that are cruel.

And make it unwelcoming.

They make all, like, African-American jokes and stuff, and I think that's pretty rude.

MARINO METCALF: I hear, like, "You're a Jew.

"No wonder you have so much money because you guys are cheapskates."

And it's just crazy what you hear.

What are the things... think about and discuss the things that you can do personally here at our school and in our community, that can help break stereotypes.

Okay, go ahead and write them down.

HINOJOSA: Kristin Odenthal is a Coeur d'Alene native who joined the first group of Peace Corps volunteers to go to South Africa in 1997, after the end of apartheid.

She spent two years teaching in village schools before returning home.

I had more culture shock here than I think I did when I was in South Africa.

I remember coming back right around Fourth of July.

And it just so happened that I looked at the newspaper, and there was a picture of a woman pushing a stroller with a kid in the "Heil Hitler" sign.

And so I was very disturbed when I saw that.

I realized we have a lot of work to do here.

I felt education is where I need to be.

Education is where change happens.

HINOJOSA: But change hasn't come easily.

From 2007 to 2010, Kristin tried to implement the international baccalaureate curriculum, which promotes tolerance and open-mindedness.

ODENTHAL: What happened?

Some people didn't like the word "tolerance."

They thought that it was teaching our kids to believe in other religions or other philosophies, and not that it's just about understanding and respecting others' beliefs.

So there were some parents that picketed and various board meetings took place trying to kill the international baccalaureate program, and they unfortunately were successful.

HINOJOSA: Since then, Kristin and her fellow teachers have found other ways to promote tolerance in Coeur d'Alene, including an annual multicultural fair and workshops that equip kids to deal with prejudice in their midst.

METCALF: Our main goal is to stop bullying at this school.

That's going to be a hard task.

But I believe that our class can do it.

HINOJOSA: Seven miles away is the North Idaho Christian School, where the Boland children, Kelly and Jimmy, were enrolled, and where teachers promote a Christian worldview that they believe is under attack.

More and more in our society, and in the secular textbooks, we see a lot of diversity in what is written about and what is talked about.

But the Christian faith is what takes the hit.

I wanted to refresh our memories just a little bit about how we got the freedom and the liberty that we got.

HINOJOSA: Kelly's American history class is taught by John Alden, a born-again Christian who traces his lineage to the Mayflower.

What group of people?

STUDENT: Pilgrims.

Yes, the Pilgrims, of which I am one.

Okay?

I'm the direct descendent of John Alden.

So, they write this Mayflower Compact.

And they say, "Having begun this trip for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith."

And that's the heritage, that's the perspective that you or I can have because what they're believing in is just what we believe in.

I think we've left out the basic Christian principles that really helped us get started as a nation.

We've had problems for 50 years now with any prayer in schools.

Or we've had problems with posting Ten Commandments.

We've had problems with some of our views about sexuality.

Definitely a lack of tolerance.

HINOJOSA: We asked Kelly whether she ever thought about what it would be like to go to public school.

I tried to get my parents to let me go to public school, to be honest, I didn't...

I didn't not wanna come here, but I wanted to see a different perspective on things.

I wanted to join Japanese Club if I wanted to or be on the glee or whatever that is.

I mean, I just wanted to have those options, but they both just decided that this was the right place for me.

And I agree.

HINOJOSA: As new arrivals bring demographic change to Northern Idaho, conservative values are what Kim and Pat Boland most want to protect.

Anyway, you guys want to do some shooting?

Let's do some shooting.

Okay.

PAT: Then once you have a clear target, put the x on the target, take the safety off by pushing this button.

Oh, it's frustrating.

Every time... okay, there, all right, all right.

PAT: You did it.

Oh, my God.

First shot.

Put your safety on-- safety on.

Push it from the other side.

Just like that, now your safety's on.

Very good!

I hit a bull's eye.

Yes, you did, you hit the apple.

First shot.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm a girl from Idaho.

Maybe you should be.

You might fit in okay.

(laughs) You think?

Honestly, if you're gonna move to Idaho, move to Idaho.

In other words, if there's a whole bunch of, "Well, we do it this way in California, we do it that way in New York," don't come change Idaho.

Come and fit into Idaho, and we'd love to have you.

Okay.

I mean it.

PAT: If it changes, it changes.

But hopefully the values will stay the same, and people won't move here and try to change us.

Well, what I think is that there are a lot of people who are of different ethnic backgrounds, racial backgrounds, that... Maybe share the same values.

Yeah!

And so, you know, this is what they want.

This is America!

PATRICIA: Coeur d'Alene reminds me of my little town in Mexico.

There's guys waving at me, my husband, like, "Who was that?"

I don't know.

Probably a customer.

HINOJOSA: One year after her encounter with white supremacists, Patricia Gonzales had a son and decided to raise him in Coeur d'Alene.

I'm not leaving.

I'm not going nowhere.

I will stay because all the support I saw that day.

HINOJOSA: Hoss hopes to be promoted to engineer in the fire department, the first step on the path to captain.

Normally I'm a firefighter, just swinging the hammer, but today I was working up as captain.

It was good, I got a good crew.

And in April, 2016, Norm Gissel was inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame for his years fighting for civil rights and racial justice.

We are making a new America with the same values that we had before.

And it's a marvelous moment in American history.

HINOJOSA: Next time: Guam.

A population of unsung American warriors in the Pacific.

WOMAN: Boom, you're going to war, but when we come back, what happens to us?

MAN: I can't get the help that I need, and I need the help now.

HINOJOSA: To learn more about this and other episodes of America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa, please visit pbs.org.

America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa is available on DVD.

To order, visit shopPBS.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

Oh!

Oh-hah!

Ah!

MAN: You're surrounding it.

That's not allowed?

Yay!

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