A Different State of Race Relations

Utah state Sen. Chris Buttars came under fire for saying of a bill: "This baby is black. . . . It's a dark, ugly thing." (By Scott G. Winterton -- Deseret Morning News)

"We do ourselves a disservice if we only just look forward," Gray said, "because then we fail to recognize the distance traveled."

Consider the math. Less than 1 percent of the state's 2.6 million people are African American, including several hundred Hurricane Katrina evacuees who arrived by chartered jet and were frisked upon landing.

Consider also that, until 1978, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints preached that black skin was the mark of Cain -- a curse.

But also recognize, black residents say, the mix of ignorance, presumption and often an almost touching innocence that animate their stories about living in a place where most white people appear to be well-intentioned but simply do not know very many black people, and are not sure how to act.

"My first week here, one of the camera operators who was training me was asking me to teach him how to talk jive," said Tania Paxton, a TV camerawoman who arrived from back East in 1992 and found in the clear mountain air contrasts of a brightness usually seen in cartoons.

"When I travel across the state, I become this trophy," said Rodger Griffin, a human resources administrator who moved from Delaware in 1978. "People invite me to their house for dinner because they want their neighbors to see the black man."

Griffin, trained as an opera singer, came to Utah hoping to join the Tabernacle Choir but didn't cotton to being informed, upon his arrival, that he was no longer "cursed."

"I think what Utah can teach the nation is there's hope in terms of sensible race relations," said Darron Smith, a sociology professor and co-editor of "Black and Mormon." "I don't think people in Utah mean to be outlandishly racist as much as they are outlandishly naive about how race affects life."

"Naive's a good word," said Sylvia Morris, 55, the office manager at Calvary Baptist who, on visits to Los Angeles, startles black people by greeting them on the street, as she greets all fellow African Americans in Salt Lake City. "I think there are parts of Utah where children have never seen a black person."

A handful of states have fewer African Americans than Utah, but no place is more alien. Founded in 1847 by followers of the Mormon faith, the state's reputation for hard-shelled, institutional prejudice has kept blacks at a wary distance.

"I remember when my cousin first came to Utah seven years ago, she had all these preconceived notions. She heard something about tails," said Michael Styles, an African American and the director and sole employee of the state's office of black affairs. After a Utah childhood punctuated by telephoned death threats and a poisoned family dog, he now visits elementary schools around the state, handing out prizes to children who learn to say "people of color" instead of "colored."

"To survive, you have to have a sense of humor," said Paxton, the camerawoman, who followed a white boyfriend to Salt Lake City. She said that after the relationship ended, he confessed that he had chosen Utah believing it was the one place in the country she would not follow.