Could a Polynesian Governor beat racism in Utah?

Look; its no secret; Utah has serious problems with racism. Latinos (especially undocumented immigrant Latinos) are demonized, insulted, and accused of conspiracy (what with the anchor baby stuff and such). Just recently, there was a big fuss over a Utahn impersonating a police officer in order to catch a Hispanic man who was speeding; and wouldn't you know, the cop impersonator asked about the man's citizenship before anything else (the Hispanic man was a Brazilian college student, by the way). "Minuteman" anti-Hispanic groups are increasingly popular in Utah.

Arabs, though not especially targeted here in Utah, have the same racism and religious bigotry directed towards them here as in the rest of the United States. This is despite the fact that the majority Mormons here in Utah should really know better than to persecute a religious minority.

Blacks facing racism in Utah, well, uh, I shouldn't need to really explain that, beyond pointing out that the majority Mormons might have seen the disbarment of blacks from the priesthood as an excuse for further racism. I have to give props to the LDS church leaders, however; in the early years of Utah as a state, they spoke out against the Klu Klux Klan and prevented it from gaining a hold here. But that alignment against the KKK didn't prevent racism against blacks from appearing here in Utah.

Asians (especially Indians) get the generic conservative American treatment; that of mocking their accents and resenting that Asia is slowly growing in economic and political importance.

Native Americans are really just ignored here in Utah, which is a form of racism in itself, I suppose.

But to point out the reason for the title of this post, there's two ethnic minority groups Utahns, especially Mormon Utahns, absolutely adore. Jews and Polynesians.

Utahns adoring Jewish folks is fairly obvious; Utah was colonized by Mormons, and we Mormons believe ourselves to be a sort of "cousin" to Jews, religiously. We try to pattern ourselves after Jews, and are fiercely pro-Israeli. A Mormon who isn't pro-Jewish is more of an oddity than a Mormon who is. Heck, we call ourselves things like "Israel" and "Zion". Even the non-Mormons in Utah tend to have similar views about Jews. Utah is a very positive place to be a Jew, in my opinion. You'll get Mormons trying to convert you, of course, but they won't do it as aggressively as they try to convert other groups, and more often than not, Mormons will be actually interested in Jewish culture, since our theology makes us perceive ourselves as related to Jewish folks.

A more interesting oddity is the presence of Polynesians in Utah. Because the story of Utah is, as always, intertwined with the story of Mormonism, we'll need a little background info. Mormons and Polynesians having good relations with each other began in 1851, when George Q. Cannon went to Hawaii as a missionary. A little later in 1865, the prophet Brigham Young sent a letter to the Hawaiian King Kamehameha V, detailing the church's teachings, and affirming his belief that Polynesians (Hawaiians, Samoans, Maoris and Tongans included) were related to the civilizations in the Book of Mormon. That belief has been held by Presidents of the Church (and quite a few members) rather consistently for decades.

Nowadays, Polynesians have a huge population of LDS members; 1 in 4 people living in American Samoa are Mormon, 17% of Tongans belong to the Church, Hawaii has roughly 70,000 members, and Samoa itself has nearly 13% of it's population professing the LDS faith. All in all, Polynesians have quite enthusiastically embraced the LDS church. Thousands have even moved to Utah after becoming Mormon.

And of course, good relations with the Mormon Church breeds good relations with the Mormon populace; some of our most popular LDS movies feature Polynesians, Utah (specifically Mormon Utah, but it seems to be bleeding over to the non-Mormons) has co-opted bits and pieces of Polynesian culture (especially the haka), and some of the top tourist sites for Mormons have been Polynesian cultural centers.

I'll provide some further anecdotal evidence for this curious love of Polynesians by Utahns; in 12 years as a (white) Utahn, I have never heard an unkind word said about a Polynesian because of his race, and I have never heard of a white-on-Polynesian hate crime, or vice-versa. The worst I have heard is just gentle jokes about how Polynesians eat a lot more than white people, and how physically fit Polynesians are. I've never even heard insinuations that Polynesians shouldn't participate in intellectual tasks because of their physical attributes. If anything, white Mormons try to emulate Polynesians when around them. Furthermore, I have never seen a Mormon ward (basically a congregation) in Utah without a Polynesian family, and I have always seen that family being one of the most popular family. Racism against Polynesians definitely exists, but it's quite subtle, and you have to look very hard to find it.

So there you have it; Jews and Polynesians are the most beloved minorities in Utah. Mormons especially love both groups. So, bringing this very long rant back to the beginning of this post, Utah has problems with racism. But, like in any state, a highly influential minority public figure could fight effectively against entrenched racism without being accused of patronizing minorities, like a white would be accused of doing. The very fact that Utah had a Jewish governor in the past effectively extinguished any lingering racism towards Jews in Utah, for example.

This is all horribly disorganized in my head (and probably has tons of bad grammar), but I've already pointed out the incredible racism Utahns have towards most races. I think that a person who became Governor of Utah could very effectively use his/her status as Governor as a sort of "bully pulpit" to beat down racism in Utah through word, law, and personal example. As I explained, normally, most minorities in Utah would be looked down upon for being a minority, even though they'd be better able to fight racism. Even if a minority became Governor, they'd have massive nativist/racist resentment against them for fighting against that racism. A Polynesian Governor however, would be able to avoid both the trap of being perceived as a patronizing white, AND the trap of simply being a minority Utahns dislike. Therefore, I think a strong, anti-racism Polynesian Governor will be Utah's best bet to beat racism in Utah.

Just a very long, rambling thought. My next post will be better written than this; I've just had an "off" day for writing.