Mormon Ladies Discuss the Utah Undie Run and Gay Rights

Nov. 5, 2011. It was a tea party.

It was not the Tea Party, but a tea party.  We were 6 Mormon ladies sitting around a table in a living room in Orem, Utah. Mormons follow a code of health that allows for herbal tea, although not regular tea, but our host served hot cocoa instead. She told us she was holding the event because she had attended a quilting club meeting about the courses and customs that go into a traditional English tea. The hostess, and three guests (including myself) were of British heritage--the other two were Brazilian.

Our discussion of culture led naturally to a recent eye-widening cultural phenomenon. I paraphrase our host: "It was on our way to the General Relief Society meeting. There we were, a bunch of church ladies, just a few blocks away from the (LDS) Conference Center, we looked out the window and saw a huge group of men--they were practically naked!" She laughed as she told the story. What they had seen was the Utah Undie Run (Sept. 24-25.) According to the event website, the official purpose was to "protest against Utah being so uptight."

The Undie Run

2,270 runners participated, says the Salt Lake Tribune. The protest planners asked participants to

Immigration Law and Workplace Anti-Discrimination Law have a relationship status: "It's Complicated."

David Littlefield is an adjunct law professor for
the University of Utah. He has specialized in
Immigration Law for over 30 years.

"I'm gonna talk about everything you ever wanted to know about immigration law in the workplace--then, I'm gonna tell you some things you didn't want to know." That was David Littlefield's opening statement. The event was the Salt Lake City Mayor's Anti-discrimination Seminar, September 27, 2011 at the State Bar Association building. Dave, a white gentleman with an impressive beard, was comfortable behind the podium, as if he'd given this presentation many times before. 

the audience, all 32 of us

I surmised that the group was mostly made up of lawyers--many said they were legal advisers for small businesses or locally headquartered corporations. The lady behind the meeting registration desk had asked me if I was

NAACP Conference: What everyone needs to know about employment rights

I attended the Saturday morning and afternoon portions of the three-day NAACP Tri-State Conference here in Salt Lake City at the Little America Hotel on September 24th, 2011. The group of conference attendees was much smaller than I anticipated. Although KSL advertised the conference as open to anyone, I gathered that most of the people there were those in leadership positions representing their NAACP branches.

Image taken from the web page advertising the NAACP Tri-State
Conference.

Some details.

The workshops were conducted in a room I estimated to be about 30x40 feet. Attendees came and went throughout the day, but there were usually about 35 people seated in the conference room at once. I observed that there was an equal number of men and women. Attendees and presenters varied in age, anywhere from 20 to 80 years old. Although the NAACP is historically an African American civil rights organization, they are interested in a wide variety of civil rights causes, and

Does making racist jokes mean you're racist?

Salt Lake Community College Writing Center's group-think writing
project, Utah Freedom Writers, had advertisements invoking the
1960's civil rights era with a "Get on the bus!" slogan.

(I've reproduced below a modified version of the paper I submitted to the SLCC  Community Writing Center's 2011 Utah Freedom Writers project. The other submissions on the writing center publications page are written in varying styles and by authors of all ages. Take some time to check out what Utahans are saying.)

Does making racist jokes mean you're racist?

(This is my take on what journalists are calling the "Marilyn Davenport email scandal." I previously titled this paper, "Removing the Screen: Turning Civil Rights Debate into Dialogue") 

First, let's get on the same page about

Why Study Culture?

Sameer and I both lived in apartments south of the university. We used to walk home together from the library.

"In my country," He loved to talk about Nepal, ". . . in my country, we never, never drop our parents to the old folk's home. They live in your house, you will treat them with respect. And when your father tells you what your career you will have, that is your career. That's how we do it. Family unity is more, more important than any desire of an egomaniac child."

And then it would be my turn. "In my country. . ." I'd try to explain how the American theme of Independence affects the way we live family life--but I couldn't do it without the sense of guilt for our inconsiderate and self-serving ways. I was enchanted by Sameer as he continued to offer me opportunities to question life as I knew it.

(image source)

I began to realize that what I had always thought to be human nature, wasn't. Culture is more than

The Numbers: Racial Diversity at the Utah State Fair (2011)

Markus T. Boddie
(image source)

The 2010 Utah State Fair advertisement campaign, featuring a soulful character in retro clothing singing sensual songs while stroking a pig, or eating funnel cake, shouldn't have come as a surprise--Jared Hess's directed works always carry a tone of charming irony. But the commercials never made it to the screen. The Fair Board decided they would use the audio from the ads for radio advertising, but argued that the video ads were too sensual and reached the wrong "demographic." Hess concluded that the board pulled the ads because the performer, Markus T. Boddie, is African American. Oddly, the radio spots (same content and lyrics) would have been sexier than the T.V. commercial ads, because in video form, the sultry lyrics are sung to an animal, or a deep-fried pastry, making the whole thing silly, rather than really sensual. Here's the statement Boddie made to KSL on the matter,

American journalism, and the slanted tale of violence in Palestine

This is the third installment in The Culturalist's 2011 Series on Islam.

My recent interest in local Muslim perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have led me to an fascinating organization: If Americans Knew founded by California journalist, Alison Weir. Weir started the organization when, following a trip to Palestine, she realized that the mainstream media (ABC, NBC, CBS, NY Times, NPR, et. al.) were offering an