By Lois Hassell: NewsNet Staff Writer
Jessie Embry, noted author and history instructor at Brigham Young
University, spoke Tuesday, January 12, before the Utah Valley Chapter
of the Utah State Historical Society. As the assistant director of
the Charles Redd Center, Embry took many of her remarks from a study
the center conducted about discrimination among LDS Hispanics.
"We must have understanding on the local level, on a person to person
basis," said Embry. Three of Embry's five books deal primarily with
minority relations. Newcomers in the BYU area voiced concern over never
being discriminated against until they came to Provo. "I served my mission
in Brazil, and felt that people there have a lot of misconceptions as far as
what BYU and Provo are, they glamorize it to a large degree," said Michael
Bonny, a senior from Oregon, majoring in history at BYU, who was in
attendance at the meeting.
Embry reported that 25 percent of church congregations in Utah will be
Spanish speaking by 2050. "We should work on learning about other people,
and avoid even passive prejudices," Embry said. The discrimination study
received funding from the Utah Humanities Council, which promotes history,
heritage, books, reading and public discussions of importance to the
communities.
