My TBM caucasian friend just moved to Provo, Utah. She kept mentioning "the element." I had no idea what she was talking about. After asking her to be more specific it finally became clear she was referring to the growing hispanic population. I guess she thought it was more politically correct to refer to them as "the element." It sounded rather disparaging to me. I wouldn't refer to any race of people as "the element," and I'm not super politically correct.

The only other time I'd heard of a particular race referred to as "the element" was from another TBM middle-aged woman who was referring to Asians. I've only heard Mormons use "the element" when referring to race.

I googled "the element" but couldn't find a meaning similar to how the two Mormons used it. Is it a Mormon thing? Sounds very racist to me.

As a Californian, I would consider this as very racist....and in fact, I think I may have heard this phrase spoken, sometime during my childhood, growing up in my [maternal side only] racist family, but it would have been applied to black people only (not to Hispanics, Asians, etc.).

(Even in enormously multi-cultural southern California, my Oklahoma/Kansas/Deep South maternal relatives were fairly okay with Hispanics--and I don't know the "why" of this....maybe the relative extreme lack of Hispanics, at that time, in the Oklahoma they all came from?)

At minimum, using the phrase "the element" "things" people--it removes their humanity, and replaces that humanity with mental concepts which could be applied to loud vehicles, or smog, or locally existing disease of some kind, or toxins in the local water supply.

P.S. "Someone"/some groups need to get moving in that part of Utah to mitigate this as much as possible: joint community efforts, churches like the Unitarians or Jewish synagogues (I assume there is at least one shul in Provo ;) ), children's groups, maybe public entertainment productions organized by the local libraries, senior citizen groups, or civic minded groups to begin the process of facilitating now-disparate peoples to get to know each other in the usual ways: community fairs, civic efforts to accomplish whatever practical needs are not now being met, etc.

When people get to know each other as individuals, prejudice fairly quickly begins to plummet overall.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2019 04:51PM by Tevai.

Quite right, Tevai. As I'm sure you know, the use by the Nazis of the word "Stücke" (pieces, items) to describe Jews and other deportees in the concentration camps contributed significantly to their ability to mistreat them without fully considering what they were doing to them. "The element" is racist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2019 09:12AM by Soft Machine.

Tevai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> (I assume
> there is at least one shul in Provo
Closest seems to be "Kol Ami" in SLC.

Yup. It's racist. She meant bad element.

Or the also popular, "certain element."

I have heard bad element used to indicate race. I don't remember if I've heard it used otherwise.

My racist Mormon parents and their racist Mormon friends used the words "bad element" or "element" to refer to races and groups. They used it for any race that they didn't like at the time. Often they used it to refer to teen-agers, smokers, drinkers, homeless people--anybody that the racists didn't want in their life. Any non-Mormon boy who asked me out was a "bad element." (I was allowed to date only Mormon boys).

"A bad element" also meant "a bad influence." I heard this only from Mormon adults, not non-Mormon parents, or adult teachers or co-workers.

Not the first time "element" has been been used for non-whites. It is absolutely, unequivocally racist.

Thomas S. Monson, "On the Lord's Errand: Memoirs of Thomas S. Monson," 1985, p. 184:

"In about 1956 we recognized that our neighborhood was deteriorating. We observed this one Halloween by the nature of the people who came in the guise of 'Trick or Treat.' The minority elements were moving into the area where we lived, and many of the old-time families had long since moved away. Seeking counsel, I visited with Mark E. Petersen, who for many years had been the General Manager of the Deseret News. O. Preston Robinson, my former professor of marketing at the University of Utah, had succeeded Brother Petersen as the General Manager at the News. As I mentioned to Mark my dilemma, wondering if it would be unfair for me to move, he said simply, 'Your obligation to that area is concluded. Why don't you build a house in my ward?'"

A "deteriorating neighborhood" caused by "the people who came in the guise of Trick or Treat… the minority elements."

Old Mark E Petersen pretty well set the high water mark for "racist Mormon leader". He was true to form here.

For OP, "the element" isn't "politically correct", unless the correct politics are racist. It would be a slightly more polite way of referring to the Mexican element, or minority element. It is code.

That explains why the Mormons are saying it. The "inspired" future LDS prophet, leading the way.

I still remember how most TBM families I knew had a copy of "Mormonism & the Negro" in their collections of "inspirational" LDS books.

They started disappearing from the shelves after 1978. I was visiting with some older TBM relatives a few months ago and I remembered that they had always had a copy on their shelf back when I was much younger and visited them. Out of curiosity I looked for it on their bookshelf. Most of the other old "classics" like "Mormon Doctrine" were all still proudly displayed. But, for some reason, "Mormonism & the Negro" was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it never existed. Maybe it was just a fignewton of my imagination.

It exists. I have a copy.

Also Mormon Doctrine originally contained very specific information about Negros, Negros and Priesthood as well as interracial marriage.

Next time check to see if the Mormon Doctrine is pre or post 1978.

here it is:

https://archive.org/details/MormonismAndTheNegro

That's quite a quote of Monson's! Yikes! Some of Monson's family lives next to us, and they are the "bad element" that shoots off illegal fireworks all the time--the kind that rockets into the air and explodes on rooftops and in dry pine trees.

In California, car loads of Mexicans would park on the street, and have their little kids canvas the neighborhood for trick-or-treats. We would always give them double or triple treats, depending on our supply, because they drove some distance, and they probably didn't have tons of candy on a daily basis, like the neighborhood kids did. They were cute and polite. Most didn't have costumes, because they couldn't afford costumes.

Halloween isn't as much fun in our SLC neighborhood. Those adult-sized trick-or-treaters in street clothes and horror masks, carrying pillow cases, who come after 9:30--that "element" is from the local ward--probably Monson's family and their gang.

Related to "the criminal element."

Bingo. The root meaning.

No burritos for her !!!


https://www.liveabout.com/thmb/HmIuRdkfIkvqy-hSm04Xzga9Y0U=/768x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/no-burritos-56a74f2b3df78cf772946221.jpg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2019 05:43PM by Dave the Atheist.

I had a friend who was an executive for a company that employed a lot of hourly labor. They referred to African-Americans in the group as the "Canadians" as code so as not to appear racist. Ex. "Will you please get one of the Canadians to come wash that car?"

There is group in my neighborhood that tend to be self righteous, overbearing and judgemental but I just call them Mormons. It would never occur to me to call them "the element."

Sadly, this could have been a conversation with my mother.

My brother was dating a Latina Woman. When talking to my mother about it, she said, "He's dating one of those Mexican women" with just a touch of disdain. My mother is typically a very nice person and you'd never know she harbors these views generally speaking. It was somewhat shocking for me to hear this from her.

Later, my brother and his girlfriend at the time had a child together. My parents, by all accounts, love their granddaughter, enjoy talking to her at length, and have her visit for weeks at a time, even without her parents. And yet, they post messages on Facebook suggesting that non-whites should be sent "back" to their supposed home countries, seeming not realizing that they are talking about their own granddaughter. It drives me a little crazy.

and I was thinking that it's been a long time since I last saw that movie.

I graduated from elementary school, where I majored in elementary studies, so I guess that means I'm qualified to be an element.

The word "element" is itself blameless. Any word can be redeployed by a certain element when they clumsily seek to speak disparagingly about another element, without being too exposed to censure and condemnation from a certain other element.

I wonder what Ella meant?

The Fants are a lovely family and Ella has always been a nice young lady.

Isn't this a little TOO elementary, my dear Wally?

He's become quite well-versed on the subject.

No one told me that it was okay to marry someone from that element.

"Growing up I was taught to marry a returned missionary. No one ever told me that my returned missionary would be a man that went on a “mission” to sell drugs and “returned” from prison to be a better man. No one told me that I would have a family of six the day I got married. No one told me that it was okay to marry someone with tattoos."
http://www.ldsliving.com/Why-God-Led-Me-to-Marry-a-Felon-Instead-of-an-RM/s/88594

Seriously? How clueless to indoctrination does she have to be to believe her god was working in these mysteriously not Mormon ways?