One of the first steps in solving a serious problem is acknowledging the problem exists.

Judging from reports about racial slurs being hurled at sporting events, it seems some people are having a problem acknowledging that there may be some racism near home, even among the Mormons.

By contrast, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley told last weekend's general priesthood session of conference that he was disturbed by reports of Utahns' using racial epithets. This comes just a few weeks after a town-hall meeting in Provo called to explore this issue. That meeting resulted in expressions of desire that something be done. Provo City School District is one entity that is actually doing, with renewed emphasis on racial and ethnic sensitivity. We hope this is not a mere exercise in political correctness but a genuine effort to sharpen students' thinking and improve their perceptive abilities.

But the church president's words from the pulpit have far greater reach and are far more likely to be heeded in Mormon-dominated Utah County than a town meeting or a school program. Attendees at the town-hall meeting, after all, had already acknowledged a problem. So organizers were preaching to the choir to some extent.

Newspaper reports helped carry the message, but the secular media will never be as effective on certain topics as straight talk from a revered religious leader.

"I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ," President Hinckley said.

He added that most people in Utah are tolerant and respectful of others, but it is the few who persist in racial, ethnic and religious bigotry that tarnish the whole church -- and, we would say, the reputation of Utah. If anybody in the country should be most tolerant, it should be the residents of the state founded by people fleeing persecution. Perhaps they are, though even a little racism is too much.

Bigots find it easy to dismiss someone like Michael Styles, director of black affairs for the Utah Office of Ethnic Affairs, as a mere bureaucrat. Conversely, a message from the Mormon leader should be a little harder to ignore for the majority of Utahns.

Unfortunately, those who regularly use racial slurs may not be the sort of persons inclined to heed counsel from a religious leader of any denomination. Many other faiths have condemned racism in the past -- and so has the LDS Church. It's tough to root out.

But the speech was good medicine for a Utah audience. Mormons are here in abundance, and President Hinckley's frank admission that negative racial expressions seem to be on the rise in Utah may come as a healthy shock. It may act as a booster shot against what has been called Happy Valley syndrome, the assumption that all is well and that everyone is like me.

Such a statement emanating from the highest level of the church may also increase the confidence of those who have been on the receiving end of bigotry -- confidence that such behavior may not remain a fact of life forever.

President Hinckley directed his comments to the people he leads, but he was also talking broadly to the world about common decency and respect toward others. Racial slurs are just one symptom of trouble. Profanity is on the rise as well, as shown in a study reported by The Associated Press last week.

Language evolves, of course, and what offends one person in one culture may be ordinary for another. Culture dictates many reactions. And there are many subcultures in America to consider -- youth, for one. And younger generations seem ever more inclined to blur racial lines.

Moreover, they deliberately seek out behavior that will annoy their elders, from saggy pants and piercings to vocabulary and opinion. In some settings, racial banter, when it works both ways, may actually be an indication that racism in America is fading, that judgment by skin color is gradually giving way to judgment based on character. This is the ideal that black leaders in the 1960s, such as Martin Luther King, wanted to achieve.

Great progress has been made. It will never be old-fashioned, however, to condemn genuinely hurtful expressions, or those that convey a message of racial inferiority or superiority, or words that label a person on the basis of class or which tend to maintain negative stereotypes.

Between church and community efforts, Utah may get a handle on racism and let the bigots know that this is not the right place to practice their craft.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A6.

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