is really just failure to identify/unintentional ignorance.

I grew up in Utah, non-LDS, big BYU fan. I will be honest, I never witnessed what I considered overt racism more than a few times and definitely didn't feel the hate towards other ethnicities I have seen since leaving Utah (Most notably when I was in the south while serving in the Army)

That said, the fact that many parts of Utah are not ethnically diverse can lead to perceptions of racism, when that may not be the truth.

Case in point 1 - A player I coached here in Phoenix signed to play for Weber State in 2004. It was a concern of his parents that Utah might not be a welcoming place. I assured them that he would be fine, and Ogden in particular was the most diverse (in terms of African Americans) part of the state due to Hill AFB and the fact that some kids who came through Job Corp back in the day stayed there. He confirmed that and said that the only thing unusual he would observe is that people were sometimes "too nice" like they were over compensating to show their acceptance. His only wish there was just be yourself.

Case in point 2 - I am white, wife is black. See my aforementioned time in the Army, from which I have several examples of blatant and cowardly racism from my time in Georgia back in 1981 because I was with a woman of a different skin color and it came from both sides. Fast forward to the first time I took my current wife to Utah almost 14 years ago and she was very uncomfortable at the way ALOT of people stared at us during a stop over in Provo to get some BYU swag. I assured her they were not "hating" but that an interracial couple, particularly white man/black woman was just not a common sight around Provo and while it made her feel like she was in a zoo having people file by, I understood why, and told her to just observe how we were actually treated, which again, was almost overly nice during interactions.

Point is, had my wife been there with say someone who had not grown up in Utah, or was familiar with the demographics, they may have both left Provo feeling like they were not welcome and naturally tied it to racism.