I don't think this is a race issue. It is a hate issue however. Jazz have very "good" fans and fan base. By good, we support our team at a very high level and we believe 'good' fans do a 'good job' at hating the other team. And some of the style of "support" is very aggressive and in my mind hateful. I'll call it high-grade taunting. The whole UofU vs BYU thing puts a significant level of hate into the rivalry and into the fandom on both sides. The hatred shared back and forth there is not about being racist. But there is high-level taunting by two groups that don't like each other. And thus the state of Utah has a high tolerance for, and a lot of practice a this high-level taunting.
I've been to a lot of Jazz games as well as a lot UofU and BYU events and I feel the behavior is pretty much the same on high-level taunting. One example I'm familiar with that is not racist per se, but was high-grade taunt, I watched from 4th row close to GSW bench, a fan take on Kevin Durrant. It was very mean spirited about him being not man-enough or not having the leadership to take his own team to a championship. Which at some level is a fair game topic. However, it went on for enough time and was harsh enought that Durrant started talking back and so the fan was told to back down by security. I don't remember any sort of reference to race or use of 'the latest words of the day' which indicate racism. It was simply hate filled taunting about Kevin's manhood and what a wuss he is.
Now if you are familiar with hate speech used at you with respect to RACE, you probably just assume this sort of high-grade taunt is racist in intent. That is why I think many on this forum are saying "I don't think Utah is racist - I've just not heard it and there have been so little evidence of it recorded." I think that statement is true. However, I think Utah is a 10 on a scale of 10 for being high-grade taunters from all the practice. And I think a lot of other NBA cities are just not even close in this regard. LA Laker fans in the lower bowl don't even show up usually (so the saying goes). Atlanta fans don't cheer... etc. And probably in many cities where the race issue is more raw, the idea of taunting, let alone high grade taunting, isn't as prevalent/aggressive.
