Shah, who is Tongan and Hawaiian, and husband Sharrieff are parents to two biracial Black sons.
“Salt Lake City now, today in 2020, we are getting more diverse, much more than 40 years ago,” Shah explained. “People joke around where they’re like, ‘Are there any Black people here in Salt Lake City?’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, all six of them are in my family basically.’ Because it’s not the norm here, especially not for Black people. There’s a lot of Polynesians here, we’re getting a lot of different ethnic groups, but it’s definitely a culture shock I think for some people.”
Shahs says growing up in Salt Lake City, people would often times mistakenly assume what race she is.
