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TikTok group known as the Black Menaces are causing a stir at Brigham YoungUniversity . - The school is sponsored by The Mormon Church, and just 1% of students on campus are Black.
"Do you think white privilege exists?"
This is just one of the questions the Black Menaces and their over 600,000 strong, and rapidly growing, following on TikTok are asking to cause a stir on the campus of Brigham Young University — a private institution sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as the Mormon Church.
The account's videos, which feature Black members of the TikTok group interviewing non-Black
Five members of BYU's Black Student Union are involved in the majority of videos posted on the page, which was started on February 8 — Sebastian Stewart-Johnson, Rachel Weaver, Nate Byrd, Kylee Shepherd, and Kennethia Dorsey. All of them are current BYU students who have at times felt they were not "welcome or safe," Stewart-Johnson told Insider.
"We have felt a lot of isolation and ostracization for being Black and not fitting in," Stewart-Johnson said. "Our goal behind the TikTok is to highlight those things that we feel on a daily basis, and to show the world the reality of being Black students at BYU."
@blackmenaces #greenscreenvideo the black menaces denounce tomfoolery during black history month #fyp #byu #lds #bradwilcox #racism #provo ♬ original sound - the black menaces
Black Menaces was started to challenge racist opinions among BYU's students and staff
The Black Menaces' first post on February 9 was a reaction video featuring nine members of the Black Student Union listening to BYU religion professor Bradley Wilcox's speech, in which he claimed Black people should be "grateful" for the LDS Church 1978 decision allowing them to be priests. Wilcox's speech from February 6, where he also attributed decades of oppression to "God's timeline," made national headlines and drew attention to
Comments from professors are just the tip of the iceberg in what Black students experience at BYU, including white peers who have no idea how to interact with people of color. A recent report published by BYU's Committee on Race, Equity and Belonging revealed that some students experience racist comments, with one Black student saying a classmate had used the N-word several times in response to a question from a professor. The report also notes that topics that come up in class, such as how skin color is written about in the Book of Mormon, can be "misunderstood or insensitively presented."
Shepherd and Dorsey both told Insider they decided to attend BYU, despite questions and confusion from people of color who were not part of their church, because of promises of an inclusive, welcoming university. Shepherd said she attended a university-sponsored camp called EFY (especially for youth) that promoted an inclusive environment at BYU, and Dorsey attended a summer camp for multicultural students called the "summer of academic refinement, which led her to believe BYU was "super diverse."
But the atmosphere at these camps didn't translate to campus, where just over one percent of the student population of 30,000 undergraduates is Black, and the promises of a multicultural and welcoming environment never really materialized.
"I always heard it was a predominantly white institution, but I thought, 'Oh, at least I'll be able to find my people here,'" she told Insider. "But then I came here my freshman year and it was not the same because people of color are so few and far between."
BYU did not respond to Insider's request for comment on this article.
In Dorsey's freshman year, she found it difficult being surrounded by mostly white people "who are mostly ignorant or literally have never gone to school with a Black person before."
"It's really sad, honestly," she said.
They believe a softer and humorous approach helps fight prejudice
The format that the Black Menaces use is very deliberate, Weaver told Insider, taking a humorous approach to conversations about topics their interviewees may never have considered before. The Black Menaces never provide a judgment or opinion on an answer, no matter how conservative or potentially homophobic or racist it could be interpreted as. Instead, they let these opinions air, so people can think about what they've said out loud.
"We wanted to create awareness and education so that people can almost self-correct a little bit," Weaver said. "It's helping the majority group to understand that these are real everyday issues for us, and it's helping them to begin the dialogue."
The group believes a softer approach will get other students to slowly start thinking more about the questions they are asking and the issues they bring up, without feeling like it is a conflict over who is right and wrong.
"Not fighting them for what they say kind of makes them think about what they're saying, especially when they're looking at a Black face," Shepherd said. "And they're like, oh, yeah, that kind of sounded really ignorant."
@blackmenaces can you support the queer community without supporting gay marriage? #fyp #byu #provo #orem #utah #uvu #pwi #poc #gay #lgbtqtiktok #questions #black ♬ original sound - the black menaces
The group said they have haters but no pushback from the BYU administration yet
Although the group has "thousands" of haters online, Stewart-Johnson said, they haven't received any pushback from the BYU administration. The group plans to keep sticking to their formula for the time being.
"I think some people really support what we're doing," said Weaver. "There's a lot of people that are upset that we're exposing this part of BYU, even though it's always been here, we're just bringing it to light."
For the most part, though, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. On every video, the comment section overflows with supportive replies and people encouraging the group to continue showing what life is like at BYU.
The group are sometimes also shocked by answers their fellow students give, Stewart-Johnson said. He's never surprised when someone says they don't support gay marriage or the Black Lives Matter movement, but if they say white privilege exists, or that LGBTQ people should be able to date on campus, he sometimes has to challenge his own preconceived ideas.
"It gives me a little bit of hope that the stereotype about every single person that lives in Utah doesn't support gay marriage obviously is incorrect," he said.
There is a long history of racism in Utah institutions, and in recent months several incidents have brought issues around racial discrimination in schools to the forefront. A 10-year-old Black girl died by suicide in November after her mother said she was bullied due to her disability and race at her elementary school in Farmington. A Department of Justice report from around the same time found that Black and Asian American students in that school district had been called slurs and harassed for years, with the district ignoring complaints from students and parents, according to CNN.
In late 2021, a high school in Bluffdale, Utah sparked backlash after they hosted a fundraiser called "Lunch Jail" and promoted the event on social media with an image of a Black child in a jumpsuit looking sad behind bars.
The Black Menaces' members never thought that they would reach so many people with their TikToks, but they hope to continue using the platform to "constantly reform spaces that say they're welcoming, but they're not actually welcoming."
The group chose the name partly as a joke but also to give the term "menace" a new meaning, Byrd told Insider.
"Anyone who has been a pillar of change in society has been considered a menace by, I guess, the administration," he said. "So we call ourselves the Black Menaces because we want to be those pillars of change."
"People may view us as menaces, but really that's a good thing because we're trying to do some good."