“Why did you choose to come to BYU?”
That was the question asked to Black students at Brigham Young University in a TikTok video shared to the site in February.
“I chose to come to BYU because they told me it was different here, and it’s not,” one student said.
Another student gave a more direct answer: “I didn’t know [BYU] was going to be this racist, honestly.”
The group behind the video, made up of Black students at the university who call themselves the “Black Menaces,” have gained a large following on TikTok by questioning the school’s students on topics surrounding race, gender, and sexuality, among other topics.
The Black Menaces came together through BYU’s Black Student Union and began making TikTok videos in February with the goal of sharing their experiences at the university, where 81% of students enrolled are white and less than 1% are Black.
Nate Byrd, a psychology major at BYU and founding member of the Black Menaces, did not think the idea would take off at first.
“It started off just as a joke, like we should make a video about our experience at BYU … We made a reaction video and it got some traction on social media — the rest is history,” Byrd said.
That first video, which currently has over 400,000 views on TikTok, shows Black students reacting to comments made by Brad Wilcox, a religion professor at BYU and prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The church owns and operates BYU.
Since publishing their first video, the Black Menaces have reached nearly 700,000 TikTok followers, and many of the group’s videos have garnered millions of views each. Byrd said the videos allow students to have open conversations about hard topics like race at BYU.
“Outside of the context of Black Menaces’ videos, it is difficult to talk to students about race. There’s a lot of ignorance about what we go through on campus,” Byrd said.
Getting a response
Most videos from the Black Menaces present person-on-the-street style interviews, with a member of the group asking BYU students a question and then compiling several responses.
Rachel Weaver, another founding member of the Black Menaces and a sociology major at BYU, said most of the questions they ask come from a place of genuine curiosity about what their fellow students think.
“[The questions are] based on experiences we’ve had as a student, whether that be conversations we’ve had in classrooms or things we’ve heard people say and we’re curious about the response from BYU students,” Weaver said.
Kylee Shepherd, a psychology major at BYU and founding member of the Black Menaces, said she has been surprised with how much support they’ve received from fellow students as well as the answers given. Weaver shared this sentiment, but she noted that students also give answers that demean the experiences of Black, indigenous and people of color on campus.
“Sometimes people give us more detailed responses that expose their racism or bigotry,” Weaver said.
Weaver said she is often taken aback by the number of students who are simply unaware of the issues in question.
“I’m surprised by people’s lack of awareness, just realizing how ignorant people are,” she said.
Weaver added that their videos also act as a vehicle for Black students to tell their own stories.
“I really love that we get to control the narrative of our own experience,” Weaver said.
Looking ahead, Shepherd said the Black Menaces are hoping to expand their efforts beyond social media.
“We’ve talked about starting a scholarship for Black or minority students, and some kind of get-togethers where we’ll create our own safe spaces,” Shepherd said.
To find out more and keep up with the Black Menaces, visit the group’s Linktree page.
This, of course, is not being acknowledged by The Daily Universe. Utah County is as racist as the deep south if not moreso.
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