(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A student answers a question for Kennethia Dorsey of the Black Menaces, at BYU in Provo on Friday, April 8, 2022. The responses from white students asked to identify an iconic picture of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy who was lynched in Mississippi and helped spur the civil rights movement, are cringeworthy, stumping most who can’t say who it is. “I don’t,” a girl says, starting to apologize. They ask white students if they have any Black friends. They ask white students what they learned during Black History Month.
The power of the videos, Weaver said, is that they show the difference between what white students overlook or ignore and what Black students experience. The two-minute videos they post of the responses are meant to be unfiltered, to document the answers without comment. They go around campus with an iPhone, asking mostly white students questions about race and marginalized communities in person-on-the-street style interviews. With their account, they intend to expose the attitudes they come across every day. “It might seem provocative to some, but it’s just that most people don’t know what it’s like being Black at a church-owned institution or even a majority white institution.” “We’re highlighting the reality here for people like us,” said senior Rachel Weaver, who is one of five students who run the TikTok account.
