Black Student Union Makes Demands to Destroy History at BYU
Jose Nino
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In one of the latest moves to erase American history, a number of Brigham Young University students are demanding that all campus buildings be renamed.
They are calling for this action to be taken on the grounds of removing “racist and xenophobic” history.
The BYU Black Student Union led the charge by sending a letter to President Russell Nelson of The Church of Latter-day Saints, the owner of BYU, demanding that campus buildings be unnamed. The union asserts that many of the individuals and names memorialized on campus “permitted discriminatory policies and perpetuated racist practices, they laid bricks for the injurious present we experience in our Black bodies.”
Sergei Kelley of Campus Reform reported that the letter lists off the names and memorials of leaders in the LDS church that must be “unnamed” with the aim of acknowledging the “pain in our history” and offering an opportunity for the church to atone for its allegedly evil ways.
Students at BYU have already manifested their opposition to statues and building names. Per a previous Campus Reform report in June, Brigham Young’s statue was vandalized after agitators spray-painted the word “racist” across the statue. In addition, vandals spray-painted a red “X” on the sign of the Abraham Smoot Administration Building.
In a letter directed to the NAACP, the Black Student Union petitioned it to hold the university accountable.
“We unequivocally condemn the honoring and memorializing of slave masters, segregationists, and proponents of slavery on our campus.”
In its “Declaration of Grievances,” the Black Student Union urged the NAACP to help out in its campaign to rename buildings.
“We unequivocally condemn the honoring and memorializing of slave masters, segregationists, and proponents of slavery on our campus.,” the letter to the NAACP declared.
The Black Student Union is seeking to rename all buildings and programs, in order to make sure that no figures are “singled-out” or “defamed.”
Some of the individuals commemorated on campus were advocates against interracial marriages, held slaves, and asserted “negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel,” according to a report from The Salt Lake Tribune.
In response to the calls to rename campus buildings and programs, the university created a committee to investigate racial disparities at the university, according to a report from The Salt Lake Tribune.
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