- Hello.

Hello.

What's good?

We're back.

Roots, Race, and Culture, the podcast edition.

This is like the after party, right here.

This is when things start really popping.

We've got Rachel and Kenny with us, but we also have another guest.

Please introduce yourself, my man.

- Yeah.

My name is Nate Byrd.

I'm also one of The Black Menaces.

Been with them since the beginning.

I recently just graduated from BYU back in April of 2022.

And yeah, just moving forward.

- [Danor] Right on.

Right on.

Well, congratulations on graduation.

- Thank you.

- That's a big milestone.

You got a job?

What are you doing?

What's going on?

- Yeah, so I'm currently, I'm in the process of getting hired, so I don't wanna say anything about that, but-- - Okay.

Okay.

- Yeah, I am.

I'm working on job, so.

- Got you.

Got you.

- So whoever it is, hire him.

- Yes.

(all chuckle) - We've all given our recommendations.

- Yes.

Well, let's keep the conversation going.

We were talking about-- - We're gonna talk about hate.

- We were talking about-- - Yeah, and Nate's a good time to bring in, no offense, him and Sebastian are more well versed in the hate that we receive.

I kind of just close my eyes to.

- [Danor] Okay.

Tell us about it.

What kind of negative, what kind of fires are you having Nate?

- We have a lot of very loyal haters.

I learned, you know, I learned a long time ago not to engage.

Or not to, you know, you can acknowledge a little bit, but as far as engaging with them and giving them your energy, it doesn't make sense to do that.

So, you know, when it comes to people, if it's somebody that's willing to have a conversation, regardless of what side of the spectrum they're on, I'm always willing to have a conversation.

But if they just want to just argue or just kind of take away from my time and my energy, I never give it to 'em.

But yeah, we have some very loyal haters.

They follow us on every platform.

They make sure to comment on every video, so.

- Comment on every video.

- Oh, man.

- They love us to death or hate us to death, whichever one.

- [Danor] Yeah, you know 'em by name.

- Oh yeah, yeah, we know them by name.

- No, he does.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

- [Danor] Well, you know, you're not really doing anything right Until you have some haters, right?

- That's very true.

That's how you know you've made it.

There was a, like a national journalist, - a sports journalist who went on like a 30-40 minute rant ran about us and I watched the whole thing, just.

- [Rachel] Oh my gosh.

I forgot about those.

- I was gleeful.

He called us demonic, Satanic.

- Oh my gosh.

- Why was he saying that?

- He was ranting.

- There are people who have YouTube videos of us just like critiquing what we've done.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, so when we made it to like a national podcast, that's when I knew we'd made it cause he was-- - Yes.

- I mean, 35 minutes just ranting about us and I was like-- - I forgot about that.

- Oh my gosh.

- No such thing as bad publicity, right?

- I forgot about that.

(all laughing) - Well, what kind of things was he saying?

I'm curious.

- Oh, it's been a while since I watched it, but he that we were-- - He said we were like the devil.

He compared, he used a lot of analogies of bringing in Christian things and we are not Christlike, obviously.

- He said that we were some of the worst that Gen Z had to offer.

- Oh, wow.

- He called us.

- Typical smear campaign, man.

- Yeah, you know.

- It's just, they don't like what you're doing, so they're gonna barrage you and put you down and oppress the movement.

- And this was another black man too.

- And there's people who will listen to that, even though there's no coherent reasoning behind it.

- Or there's people in the comment agreeing, like, "Yeah, terrible group."

Like, "They do so much wrong.

They're highlighting the, this is not true about BYU."

So.

- Oh wow.

- So Kenny, how was your rise to become where you are?

I mean, you obviously, you grew up here.

- Yes, sir.

- But where did you make the transition from military to, you know what?

I'm gonna jump on and start going to Twitter and really going to town.

What was the impetus to that?

- That's a good one.

That's a good one.

So it's been about three years now.

Black Lives Matter.

They were doing the thing down in Salt Lake City.

They were having all the activity going on, turning over cars and breaking stuff and carrying on.

And I was catching this on the news live, and I had a lot of mixed feelings about it.

Didn't really know whether or not if I wanted to go down there and start cutting up about what was going on politically or if I wanted to go down there and try to help individuals.

And once I started to get downtown, I started to understand, I wanted to make sure that the young black kids that were down there wasn't getting caught up into any type of trouble that they might get caught in with dealing with law enforcement.

So there was a mob, after their turn over of the police car and everything, they started to come towards 7-Eleven.

- I saw this video, I believe.

- Right.

And I just happened to be down there.

It seemed like a safe spot for me to post up.

I was on viewing things that were going on.

And this mob started to turn towards 7-Eleven, and they started to tear up the 7-Eleven.

Malatov cocktails.

They were trying to throw it in there and burn it down.

And just instinctively, my military training just went in and I just wasn't having it.

There was a lot of mixed feelings about whether or not to let it happen or to kind of join in or whatever the case may be.

But what felt right was to stop the action.

And I started talking to the kids.

I started letting them know there's gonna be a better way, we can find that avenue.

We just, we need to pull together and get it together.

And so once they started to rally around what I was saying, there happened to be a reporter recording me.

And at that moment, that video went astronomically viral, 24 hours.

Lieutenant Governor was at my home at the time, Lieutenant Governor Cox.

- Wow.

- Governor now.

And I've made my political rounds.

I've made the world tour on all networks, social TV networks and everything to speak about these things.

And I made a promise to those kids, the young black faces that were there, which I've always said on every TV network that I've been out there, that if you're seeing me and you're out here, I haven't let you down on that because I made the promise that we're gonna find a way.

And I haven't stopped talking about it since.

And I won't stop talking about it.

- That's awesome.

- Man, what a life changing moment.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- No, I think that's great.

I mean, when you're saying that you wanna make a change, what kind of change are you thinking about?

- One, we spoke about it a little bit earlier on the viewing earlier and just to be heard.

That's the first and foremost about the change.

The other part is, I really wanted to stand on what you said is empowering us.

We need to get out of this mindset that, I mean, yes, there's some victimization going on there and we're targeted based on certain white supremacy and stereotypes and those type of things that are going on there.

But what I want to try to do is teach the youth and teach individuals to navigate that laterally to get around it.

It's not the dead end spot.

It's not the end of the world at this point.

Yes, it's affecting you.

I understand it's impacted you because I feel it too, on a day-to-day basis.

But we can navigate this and get around and I want that person to achieve because we have kids that need us, you know?

Especially for me, I don't know about you two young bucks, but I'm getting to the age.

- I'm right there with you.

These two young bucks.

(all laughing) - Yeah, but like two months older.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- I wanna see the younger, younger ones transition over.

And so while I'm right here in this place right now, I want to really throw that hammer down and share that with them, so that they can carry that torch.

- Do you guys think social media is the answer?

Do you think it's the answer that's gonna help a lot of kids be able to educate themselves?

To guide their ways?

- Well, there's something about social media, right?

And I think this is one reason why you guys are so successful and popular as Black Menaces.

You guys have a way of injecting humor into the mix.

Right?

- Excellent.

Yep.

- People want to enjoy themselves.

They go on social media to smile, to laugh, to learn too.

But I think that you guys do a really great job of making something that can be somewhat serious, but having a good time and making it seem funny and enjoyable to have that discussion.

I think that's one of the reasons why the young people really are attracted to your content.

But is that something you guys are purposeful about?

Or is that something that's sort of a byproduct?

Talk to me about that.

- I think it's a little bit purposeful and a lot of just who we are as people.

I think that the use of social media is the answer.

I think that in a way it is.

20, 30 years ago, you used to be able to watch the news and trust what you were seeing.

But now it's so obvious that everything that's on the news, on TV is catered to a specific audience.

- It's filtered.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

And with social media, obviously there are things that you can lie about, but it's a lot harder to lie when you're watching a video of a police officer murdering a black man.

It's a lot harder to lie when you're watching whatever's going on.

So social media is kind of a way to bring out honesty.

There's not a lot of things that you can cover up.

And so I think that awareness and younger generations is something that will make a huge difference.

And I think that it already has.

If you look at people who are our age and younger, they tend to be a lot more aware of different people's experiences.

A lot more aware than I was when I was, before social media was a huge thing.

- You know?

- Oh yeah.

Definitely more than me.

- And as I've been more active on social media, I've become more aware, like on TikTok, you can go into different areas of TikTok and you just find things you never even knew about.

There's line dancing TikTok, there's black line dancing TikTok, there's disabled TikTok, there's Tourette's TikTok, there's LGBT, just all kinds of different areas that you can go into.

So I think it helps with that.

- That's great.

- That's the change, I think, I mean, to encompass the question, I think just exactly what he said, we have a gap of allyship, wide allyship there, because amongst us, we know what's happening already.

We can have the conversation amongst us any time of the day, but it's them that are not exposed to particular incidences that are out there.

And so that impact or that change is influencing the white community and making them aware.

So when they're faced with a topic or a situation in a workplace, at school, or maybe a police officer, that's the change, I think, for me, that's what I see.

- So they're not blindsided.

- Right.

- So it sounds to me like you're kind of advocating, cause it's very easy for a lot of people, like you, somebody mentioned earlier the idea of the algorithm.

I think it was on the video that-- Yeah, it was on.

- Mhmm.

- The algorithm just sends you what you want to hear or see what you already are.

And I'm really interested, Rachel, in hearing your perspective, first of all, as a female, and then also in terms of like, how do you convince a white person or someone who's not young that it's worth taking the time to watch these videos?

- I think, I don't really, off the top of my head, I don't know what I have done to make people feel like it's worth it.

I think, really, I mean, particularly what we've done is just being authentic to ourselves and our experience and letting that speak for itself, right?

Like, I remember in the beginning one of the first videos we did, it was honestly very intimidating to do, was talking about race and church and asking people if they think that that came from God.

Right?

And anybody who's Christian and loves God, right?

You would think that God loves all the children.

And so asking someone straight up like, "Oh, do you think that something racist like that would come from God?"

And then having someone just look at the video and the person tells me, "Yes," a black woman to my face.

- Wow.

- I think that alone speaks to whatever, you don't have to know what I'm feeling to imagine what that would feel like in that moment.

And I think that, the authentic experience happens in our videos is another reason why people are captured or are so captured by what we're doing, because they can't imagine what that would feel like to hear that in that moment.

There have been people who are like, "I could never sit there and listen to that."

Right?

And so having seen us take that and just be like, okay, and keep moving forward, I think also helps people to realize this is important and this is strange and, again, like I said earlier, kind of people thinking about what they would say and what what is and isn't, right?

And realizing this is the reality of these students or these people in this situation.

Obviously something needs to be done to improve this.

- Sometimes these are very sensitive topics.

I mean, for us there's a lot of deep-seated trauma in some of these experiences and some of these topics and that sort of thing.

What keeps you going?

Sometimes you gotta be like, "Oh man, I don't know if I could handle that again."

You know?

- Yeah, a lotta times-- - I gotta take a break.

I gotta take a break every once in a while.

But I think it's pretty, it speaks volumes of who we are as a people because, one, we're impacted by these racial situations in our own trauma, as you mentioned before, when we were children.

But then we're speaking out as what we're doing here now, platformed and speaking out and taking the time to educate and pushing forward.

That's a big deal.

- It's exhausting sometimes.

- Well, it's exhausting, but being optimistic, it's we've created a hybrid of us.

We're getting refined by the fire and we're getting, if we're bringing religion into it, right?

We're going through our trial, and I think the more we push through that and the more refined that we get, it's only gonna make a hybrid of us.

- Sometimes that pain adds fuel to the fire.

- Sure.

- You know what I mean?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- What's weird, in Utah, man, it just seems like every time, every other month, I'll turn on the news and there's some sort of a racist incident that seems to happen nationwide in Utah where I'm like, like just not too long ago, there's those, it was Halloween, one of those white guys down in-- - Cedar City.

- Cedar City.

- I got my family members calling me.

What's going on out in Utah?

Kids are killing themselves.

I'm like, look, is it that bad elsewhere?

I mean, you guys are having the same things, but we're having these big nationwide events that are happening.

Why is that, do you guys think, that this is happening here in Utah?

- I think we're under a microscope, but what I'd like to hear from you guys.

- Honestly, I think these things they happen everywhere, but I think Utah is a unique place because of how there's such a clashing of cultures here.

You know?

You've got a little bit of progressive culture and then you've also got Mormon culture, and then you've got conservative culture and all of these things kind of meet in this one place.

And then also within the culture of the church, there's a tendency to be very, perfectionism is a huge part of that culture, right?

And so there's this idea of trying to be perfect but not really being perfect.

And so you have all of those things, you mix it all together, and you end up with kind of a perfect storm of people who feel a certain way, but realize that it's not okay to act that way on a big scale and so they try to do it privately, but then those things spill over and it just creates all of these incidents.

- Well, it's that hierarchy, man.

I mean, let's just put it where it is.

White supremacy is thinking that they're better than somebody else.

So there's a hierarchy there.

And so you mix religion in with that and they think that they are the righteous or the chosen ones, and you create that dynamic of hierarchy and it just merges up with each other, you know?

Especially having white supremacy or the church related incidences, they just line up, that parallel lines up.

and so then it's an automatic for them to look down on whoever they're looking down on, so.

- Especially if they're not exposed to it.

Especially if they're not exposed to on a regular basis.

- Well, and up until recently, people could go their whole lives living in this state without really having to have their views challenged.

100%.

- Nor conflicting experiences.

- Right.

- Right?

Like, I grew up in Chicago on the south side, so I was exposed to black people every day for my experience and then as I got older, I interacted with people from other backgrounds and went to a really diverse high school, right?

And so my experiences didn't allow me to assume that my way of life, my way of thinking, was the only way, was the correct way, because I had friends who were happy, healthy, that lived a life completely different than me, right?

And weren't even born in this country, right?

In Utah, that's not the case because of how homogenous the state is as well, right?

Like, you have friends who are your same religious, ethnic, cultural background, like same sexuality, everything.

Like nothing is different about them.

And a lot of other people in your space are similar in that way, and so why would they ever feel like there's another way?

And they've never had an experience that challenges that white supremacy that they were raised in was wrong and wasn't okay.

And like I said, up until recently, Utah is becoming a little more diverse as the years progress, right?

And Salt Lake in particular has made a lot of strides and is more diverse than it has ever been.

But historically, those old people in this state, the older generation that raised everyone that lives here now, right?

Who has a lot of power in this state as well, also has never had to do that.

And now they're being forced to, which is where that conflict comes in, because it's like they've lived most of their adult life comfortable, and now they're forced to be uncomfortable and see a reality that they just don't value nor think is true because it hasn't been their experience.

- You know, that's like, somebody said earlier, Utah's like 30 years behind everything, and that's kind of like-- - With Kenny.

(all laughing) - But that's like the Civil Rights Movement, right?

America had to do that 40, 50 years ago now.

But now with the diversity hitting the state, now the state is having to do it, or the people who've been here the longest and who haven't been exposed to that much diversity.

And so I find that really kind of prophetic what you were saying.

- And it's areas, notice the areas that it happens in too.

You don't hear a lot of these incidents coming outta Salt Lake.

It'll be like Davis County.

It'll be like Cedar City.

It'll be places where there are no black folks.

- Well, look at the demographic in Salt Lake.

I mean, you could go to Davis County from Salt Lake.

I could go down to Salt Lake and I can speak to normal white folks and not have any problem.

- Right.

- They're gonna look at me as a normal human being.

They're not gonna question whether or not if I'm stealing something in the store, while I'm wearing a suit.

(Rachel sneezes) - Bless you.

- Bless you.

- Sorry.

- Or a bow tie.

They're not gonna question what I'm doing down there because a lot of these white folks are coming from different areas or they're exposed to more black people down there, so it's normal for them, right?

But I go out in Davis County, okay, everybody's watching me.

- Wow.

- Everybody's checking me out.

Everybody's seeing what I'm doing.

They wanna see what kind of car I'm driving.

They're watching me when I go out and get my vehicle and stuff.

- Wow.

It's a different atmosphere to what you had just said, but Salt Lake City in itself, in that city range.

That's great.

- Is a fine place to be.

- Yeah, there's-- - Well, and even within Salt Lake, I used to live in Murray for 12 years.

I'd go to the grocery store in Murray and probably not see another black person for about a week.

It might take week before I see 'em.

I just travel six miles away, and then I'm in West Valley, I see black folks every day.

All the time.

I mean, it seems like it's whatever part.

So people will say to me, "Oh, you know, Utah, it's so white."

I'm like, "Not where I live.

Where I live it's pretty diverse."

- That goes on the idea what you're saying too, that people aren't challenged.

If you ask anybody where they get the stereotypes where are the problems in the city?

What are the good areas in the city and where are the problems?

A lot of times they'll always say West Valley.

- Right.

Yep.

- Because there's that demographic of minorities, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and stuff out there versus them saying, well, Davis County's kind of crooked.

They were just out there stealing candy bars.

People were like, wow, it's crazy, man.

Stealing candy bars.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

Bring it back to social media.

What would you guys like most for your people out there to know about yourselves as far as your group and your organization?

What would you like them to take away from this conversation?

We'll start with you Rachel and Nate, both of y'all.

- Okay.

Nate, you wanna go first?

- No, we start with you.

- Okay.

(all laughing) I think what I want people to take away is to understand that really being a black student at BYU for me was such a hard time in so many ways, but also kinda like that refiners fire that you were talking about really helped me to learn who I was, learn what I wanted to do, but also has given me a lot of purpose in my drive for equity and seeing how needed that is.

being in such a white space.

And I think really encouraging people to look at what space are you in?

what spaces do you continue to exist in?

And like, what can you do to make them equitable?

That's why I hope people can take away and think about, cause yeah, maybe you're not in college anymore.

Maybe you work in corporate America and you're a Fortune 500 company, making however much money you make, but like look in your space, look in your team, and what you exist in.

How diverse is your team?

Who do you interact with on a daily basis?

What problematic emails are being sent out from the CEO?

Right?

What language is being used amongst coworkers?

Think about what you're doing in your daily life and how you can be more equitable, because that's really what our videos are about.

Those questions are casual conversations that black people or other minority groups or other marginalized communities have frequently.

- Yes.

- Right?

And so realizing, am I having those conversations?

And if that conversation came up, what would that conversation look like amongst the people I have daily conversations with?

- That's great.

- How about you Kenny?

- Yeah.

My biggest thing is it's easy to point out the problems, right?

And we ca find problems and point 'em out in our community.

And I think for the people that support me, one, and first and foremost, I'm extremely humbled by their support because so many people are there.

It's just not me alone.

There's so many people there that are helping.

But I want them to see when they see these type of video sittings and TV interviews and what you folks are doing too as well, is that we're normal.

- Mm.

- Yes sir.

- I want them to take away that we smile and we laugh and we have kids and we want to achieve and graduate college.

I want them to see that we're normal.

It's the friction here and we're pushing back and that's what they see, the aggressive part of it, but they don't understand how important it is to us to have a normal life without the problems of racism and bigotry and stereotypes and all that mess that goes along with this.

Judge us for our character and see us for who we are.

- Mm, wonderful.

- That's the dream.

- Somebody had that dream.

That's a great way to close this out.

Guys, it has been a pleasure.

I have gotten, I'm so appreciative-- - Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

- I wanna hear what Nate's take away is.

- I thought I was home free.

(all laughing) - No, no, no, no.

- You're not getting off that easy.

- All right.

What I would say, just to add onto that, is that I want people to know that we can't do this by ourselves.

As black people, we can be vocal, we can put out videos on social media, we can have conversations, but if white people are not willing to change, then none of this is going to really matter that much, because, unfortunately, the balance of power is that mostly white people have that power, and so they have to be the ones who are willing to help make changes, right?

If you are the CEO of a big company, you need to make sure that you're doing everything you can to make that company equitable.

Not just for black people, but for Latino people, Asian people, people in the queer community.

You have to make sure that this is a joint effort.

You can't just look at the efforts of someone else and say, "Oh, that's great.

I'm glad that they're doing that."

You have to visibly and physically support that with everything that you do and make specific efforts to right the scales.

- And I'm gonna just end with this, the question a lot of people might ask would be, why?

Why should I care.

Right?

And there's a couple of answers to that, but number one, the answer that everybody will recognize is that at the end of the day, the only color that matters and the color that benefits from equitable treatment is the green color.

It's more profitable (laughs).

Right?

And everybody wants to listen to the dollar sign, right?

So that's one thing that it benefits because more people are comfortable.

The more they share, the more their creativity, then the more you success you get, right?

And the other side of the coin, I think, is that the reason why is because it is just right.

We are just people, right?

And if you ever, if you've never been exposed, like you said, to that other way of thinking, as soon as you find yourself traveling or something, or making the wrong turn around the wrong street in Chicago, whatever.

(all laughing) Chicago.

- You know what I mean?

- I'm from Chicago.

I don't know if I've said that at all.

That's why-- - I like Chicago.

- Yeah.

- I was just playing, I'm just playing.

It could be any city in the United States, but you make the wrong turn, all of a sudden you're walking in our shoes, right?

You understand that feeling of not fitting in and not being treated, or being afraid of not being treated equally and it's just the right thing to do is to make sure no one ever has to have that experience.

So, so anyway, Lonzo-- - No, it's group effort.

I think that's great.

And that's a great way to close it out.

All right guys.

Hey, it's been a pleasure, man.

I loved hearing your stories and just learning more about you guys.

Like I said, it was about to go down and it did.

(all laughing) Guys, Roots, Race, and Culture, we are out.

Thank you.