BYU, as part of its antiracism project started in 2020, has created a new antiracism database. The goal of their project, as stated on the website, is to “promote and support antiracist actions at BYU to create a more inclusive, loving, safe, Christlike, Zion campus.”
The antiracist database provides a searchable catalog of materials that are supposed to be “unique to BYU.” The database also provides a tool to make an “anti-racist syllabus.” It was originally identified in The Cougar Chronicle’s #WOKELORE segment.
Some Church and BYU produced materials on the database include “A Perfect Brightness of Hope” from Jeffery R. Holland and “Children of Heavenly Father” from M. Russell Ballard.
The database has a wide array of articles, ranging from conference talks and research papers to books and devotionals. Many of the resources are supportive of the church, while others appear to be more contradictory.
One resource listed is a book titled, “How to Be An AntiRacist” by Ibram X. Kendi. Kendi is a popular activist and anti-racist who recently went viral for his stance against religious missionary work; a common practice in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
[READ: BYU Classes Teach Ibram Kendi While he has Called Religious Missionary Work Racist]
Kendi has also stated that for racism to be healed, we must use antiracist discrimination, and “[t]he only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
Another article from the database called, “Raising White Kids,” was included. A person who was interviewed in the article said, “my 5-year-old one time – after a rally we were at when we got in the car, she started saying, black people are not safe. And I said, yes. That’s true. And then she said, white – but we’re white, so we are safe. And I said, yeah, that’s true, too… that’s how you tell it to a 5-year-old.”
Greg Matsen, at CWIC Media, also recently covered the database in a video posted to YouTube. He pointed out the term “antiracism” originated with Ibram X. Kendi and that Kendi has also praised Angela Davis as a model antiracist. Davis has been nominated as Vice President of the Communist Party in America. Matsen also addresses Kendi’s liberation theology.
The antiracism database has nearly 400 articles and other resources. The sources can be filtered in numerous categories including: if the article is connected to the church, if the author/submitter are POC, conscious/unconscious bias, and if the article is evidence-based.
Written by: Paige Huleis
Contributor at The Cougar Chronicle
The Cougar Chronicle is an independent student-run newspaper and is not affiliated with Brigham Young University or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
