Oral History Interview of Everette Stutts

Title: Oral History Interview of Everette Stutts
Interviewee: Everette Stutts
Interviewer: Cameron Thornton
Description: Stutts Everette is a freshman at Sewanee: The University of the South from Mountain brook, Alabama. Stutts is a member of the men’s lacrosse team which is how he met the interviewer. He spent his entire childhood in Alabama in a predominantly white neighborhood with a fairly sheltered upbringing. Stutts has an extremely supportive and involved family. Stutts also grew up immersed in sports and sports culture, receiving much of his news about race relations and the black lives matter movement through the sports figures he looked up to and idolized. Stutts knew fairly early in his high school career that he wanted to stay in the south for college and immediately became interested in Sewanee. He committed to Sewanee his junior year and ever since has been a passionate tiger and has loved his Sewanee experience.
Transcript: Cameron Thornton (00:05):
This is Cameron Thornton from Sewanee, the University of the South. It is February 18th, 2024, 9:30 PM I'm with,
Stutts Everett (00:18):
I'm Stutts Everett and I'm from Birmingham, Alabama.
Cameron Thornton (00:23):
Thank you Stutts Everett for being here. Okay. Now to get into some of the questions, first to have a broad question, but where do you find community today?
Stutts Everett (00:37):
I find community within my school and within my family and along with that in my sports team. I feel like it's a great way to come together as one group and work together as a community.
Cameron Thornton (00:54):
What's your occupation and what was your journey to this role?
Stutts Everett (00:58):
Currently my occupation is as a student and to get here it was a lot of work within high school studying tests and such.
Cameron Thornton (01:10):
Sweet. Kind of to look at your global perspective, what traveling have you done and then to combine another question with that, what's your favorite type of food and culturally its signifigance?
Stutts Everett (01:24):
I've traveled outside of the states just to Canada, but inside of the states mostly everywhere. I might say my favorite food that's cultural is Mexican food. I'm a big fan of Mexican food.
Cameron Thornton (01:39):
Me too. Kind of a tough question, but who inspires you and what traits do these individuals have?
Stutts Everett (01:47):
I'd say my parents inspire me. They are kind and loving, but they also know to tell me to do things I shouldn't do.
Cameron Thornton (01:55):
That's a good balance. That's important to get into maybe some of the interview questions more specifically, looking at the Black Lives Matter movement, how did you receive the news and how did that kind of come across your mind or maybe come into your view?
Stutts Everett (02:18):
I would say that I received that news as kind of confusing at first. I'd say I wasn't really sure what was going on, but once I understood it I kind of was like, oh, I can get behind this. This makes sense. I like where they're coming from.
Cameron Thornton (02:39):
Looking at your local community, obviously every community has a different perspective and reaction to it. How did your community react?
Stutts Everett (02:49):
I think Birmingham reacted well as soon as it started. There was a lot of change and I think it benefited the city very well.
Cameron Thornton (02:59):
Do you think that was across the whole city or do you think it was sort of divided?
Stutts Everett (03:03):
I'd say across the whole city. I can't really be specific on something. I don't really know what all that happened, but it was definitely helpful.
Cameron Thornton (03:14):
It maybe, so you said it came across, you said your initial reaction was maybe confused, maybe, but eventually positive. What swayed your perspective or maybe your view?
Stutts Everett (03:31):
I think what swayed is that I feel like people at the beginning reacted to it as negatively and thought that it would be somewhat violent, but then when it calmed down I saw it as just something that people wanted to make a change and they weren't trying to hurt anyone or do anything wrong or they just wanted to get their mind out.
Cameron Thornton (03:54):
Okay. Maybe looking at, obviously we're in a very digital age and social media is super prevalent, especially in the Black Lives Matter movement. How do you think that affected the movement and then what is your experience with social media?
Stutts Everett (04:08):
I think that it definitely helps spread the message through social media. I'd say my personal thing with it in social media is things like the NBA. They always talked about it and talked about history behind it, just random sports things. Maybe the NFL? Yeah.
Cameron Thornton (04:27):
You think is sports a big passion of yours? Is that something that you grew up with or kind of developed later in life?
Stutts Everett (04:34):
No, I've always liked sports. It's always been something that I've enjoyed throughout my life.
Cameron Thornton (04:41):
Maybe looking at generationally, do you think there was a particular generation that was most affected by the movement or maybe looking at the reactions based on generations? What are your thoughts on that?
Stutts Everett (04:52):
I'd say that my generation may have taken it as a way to learn from and maybe grow towards the future and be more welcoming and be more equal as a whole, and I'd say it affected mainly those who are in the working class age and maybe not the older ones. It's just to get better at being equal and try to fix what they've been doing. I guess.
Cameron Thornton (05:25):
Do you think maybe there's older generations, obviously everybody has a different perspective. Do you think that there's room for change or do you think it's going to be tough to sway people who don't have as much of a, maybe not perspective, but maybe don't know as much information and aren't as familiar with social media?
Stutts Everett (05:44):
I think it's probably going to be harder with the older generations just because they've already gone through a lot and they might not want to change their mind or perspective since they're so old and they don't really care as much anymore.
Cameron Thornton (05:57):
Do you think that social media has been a barrier? I mean especially our generations growing up with social media, but there's obviously generations who don't have that same experience.
Stutts Everett (06:09):
I think it's definitely hard to comprehend if you don't know what you're doing on it and you could see it as different than how we see it. I think it's easy for them to see it as negative or confusing and maybe hateful, but it can be used for good.
Cameron Thornton (06:26):
How has the Black Lives Matter movement impacted your life specifically?
Stutts Everett (06:32):
I would say specifically I just saw a lot of change in my own community with people becoming more and more just open-minded and stuff like that.
Cameron Thornton (06:49):
Do you think being from Birmingham, do you think maybe geographically, do you think the South potential has a different perspective than people from different areas of the country?
Stutts Everett (06:58):
I'd say Birmingham's tough in the sense that it was big in the civil rights and it's still kind of, there's not tensions. People are more calm, but when stuff like that happens in Birmingham, people are still confused or they're trying to work on it and maybe make it a little bit better.
Cameron Thornton (07:19):
But you think that past history has definitely affected the way the Black Lives Matter movement kind of spread throughout the area?
Stutts Everett (07:27):
Yeah, I think so. I think that it was like now since it was happening, it was definitely more open-minded in Birmingham than they were back during the civil rights. It was definitely easier for them to start making somewhat of a change.
Cameron Thornton (07:43):
How has the Black Lives Matter movement changed how you interact with people of other races?
Stutts Everett (07:51):
I don't really think that I've changed. I don't think I negatively interacted with people of other cultures, so I'd say it's definitely made me think more about it, but nothing crazy.
Cameron Thornton (08:04):
Do you think other people that you've maybe viewed or noticed, do you think it's changed their interactions?
Stutts Everett (08:11):
Can you repeat that?
Cameron Thornton (08:12):
Do you think it's maybe changed other people's interactions maybe that you've viewed or seen in your community?
Stutts Everett (08:18):
Yeah, it's definitely made people think more about the Black Lives Matter movement, but nothing too specific.
Cameron Thornton (08:28):
Do you think looking out as a whole, do you think the movement succeeded?
Stutts Everett (08:33):
I think it definitely did succeed. I think that it definitely helped bigger companies or organizations and maybe the country as a whole be more open-minded and equal.
Cameron Thornton (08:45):
Why do you think it succeeded? What kind of factors do you think went into that?
Stutts Everett (08:49):
I think how it succeeded was just being, I guess, so popular maybe with social media. It was always talked about and just continued and it didn't really die out.
Cameron Thornton (09:02):
How do you think you see it maybe being successful moving forward? Are there certain things that you think might allow it to be more successful and continue to stay on that path?
Stutts Everett (09:13):
I think that if it continues, it will continue to get better and word will continue to get out on how it works. As long as things aren't violent or too aggressive. If people take it not negatively and positively instead they'll do well.
Cameron Thornton (09:33):
You mentioned aggressive. Do you think that there's a mentality that people feel almost attacked reading online? I see people feel that, especially white people feel like the movement's kind of coming after them and do you think that's a mentality that is going to change or do you think people are pretty stuck in that mindset?
Stutts Everett (09:53):
I think it's really easy to misconstrued and assume that all white people are racist when a lot of the times the things that are violent that are happening are because of white people doing violent things towards people of color and I think that if it was more focused on trying to make change together rather than being like, this is what's violently happening, yeah, it's probably a good thing to be like, this is happening, we need to stop it, but if it wasn't as focused on that, maybe it would be taken more positively.
Cameron Thornton (10:27):
I talked about how it's been successful. In what ways do you think that the movement has failed?
Stutts Everett (10:36):
I think that stuff like the NBA and stuff like that, we'll do a lot of advertising on social media or within their league and stuff like that, and I think it can come across as kind of cheesy and maybe not as serious as it should be.
Cameron Thornton (10:59):
Obviously sports is important in your life and has played a critical role in the Black Lives Matter movement. How do you think it can be successful outside of those spaces and those events?
Stutts Everett (11:12):
Can you say that again?
Cameron Thornton (11:14):
Maybe kind of rephrase it? Obviously the Black Lives Matter movement spread a lot, especially in part of organizations like the NBA and the NFL. How do you think it can grow outside of those arenas?
Stutts Everett (11:28):
I think that if other things take it over maybe like news sources and stuff like that and the news sources talk about it positively and not talk about bad things that are happening or things that might go wrong and just try to spread awareness.
Cameron Thornton (11:44):
Kind of a tough really broad question, but what do you think is the state of race relations in the United States currently?
Stutts Everett (11:54):
I think that it's depending on where you are within the United States, I'd say that it's still kind of tense and maybe sometimes taken wrongly, but it's definitely overall better than it was in the past and I think that the Black Lives Matter movement has definitely made it less.
Cameron Thornton (12:16):
Do you think it's changing for the better or do you think there's still a lot of work to go? I
Stutts Everett (12:20):
Think it's changing for the better, but I think there's still a lot of work to go
Cameron Thornton (12:25):
Maybe looking at the future of the movement, what do you think is the future of the Black Lives Matter movement?
Stutts Everett (12:31):
I think the future is that it will continue to grow as long as people accept what's happening and go with what the movement sees.
Cameron Thornton (12:43):
Do you think that it's an expanding movement or by that I mean do you think the role of the movement will grow maybe farther outside of just spreading awareness and educating people and do you think it'll grow its scope and maybe work on helping out different communities and making action more physical change or do you think that it's critical that its role remain the educational and informative kind?
Stutts Everett (13:19):
I think that it will expand and grow beyond what it is right now. I think that that would probably help the best expanding to different parts of culture and the United States as a whole.
Cameron Thornton (13:32):
What do you think that you can do personally to contribute to the movement and maybe help grow the movement?
Stutts Everett (13:44):
I think just being more aware and being more understanding to people who are having a tougher time due to their race.
Cameron Thornton (13:58):
Do you think, obviously history plays a huge role, especially geographically as you mentioned and is always kind of prevalent in our minds. How do you think that has affected the acceptance of the Black Lives Matter movement?
Stutts Everett (14:14):
I think depending on where you are, kind of like your environment, new raises, you might have trouble accepting something like that due to maybe older family members having negative effects on you due to their experience with racial. Things like that. They might be very negative towards it just because they're older and they never were taught to be kinder and more equal.
Cameron Thornton (14:42):
Do you think for you specifically, how has that affected your acceptance?
Stutts Everett (14:49):
Not really at all. I don't think that I've had a problem with that really.
Cameron Thornton (14:53):
Do you think moving forward, how can people help solve some of those issues? Looking towards the next generation and beyond?
Stutts Everett (15:04):
Maybe not make the same mistakes that their older relatives did and definitely teach the newer generations to be not negative towards other races. From the start
Cameron Thornton (15:23):
Coming back, looking at your first encounter with the Black Lives Matter movement, maybe thinking back, what do you think you could have done to help spread the movement and make people more aware in the initial stages with social media spreading the word?
Stutts Everett (15:42):
I don't know. Maybe going to more events could have helped that, but I don't think there was too much I could have done.
Cameron Thornton (15:51):
Okay. That's about it I have for you. Do you have any kind of questions or maybe thoughts besides that? Not
Stutts Everett (16:01):
Really.
Cameron Thornton (16:02):
Okay. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me and I appreciate your thoughts.
Stutts Everett (16:09):
Thank you.
Cameron Thornton (00:00):
This is Cameron Thornton interviewing for the Black Lives Matter oral history project. It is Tuesday, March 12th, 5 46. We are at the Hyatt in Durham, North Carolina.
Stutts Everette (00:12):
And this is Stutts Everett.
Cameron Thornton (00:15):
Thanks for agreeing to a follow up interview. I appreciate it. Kind of to get back, since we already kind of acquainted into some of the Black Lives Matter questions, maybe broadly looking back on our first interview, do you have any thoughts or maybe reflections on your responses or the questions and how did it change your perception, mindset, or view the Black Lives Matter movement?
Stutts Everette (00:41):
I think since the first interview, I have begun to think more about everything around me in my day-to-Day life and how the BLM movement affected it. I'd say nothing in my close personal life really was affected by it that I was thinking about, but watching things like TV or Instagram or TikTok get a lot of ads or I'll see a lot of posts about stuff like that or African-American culture. I think with Black History Month that just happened, it was very prevalent in stuff like sports. I know they talked about it a lot when I was watching the NBA for basketball, and I thought that was really cool.
Cameron Thornton (01:25):
You mentioned Instagram and TikTok. Do you think the emergence of that's been positive for the movement or do you think it's been negative or maybe a combination?
Stutts Everette (01:34):
I think it's been pretty positive. I haven't had anything negative come up involving the BLM movement or really African-Americans on my social media, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere. It just might not be on mine.
Cameron Thornton (01:50):
Yep. And then I know I touched on this or maybe something similar in our first interview, but what do you think the impact of geography is on the movement? As you look at different areas of the country, do you think someone, maybe you're from Alabama, maybe somebody in the north with a similar upbringing and background might have similar views. Do you think they would differ because of that geography?
Stutts Everette (02:11):
I think that depending on your location, it definitely affects how you perceive it or take it. I think that people who may be raised with the ideals of maybe their grandparents and stuff from being in the south might have a negative look on it or may have uneducated understanding about what's happening. Me personally, I didn't have that and I understood it and took it as it was, but definitely people up north might have a different view on it. I don't think it does entirely affect that because I feel like people up north can also have the same feeling being negative towards the BLM movement or African Americans as a whole and instead of just the South, it's definitely all over the country rather than that, but I think it's definitely more prevalent in places that aren't as educated or not as urban. It's probably in the middle of nowhere areas.
Cameron Thornton (03:05):
Okay. Maybe looking at, you mentioned your family had a positive viewpoint and was positively impacting you. Maybe if you could elaborate a little bit more on that and their thoughts.
Stutts Everette (03:18):
I think that how that worked is just my grandparents or my parents always just taught me that everyone is equal and to treat people equally and not really tell a difference when you're looking at them. And I think that if somebody who is, I don't know, probably from a place that has a more negative lookout on it, they could continue to spread those values or pass 'em down to younger or newer generations, making it harder to get rid of the ideas that aren't as positive.
Cameron Thornton (03:48):
Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe off of that, what about your friends and those around you? Obviously our peers are hugely influential on us and our ideas and beliefs. How has your friends impacted your view on the Black Lives Matter movement and how do you think that's affected the nation kind of worldwide is maybe kind of a snowball effect?
Stutts Everette (04:09):
I'd say in high school, no one really talked about it. I didn't really hear much about it in high school. No, it was just kind of a thing that you'd hear on the news and stuff like that, so I wasn't really affected about it in high school, but in college so far I've definitely heard it more often seeing that I'm in a place with more abundance of diversity and a greater amount of people who have different outlooks on life itself and maybe different upbringing. So I'd say that with my friends, I don't think they really, I never really talked about it with my friends. I think it just kind happened.
Cameron Thornton (04:41):
What do you think the reason is for that difference? Maybe is there a specific thing you can point to? Do you think it's just kind of grew that way?
Stutts Everette (04:51):
I think that the reason I didn't really hear about it back come is because there isn't a lot of African-American influence in my area where I grew up, so no one really talks about it. No one really affected by stuff like racism and stuff like that. In my area at least, and Suwanee. So far I've been surrounded by people who are more diverse and more African-Americans than I was in high school, and so getting to hear their perspective and stuff like that has definitely changed how I see it.
Cameron Thornton (05:19):
Maybe looking back home, do you think that the Black Lives Matter movement has changed maybe some of that discussion or do you think it's kind of remained the same? What do you see it changing more in the future?
Stutts Everette (05:31):
I had say it remained the same, but I'd see it changing more in the future. I don't think back home people really had a negative look on it, but they never really had an opportunity to talk about it. I guess no one ever was racist or anything like that. They just didn't ever talk about it. They didn't see a reason to talk about it, I guess.
Cameron Thornton (05:53):
Okay. And then maybe we've talked about social media and how that's impacted the movement. What do you think the future of social media as it relates to Black Lives Matter movement is? Do you see that growing or do you see maybe its role or impact on the movement shrinking? What's your perspective?
Stutts Everette (06:17):
Definitely positive, but I think I see it so much now that it's to the point where it's like, I see it as how I see ads on social media that I just kind of blow it off and don't really think about it. I see it so much, but I think that if it wasn't as constant maybe that maybe it would have a better impact or stay in my brain a little more, but every time I think of BLM, I think about years ago, 2022 or 2021, I don't really think about now. I never really, every time it comes up, it just goes over my head. I see it so much.
Cameron Thornton (06:52):
Yeah, I think the emergence of the movement was kind of a chaotic time. You look back and you've got the Coronavirus pandemic and everything going on with Black Lives Matter, but one thing I see kind of emerging in that time was TikTok. I know you mentioned it earlier, and obviously that's hugely impactful for people, our generation. Where do you see the impact of TikTok specifically on the movement?
Stutts Everette (07:17):
I think tiktoks been definitely mixed. I feel like TikTok gives people a way to show their speech, talk about things openly, and I think TikTok has two very different sides, one being very positive outlook on it, and the other one being a negative one just because everything's got to have a negative if there's a positive, and so I think TikTok itself is just like, it's definitely an in between, but back with the ads and stuff, seeing so much be and things, it's kind of going over my head just because on TikTok and you swipe really fast for everything, so you don't really have a chance to think about it or process what you saw.
Cameron Thornton (08:01):
Yeah, something that I think relating that that's been in the media a lot recently, it's curated content or ads with changing levels of privacy going on. How do you see the impact of Curated media based on preferences impacting the Buck Lives Matter agreement? Do you see it as diversive or maybe divisive or maybe kind bringing people together? What do you think its role is?
Stutts Everette (08:29):
Well, if you're talking about on social media ads targeting people, I guess I think that if you're not really following or seeing posts or following things like hashtags and stuff like that involved with B LM and you're not really going to see it, I don't really follow that as, I don't personally see it because of that. The reason I see it's from stuff like the NFL or the NBA publicly talking about it or being more influential it, and I think that if it's targeted things, if you're not really involved, then it's not really going to target you, I guess.
Cameron Thornton (09:04):
Yeah, that makes sense. Kind of looking, this is a tough question, but what do you see as the spark for the Black Lives Matter? Obviously there's a ton of different events you can point to, but is there one that you see or do you think it's kind of a combination?
Stutts Everette (09:21):
I feel like when I think about the Black Lives Movement, I think of George Floyd in 2020, and then I think about all the protests that happened right after, and then I think of Covid and it being so much confusion in my head, but I feel like I was so young that I couldn't really understand what was going on, I guess, and I was just kind of taking it as everything was bad, so sometimes I have a weird feeling towards it. I think of unorganized, I guess, so maybe if it wasn't, it just happened in a weird time with Covid and everything was kind of all messed up, and I feel like if it was not done then I probably wouldn't have such a weird outlook towards it, I guess.
Cameron Thornton (10:05):
What do you think, I mean, you mentioned Covid, what do you think the impact of Covid was on the movement and then maybe there's protest as well?
Stutts Everette (10:15):
I think Covid made it definitely more scary saying, is it you weren't allowed to do certain things, and I think seeing all those people altogether protesting kind of makes you think, oh, it's kind of unsafe, or Why are you doing that? And then in some cities, I know Birmingham had it where people were rioting. It made that kind of scary, especially since me and my friends come from a more white community, people in our community freaking out by it because of the riots. It just all felt kind of negative. That definitely wasn't the idea of it, but it feels like not very positive in my mind when I'm looking back at that time specifically.
Cameron Thornton (10:58):
Yeah, that makes sense. That's kind of as much as I have for questions, adding this on top of our first interview, but thank you for agreeing to a follow up and sharing your thoughts with me.
Stutts Everette (11:11):
Yeah, perfect.

Part of Everette Stutts