Copyright The Boston Globe
Now in its third year, Blexit’s outreach effort is aimed at recruiting students from historically Black colleges and universities to form campus “clubs” and, as the group says, “think for themselves.” The group’s arrival during homecoming weekend sparked the latest flash point in a broader debate over what voices and ideologies belong on HBCU campuses. For Howard, known as “the Mecca” of Black excellence and political thought, it was another charged moment on its storied yard, a space that hosted Kamala Harris’s election night watch party, helped launch model Anok Yai’s career and even saw an appearance from the Notorious B.I.G. in 1995. When Blexit said its group would be returning to the prominent HBCU and others across the country in the wake of Kirk’s death, many students and alumni of the schools with small conservative contingents derided the decision. Howard University advised the community to be wary in an email to students last week, which did not specifically mention Blexit. “In these challenging times, you may notice individuals who may agitate or attempt to distract you from your purpose on or near our campus,” it read. “While it may be natural to have curiosity about these events, we strongly encourage you not to engage with individuals or groups whose actions may disrupt the celebratory atmosphere or the environment of mutual respect that we all work so diligently to maintain.” What transpired on campus registered more like a mild commotion. Washington Post reporters watched Blexit contributor Stephen Davis approach mostly men with questions about how members of the Black community could uplift themselves through entrepreneurship and financial leadership. Davis wore no Blexit or Turning Point identifiers. “I usually don’t say I’m with this group. I just say I’m Stephen,” he told The Post. “ … I’m just out here to have conversations.” Some onlookers side-eyed the spectacle or declined to participate, muttering statements like “I’m not trying to be seen” as they walked away. Summer Johnson, an economics and philosophy student at Howard, said she felt “unsettled” by Blexit’s presence. To her, the group’s conservative values represented support for defunding federal jobs, like the one her mom has. “From their perspective, it’s very strategic. You’re coming to one of the biggest events at Howard, and I feel like a lot of people that are here are pretty liberal,” she said. The movement, she believes, came to get people riled up, knowing how upset and emotional people get about the group’s talking points. But Sam Mahmood Al Hasan, a Howard student who conversed with Davis, said their conversation about entrepreneurship and financial literacy was important. “That’s very good awareness that should be spread more … in the Black community,” he said. “I️ believe that’s a very good thing that he’s spreading.” Pierre Wilson, the senior director of Blexit, attended the University of Maryland Eastern Shore for three years before transferring to Salisbury University to study political science. “I was elected class president at an HBCU,” he said, referring to Eastern Shore. That experience, he said, informs why Blexit’s tour targets HBCUs. “I know from personal experience there is a need for a different perspective on those campuses,” Wilson, 36, said. The goal, he explained, isn’t to provoke, but to expose students to viewpoints they rarely hear. “We’re not there to cause chaos. We’re there to have honest conversations, open dialogue, really meet the students, learn why they believe what they believe, share some of our beliefs, and give them the full puzzle.” According to Wilson, Blexit has a presence on 21 college campuses; 17 of these “unofficial clubs” were formed as a direct result of the tour. He sees that growth as proof that the outreach is resonating. Still, he said, “the biggest pushback hasn’t come from students, it’s come from administrators.” He said at some universities, “faculty have worked overtime to block us.” Even so, Wilson insists that the group’s mission is to encourage young Black students to “think on their own” and make political choices grounded in independent thought, not inherited loyalty. “If they walk away and still lean left, that’s fine,” he said. “What matters is that they’ve heard both sides and made the decision for themselves.” Davis said many people have “misconceptions” about Blexit. “We care deeply about the Black community. We just have different ways of going about it. The goal is still the same: empowerment, self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship and education,” he told The Post. “I want to stay away from the politics; ultimately that’s not the issue within the Black community. The issue is the culture. We have to fix the culture, remedy the culture. … I’m about uplifting the Black community out of the shackles that we’re in and uplifting us to a higher plane, starting with the mind and in the family.” Shortly after Blexit staked out a spot across from local Black vendors, protesters from the organization Refuse Fascism rolled up with a flashier presentation. In a tense moment, pedestrians stared as campus police talked to Refuse Fascism activist Lucha Bright and examined the posters the group was wheeling around in a cart. Afterward, Refuse Fascism simply moved closer to where Blexit was interviewing. Bright and a handful of other protesters stood close to Davis for the next couple of hours, wearing bright orange shirts and handing out fliers that read, “Trump Must Go Now,” but the two groups weren’t seen directly interacting. “You have this Blexit group coming to Howard, promoting those ideas and being a Black face on white supremacy,” Bright told The Post, noting that Kirk opposed the Civil Rights Act. “That is dangerous for Black people, and it’s dangerous for humanity.” “I know they have Black representatives … but they are a minority of Black society,” said another protester, Ralph Nix. “ … They think if they’re on the side of the regime, they’re going to be protected while everybody else is taken advantage of.” Despite the pushback members of Blexit have received, they remain resolute. They’re hoping to peel away at the stigma many Black people hold against Black conservatives. While some data suggests Donald Trump won a historic share of the Black vote in the 2024 election, the demographic still overwhelmingly voted for Harris. Conservative groups such as Blexit, Turning Point USA and College Republicans have struggled to find a foothold on historically Black college and university campuses. Leading up to the Howard event, the university’s community questioned whether it would actually happen - and if it did, whether it would attract a sizable audience. A month into the HBCU tour, the Turning Point-powered campaign has lacked a large social media footprint. The group posted a video to Instagram on Friday that it suggested showed a Howard student criticizing conservative Christianity. In fact, the video appears to have been shot at Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina. At other stops, the group wasn’t even allowed to stay. Officials at Tennessee State University asked Blexit members to leave the school grounds when they stopped by on Oct. 17. (A TSU spokesperson had no comment.) A stop at Florida A&M University’s homecoming, scheduled for the same day, was canceled by Blexit at the last minute without a new date confirmed. There was also confusion at Howard regarding who would show up to represent Blexit. Promotional tour material names six influencers: Craig Long, Savannah Craven Antao, Siaka Massaquoi, Davis, Topher and Anthony Watson - but only one of them showed, along with the videographer and a Blexit influencer who goes by Price. Only one Blexit-affiliated Howard student was seen at the event, a volunteer who declined to be interviewed for fear of retribution from the school. Also missing from the tour stop was the conservative influencer many associate with Blexit: Candace Owens, who co-founded the group during Trump’s first term in an effort to coax Black people away from the Democratic Party. Owens has stepped away from the movement since it merged with Turning Point in 2023, but she is still featured prominently on Blexit’s website. She has recently been advancing conspiracy theories about Kirk’s death on her podcasts and blaming Turning Point’s leaders for opposing her “investigation.” “TPUSA took over Blexit years ago, and this was all done in public. If you weren’t aware of this, maybe you shouldn’t be covering this topic. There is no story here,” a representative for Owens wrote in an email. Owens’s name didn’t come up much during Blexit’s three-hour stop at Howard. Davis didn’t mention Kirk much either in his conversations with students, for that matter. Aside from the protest, the afternoon unfolded without incident. When the group packed up its equipment, a few students and staff lingered near the yard asking: “Who was that big guy with the muscles?” Davis and his cameraman soon headed to the airport, bound for Phoenix, where Turning Point USA’s headquarters are. Before leaving, Davis said the “vibes were great,” adding that the conversations with students were exactly what the group had hoped for. “This is what it’s all about,” he said.
