The April Incident

**The April Incident** refers to a controversial episode of Mormon Talk, aired on April 20, 2020, that ultimately caused the Mormon Talk Twitch channel to become banned, which was followed by 3 Days & 3 Nights of darkness before the show was unbanned and resurrected. The episode climaxed with the host, Brett O. Call, donning a charcoal mask that many initially interpreted as "black face."

### Background

Brett's counterpart, Carson Owen Kimball, had recently departed from *Mormon Talk* due to both his declining mental health and the catastrophic events of the 2nd General Conference Mormon Talk special. Having seemingly taken over sole custody of the show, Brett ran a successful episode the week prior with no kerfuffles to speak of. On April 20, 2020, Brett again ran the show by himself from his own abode, persistently claiming the Carson was not coming back to the show.

### Synopsis

#### The First Hour

At the start of April 20th's episode, Brett mentioned that the second half of the show would be devoted to a "special topic" that did not involve Carson. After opening up the phone lines, the first hour of the episode ran fairly normally, with Brett fielding calls from usuals like Randy O. Call, Randy A. Williams, and Frank.

Near the end of the first hour, Brett mentioned that his wife had cooked him a meat-free pizza that he discovered contained soy. Some have made theories tying this to the following events.

#### Muslim Grooming Gangs

After returning from the halftime break, Brett turned off the phone lines, told his viewers that he was going to get serious, and began to discuss the topic of Muslim grooming gangs, an issue that apparently was plaguing the United Kingdom at the time. Brett argued that the concept of "social justice" was interfering with the work of police officers and the justice system within the United Kingdom because it was deemed not politically correct to profile Muslim gang members as potential groomers. Furthermore, he argued that the fear of being deemed "a racist" prevented police officers from detaining individuals that affiliated with these grooming gangs.

Upon finishing his diatribe, Brett opened up the phone lines again, asking for viewers to comment on what they had just heard. Several calls came in expressing confusion about how his soapbox was relevant to the show, with Brett getting more and more frustrated at the lack of understanding.

Brett's soapbox was very uncharacteristic of him, having previously led viewers to characterize him as a soft-spoken, politically-neutral young man with a strong devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

#### The Incident

Having expressed frustration over some callers reactions to his "Muslim grooming gangs" diatribe, Brett went on break for several minutes. Brett returned donning what appeared to be a charcoal mask, which most viewers interpreted as "black face," asking if the callers "understood it now." After rationalizing his actions, he again opened the phone lines. While Brett never overtly said anything suggesting that his actions were racially-motivated, he continued to explain "this is not offensive." Only two calls were aired from the time that the phone lines were reopened to the official takedown of the Mormon Talk Twitch channel. The first call lasted around 10 minutes, with Brett and the caller arguing about whether or not Brett's actions were offensive or not. Brett stood steadfast behind his actions, claiming that there was nothing inherently offensive about what he was doing. The first caller held it in for a while, but finally could not hold his anger back anymore, letting loose an "F#" causing Brett to cut the call. The second call was from the frequent-caller Randy O. Call, who, while asking what Brett was doing, was cut off by the Twitch channel being banned and removed.

That this incident occurred on April 20th, a day dedicated the Devil's Lettuce (and also Hitler's Birthday and the anniversary of Columbine), made it appear sinister, though these could of course plausibly be coincidences.

### Theories

There are many varying theories about why Brett chose to do what he did on 4/20/20. To list a few of them...

* **Brett is a racist** - this theory was the assumed explanation by the bulk of the fanbase immediately following the incident, though this is not the most popular theory anymore given that (a) up until this incident Brett never said or did anything that would imply innate feelings of racism and (b) the rhetoric Brett used during the Incident mentioned nothing about race, but rather about his proclamation that his action was not offensive. Some have interpreted this as Brett O Call implying that black face is not offensive, which could be evidence to support this theory.
* **Brett was making a social commentary in a not-so-smart, regrettable way -** However, others interpret Brett's repeated proclamation that his actions were "not offensive" as Brett saying that putting on a charcoal mask is not inherently offensive unless the viewer perceives it as blackface. This theory is supported by Brett O Call's prior soapbox concerning "Muslim Grooming Gangs"; the point that Brett was making during this soapbox was that sometimes social justice can go too far to the point where police officers will avoid pursuing these gangs that objectively harm children due to the fact that those who identify as "social justice warriors" will immediately assume that the officers actions were racially-motivated and thus will dub the police officer as a racist. When the callers of the show displayed confusion about Brett O Calls point regarding the grooming gangs, he went on break and returned with a black material covering his face. Even though Brett never said that in doing so he was putting on black face (in other words, was attempting to portray a black individual or make fun of a black person (rather, he never mentioned race whatsoever), the majority of the fan base immediately assumed that Brett's actions were racially-motivated, even though there are other plausible, non-racist reasons why a white individual would have a dark material covering their face. This theory is also supported by the tweet Brett O. Call made on the day following the incident:

* **Brett was under the influence of soy** - this theory was also posited by one Randy O. Call Jr. but was discredited when Brett himself said this was not the reason, though given Brett's consumption of a soy-based pizza prior to the incident it leaves the viewer questioning whether Brett himself doesn't realize that this was the reason. Nevertheless, this explanation makes the least sense of the three posited on this article given that soy consumption is not tied to doing zany things but rather it is tied to becoming more effeminate.

### Conclusion

The period of time following this incident was dubbed the 3 Days & 3 Nights. Many fans of the show were traumatized by this incident, which made this period of time characterized by solemness and self-reflection. Given the sudden, unexpected banning of the show and little to no communication with the hosts outside of Twitter, many individuals took meticulous time to come to their own conclusion regarding what had happened. At the end of the day, no person's conclusion about this incident is necessarily wrong, but one must truly understand that given the nature of the details surrounding the Incident, it isn't reasonable to proclaim that one's own conclusion is the only right conclusion to make. Everyone has equal right to both their opinion on the incident and to choose whether or not to continue to watch Mormon Talk without any judgment of that choice. Mormon Talk and its fanbase condemn baseless prejudice in all its forms, including but not at all limited to racism, homophobia, transphobia, et al - in other words, making assumptions and jumping to conclusions about someone with only a limited scope of information about that individual. With that said, we leave the following statements unapologetically:

* Black Lives Matter.
* All Live Don't Matter until Black Lives Do.
* RIP George Floyd.
* If you have 10 bad cops and 1000 good cops that don't turn in those 10 bad cops, you have 1010 bad cops.
* Defund the Police.