In the 21st century, social media has a crucial form of communication for many teens and millennials across the United States. Even at BSM, social media apps like Twitter and Instagram have become common platforms used to communicate with other students. Messages, pictures, and people can spread like wildfire across the Internet in a matter of seconds.

Senior high assistant principal Seborn Yancy has recently been a recipient of instant internet fame. He and his family have been featured on the well-known Twitter and Instagram account World Star Hip Hop. Yancy, his wife, and his five children are featured wearing t-shirts with the words black and white crossed out and the word human in bold. “Being a mixed race couple, and having kids that are mixed, we really love the message behind the shirts which is to promote unity and to remove the labels,” Yancy said.

The shirts initially gained traction through Yancy’s wife, Meghan Joy Yancy, who has a sizable Instagram following of about 23,000. On her Instagram account, @meghanjoytoday, Meghan Yancy chronicles her and her family’s life while also running a popular lifestyle blog. “My wife is a blogger, so she has companies that will reach out to her and ask her to promote their products… Human Citizens [are] the ones that made these t-shirts and asked her to have our family take a picture and promote their t-shirt,” Yancy said.

While these shirts have gained a diverse amount of feedback, applause, and criticism, the purpose of the shirts isn’t to be controversial. “People use race and our skin colors as a way to divide us as people, and the t-shirts are really just saying, ‘we’re people first and we want people to see us that way,’” Yancy said.

The basis of these shirts is not to spark controversy, but to encourage love and acceptance of other people. “There’s so much more to us than just the color of our skin. For me, I’m a Christian, I’m a husband, I’m a father, I’m a son, I’m a friend, I’m an educator. I want people to see all those things in me versus just the color of my skin,” Yancy said.