Seeking Social Justice at BYU - Saane Siale Pt. 2 | Ep 1772

Saane Siale arrived at Brigham Young University expecting Zion. Like many students of color recruited through church diversity programs, she pictured a campus where shared faith would override racial hierarchy. Instead, she found what she describes as a "force field" of hostility. In a recent Mormon Stories Podcast interview, Siale details how BYU’s conservative political culture and racial exclusion turned the Lord’s University into a proving ground for assimilation, leaving her and other Polynesian students navigating a landscape where they were simultaneously fetishized and ignored.

Background and Context

Siale grew up in Oakland, California, the daughter of Tongan immigrants. Her home ward was predominantly white, so she understood cultural isolation. She believed BYU would be different. The church’s Multicultural Student Services program suggested a community waiting to embrace her, and she entered her freshman year anticipating that her academic environment would integrate diversity