The video shows a woman confronting the group of teenagers in a store as they appear to be dressed up for Halloween.
The woman in the video speaks directly to the three within the group wearing blackface and asks them whether they are aware of the consequences of their actions.
As the group continued to make jokes, the woman scolded the group and accused them of committing a hate crime. She also said that this sort of behavior can result in colleges declining to accept them.
The video was posted on TikTok by user stinkyuglyrat on Tuesday and has since been viewed more than 10,900 times.
An in-video caption reads “who are these kids in Cedar City Utah? please share and spread this so we can find them!!!” Newsweek was unable to establish independently whether the video had been shot in Cedar City, Utah or when or by whom it was recorded. “help us find these racists!!!” the poster said.
The TikTok page said that the original video was posted by the TikTok page thebrownestsugar. This profile is private, however, meaning those that aren’t following the TikToker can’t view the content posted. Newsweek was unable to get comment from either of the TikTokers.
The same video has also been shared on Twitter and been viewed over 300,000 times.
The Utah-based Deseret News quoted Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, as condemning racism in a response to the video.
“We strongly condemn racism in all its forms and we call on every Utahn to reject such offensive stereotypes, slurs and attitudes,” the publication reported that the governor had said in a statement. “We must do better,” it quoted him as saying.
Arizona State University Professor Ayanna Thompson, who wrote a book titled Blackface, has previously spoken about the impact wearing blackface has and the wider issues.
“I think when people dress in Halloween costumes, whether it’s Pocahontas or Aunt Jemima, or whoever, and they apply those prosthetics, it does harken back to mocking and denigrating black identity,” she said.
Earlier this month, other teenagers who appeared to be wearing blackface were widely condemned.
Video footage began to circulate from October 9 onwards showing teens lining up for rides at a Six Flags amusement park in Illinois.
As the teens lined up for a ride, their faces smeared all over with black paint, one of them asked a black person in queue whether they liked it.
Visitor Asiah, who posted the video, seen over 1 million times on TikTok, said Black customers were also AirDropped a racist meme. The screenshot image showed a Black child holding a toy, along with the message: “Buy me one.” A response read, “No. Black people can’t be sold anymore.”
The posts sparked swift outrage on social media, with viewers quickly identifying the white teens as students at Grant Community High School in Fox Lake, Illinois.
“Hi @GrantBulldogs! One of your students, Isaac Handley, decided it would be funny to go to @SixFlags in blackface and ask some black children if they liked his and his friend’s painted faces,” said a Twitter user. “This is disgusting behavior!”
In a statement to Newsweek, Grant Community High School said it “condemns racism in all its forms in the strongest terms possible,” calling the actions of its students “racially insensitive” and “extremely disappointing.”
Update 11/01/22, 2:27 p.m. ET: This article was updated with the response reported from the Utah governor