He’s the newly minted captain of a prestigious all boys’ institution with proud traditions, from the boater hats students wear to the pipes and drums that herald significant occasions.

This occasion isn’t one of them.

In hindsight, it should be.

For what is about to happen will rock the foundations of Brisbane Boys’ College which, since its inception in 1902, has turned out Rhodes scholars, property tycoons and capped rugby union players.

On this day, it’s all about a kid called Mason Black.

Some will praise his bravery, others will curse him for “damaging masculinity”, but this 18-year-old in the decorated green and black striped blazer will not be dissuaded – and his words will echo beyond the college hall for years to come.

“It shocked everyone, the room went silent and they were like, ‘Oh shit, what is going on?’” says Black, now 21, reflecting on that speech, delivered to unsuspecting years 10-12 students.

Social media lit up, media outlets pounced, and Mason Black would spend the next few months battling the fallout.

Because in those emotive six minutes – in which the captain would normally fire up the lads ahead of the weekend’s GPS sporting clashes – he not only called out society’s “ingrained rape culture” but also his own school’s part in it.

“It makes me feel sick and it makes me feel embarrassed that our school is featured in the testimonies of young women who are victims of sexual assault,” he said at the time, referring to accounts he’d read on the Teach Us Consent website newly launched by former Sydney private school student Chanel Contos. Also named in testimonies were Brisbane Grammar School, Anglican Church Grammar School, St Joseph’s Nudgee College, St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace, Toowoomba Grammar School and St Laurence’s.

Black told his cohort: “If you have ever objectified a woman based on her looks, talked about females in a misogynistic way, or taken advantage without consent, you are part of the problem. Boys, don’t allow yourself to slip into complacent denial by disregarding the seriousness of this issue.

“Every single week a man kills his partner or former partner. Before the age of 16, one in five women experiences some form of sexual abuse. And 97 per cent of sexual offences are from men.

“This is not solely an issue of protecting women but an issue of educating men. Stop being boys, be human.”

Three years later, Mason Black is determined to be “more than just that speech”.

“Nobody had ever done something like that at my school, let alone any school I think,” he says.

“But one day I was just sitting at uni and thinking how I’d said all these amazing things but I hadn’t done anything – it was time to put some action to my words.”

Black, studying advanced business at the University of Queensland, reached out to several mentors – including from his BBC days – and said he wanted to start a charity and hold free workshops in schools.

Cue The Betterment Project, with the “men” capitalised for effect. In July this year, after cold calling and emailing more than 400 schools across the state, Black visited the 10 which said yes.

He and three others involved in the project – backed by a $50,000 grant by the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation – drove to the Sunshine Coast, then on to Gympie, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Gladstone and Rockhampton.

Sci-Fleet Toyota provided the wheels.

Black spoke about respectful relationships to more than 1350 year 11 and 12 students from eight state and two private schools.

“A lot of messages that come from principals and teachers go in one ear, out the other, but when a young person asks another young person, ‘how would you feel if it was your mum, sister or someone you care about?’, it gets them.”

The Betterment Project has developed an educational module using government resources but it’s the telling of stories – including Black’s own – that has the real cut through. “It’s got to come from me,” he explains.

“Data and stats don’t do it; you have to convey these key messages through stories, so I talk to them about what happened in my life and build on that.”

Word is certainly spreading because following the project’s July trip, more than 45 other schools have registered interest, and Black intends to take his message across Australia.

Pivotal in Black’s story is his mother, Michelle Monsour.

She was sexually abused at age 10.
However, Black did not find this out until he was in year 12, a few weeks before his landmark speech.

He was looking online for her birthday present when he came across a book called Mother Who? by Diane Evans and Sharon Evans. It profiles a diverse group of women, including singer Kate Ceberano and former governor of Queensland Quentin Bryce.

Black began reading the summary and discovered his own mother – a former CEO of Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and now running a successful marketing company in Papua New Guinea – was also featured.

“I had no idea, it was incredible, I was able to read just the first page of her chapter online and thought, ‘Good as gold, this is the perfect present,’” he says.

Being a boarder with limited outings, Black asked a family friend to source the book and have his mother’s entire chapter framed so she could hang it on her wall.

That gift changed everything.

“We sat down on her bed together and we read through her whole life, and on the second or third page she talked of her experience as a young girl going through sexual assault – the conversation that followed was the hardest of my life and a massive turning point for me,” Black says.

“It was only a month apart from reading the testimonials (on Chanel Contos’s website) and I realised this problem was so much bigger than I thought it was.

“Mum and I both got really emotional and shortly after I started writing the speech.”

It took Black two weeks to hone it – “I had only been in the (captain) role for a term and I needed it to be as good as it possibly could” – and he ran the final by a much-admired senior staff member.

“This is a funny story,” he says.

“There were parts the school didn’t want me to say it, because this is a very confronting issue, as I’m sure you can appreciate. I wouldn’t say the school tried to censor me, but they wanted to protect all the boys in the room.”

Black walked on to the stage that day with two speeches in his pocket – the edited version and his original.

“I pulled my version out and did it anyway,” he smiles.

“I was a bit rebellious, but I 100 per cent thought that this is the message every single kid in here needs to hear, (years) 10 through 12, they’re old enough.

“If you’re not mature at this stage, then mature up and listen to this, because it’s real.”

Black says he didn’t cop flak from the school but rather gained respect.

“Before I went into the role (of captain) I told them, ‘I’m not going to be a ‘yes’ boy and there will be times you guys are going to get upset with me because I’m going to do what’s right for the boys every time.’”

Little did Black realise the wider fallout he would have to manage.

Although many supported his message, he was lambasted on social media, prompting the school to engage a PR company to manage his accounts and delete vile comments.

“The two to three weeks after (the speech) were very tough as a young guy; the school did everything they could to shield me from what was going on, so without that support I would have been in a pretty bad way,” he says.

“The school essentially went, ‘Any mental health support you need we’ve got people here’, they asked me to turn my social media from public to private but I kind of went, ‘Look, if I do that then the message doesn’t spread as far, it becomes a private video.’”

Several months later, a letter found its way into Black’s hands. “Everything had died down and this one rogue letter was sent to the boarding school,” he recalls.

It was 15 pages of hate.

“The whole letter, by a bloke in Victoria who said he was a teacher, was about how my message was damaging for men and terrible for masculinity, and he said people like me shouldn’t exist in the world,” Black says.

“He said I was taking the course of Hitler, Stalin and Mao, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m 18 and he’s depicting me as one of the worst human beings ever.’

“I can laugh about it now, and I still have the letter at home and use it as motivation – while there are people in the world like that I know my job is not done.”

At the core of misogyny and the rape culture it fuels is a lack of positive male role models, Black believes.

It is also a key factor in the youth crime epidemic.

Black, whose parents split when he was a child, remains close to his Sydney-based father Marshall Black and regularly calls on an array of mentors as he navigates his own journey.

“As a kid, I always sought out those role models – the director of boarding at BBC was a massive one, as was an older boy at school (Jack Gallagher) and a family friend (Dean Templeman) who are now both on my board for Betterment. (Also on the board is Matthew Bennett, vice-captain of BBC in Black’s year).

“I’m lucky, but many boys just don’t have strong men in their lives,” he says.

The recent tour of regional Queensland was an eye opener.

“All the kids who came up to me after my presentations had really significant problems,” Black says.

“I always ask them, ‘What’s going on at home?’ and 95 per cent of them say, ‘Dad’s an alcoholic, Dad’s not at home, Dad abuses drugs, Dad’s in jail.’

“One kid, in Rocky, went to juvie for stealing a car and I asked him why he did it.

“He said, ‘Dad abuses drugs, Mum’s not in the picture anymore, my brother suicided’. This kid came from a really low socio-eco background, and he said to me, ‘Why wouldn’t I (steal a car)? I get to go there (juvie), get fed, have a bed to sleep on.’”

Black sees a “massive problem” in expecting children to rehabilitate in youth detention when they are released back into the same unhealthy environment.

“My one piece of advice to this kid was to go straight into the army. He was a great kid and I hope he takes it.”

With the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation grant running out, Black, who is living off his savings, is looking for investors and for ways to work smarter.

“My demand is growing and I physically cannot reach every school but education is the long-term fix,” he says.

“We have a bit left in the kitty which will fund the next regional tour in May 2025, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Mackay, but for me to make this big and get it to a stage it is really impactful, it comes down to money.”

The other tool he says is crucial is technology. “I can spend three weeks and speak to 1350 kids but if they only see me once or twice a year, am I really creating change?

“You need strong male role models in front of these kids all the time, and the one thing that all or most kids have and engage with is their phones.”

Black says using social media in a responsible and constructive way is critical.

“Flooding social media with good, positive content – how to live a healthy life and have healthy relationships – that’s probably the way to get most bang for buck,” he says.

“The biggest problem right now is that porn is so accessible. The age kids are engaging with porn is getting younger and younger and that’s the worst thing you can do – show a kid that this is what sex looks like.”

Influencers such as self-described misogynist Andrew Tate also are unhelpful in creating positive change.

“He can be very harmful to young kids if that’s their idea of what a good and strong man looks like,” Black says.

“There are a lot of young kids out there without strong male role models and when you are without that you’re going to turn to things like social media and follow these influencers who say ridiculous things just to get clicks.”

Black says Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp – has a “massive responsibility in regulating content” and ultimately “a cultural shift needs to happen”.

He is seeing encouraging signs.

“When I was on the road, I didn’t get asked any Andrew Tate questions so I feel people are moving away from him,” he says.

“We should have a lot of hope in the future – there are lots of young people doing great things and changing the trajectory; we want to get to kids before patterns of bad behaviour set in.”

Reflecting on his 2021 speech to his peers at Brisbane Boys’ College, Black admits he could have done one thing better.

He asked the students if they were brave enough to ask their mothers, sisters or female friends about their experiences of physical or sexual assault.

“One of my mentors (Michael Jeh, a life skills educator and former professional cricketer) said to me last year, ‘Why does it have to be someone you care about for you to care?’ and that got me because it’s completely right.

“We should all have the same respect for all women. It should make you emotional not just because it’s your mum or your sister; it should make you emotional because it’s every woman.”

Crisis support service Lifeline 13 11 14. If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call triple-0