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Notes -
What's the latest on the Duke - BYU volleyball racist heckler? Has it been confirmed/corroborated yet, or is it looking like a hoax?
The best I've seen so far has been this BYU fan/alumni doing extensive research on the subject. That twitter user also cites some investigation done by this college sports outlet. The TLDR is that not a single person who was in attendance, nor a single person who has gone through the dozens of hours of footage -- including the police -- has been able to verify any racial slurs were used at the game. Not any fans that were there. Not any of the coaches. None of the players. Nor the visiting talent scouts that were seated in the relevant section of seats.
It's very likely the spectator, who was banned after the game, was not yelling slurs at players. He was not even at his seat and, at one point was on his phone, during the times when Richardson claims to have heard the slurs. This is all visible in footage and nobody sitting around him has claimed to have heard bad words. Apparently that fan is autistic not that it is particularly relevant. Poor chap.
One charitable theory that sounds plausible is that Richardson misheard "COUGARS" as a slur. Building on that, another theory is that Richardson got boxed into doubling down on her claims after her Godmother (running for political office) publicly made the specific claim that Richardson 'was called a nigger every time she served.' In the above Twitter thread he does post the footage of all her serves.
Personally, I do not fully doubt that Richardson thought she heard some no-no words at the time. In retrospect, that reflects more on her and her perception of BYU than anything else. While it's possible it was a cynical, pre-planned stunt that still sounds crazy to me. I guess there is no real cost in doing so? Especially if you were certain that no real questions would be asked. All the rest of it, the story, the narrative, the coverage, and national attention is a little sad, but unsurprising. The best investigative journalism on this case was done by some random fan who merely could not believe the story. The fact this would be a national story at all, even if her claims ended up being true, is also a little sad, but unsurprising. Some autist at volleyball game yells mean words and gets banned. So what?
TL;DR: A big nothing burger. Demand for racism continues to exceed supply, etc. Into the memory hole it goes.
EDIT: Highlighting this quote from Richardson is a little culture warry, but I think there's genuine value in recognizing that her beliefs likely contributed to this story going national.
It is particularly relevant, because it could mean he lacks the capacity to speak in his own defense, or even understand what they're doing to him.
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