This is a FOX News Report. Very interesting.
Witnesses have reportedly come forward saying no racial slurs were heard during the BYU-Duke women’s volleyball match last Friday, in which Duke’s Rachel Richardson, the only Black starter for the Blue Devils, said she was heckled throughout “the entirety of the match.”
Richardson said in a statement that BYU officials were not quick enough to address the situation upon the initial grievance from the Duke bench. BYU noted that the fan, who the Salt Lake Tribune said was a Utah Valley University student sitting in the student section, was banned from all athletic venues on campus.
The BYU Cougar Chronicle — a student newspaper at the university — said “a source inside the BYU athletic department” said: “Ms. Richardson complained of hearing a racial slur during the second set but didn’t not point anyone out. Officials discussed briefly and stationed policemen there…there were no more complaints until after the match.”
The Chronicle spoke to several students seated in the student section during the game that claimed they “heard absolutely nothing,” and that the banned fan did not yell a racial slur before being escorted out of the game.
The fan was escorted out of Smith Fieldhouse due to “interfering with guests,” not for shouting racial slurs, said the BYU Athletics official. BYU officials said that several athletic employees have been going through footage of the game and have yet to find any evidence of racial slurs being shouted.
“Various BYU Athletics employees have been reviewing video from BYUtv and other cameras in the facility that the volleyball team has access to for film review,” BYU officials said in a statement. “This has been ongoing since right after the match on Friday night. The person who was banned was the person identified by Duke as using racial slurs. However, we have been unable to find any evidence of that person using slurs in the match.”
Here’s who they are attacking.
There is also the police report from BYU police Det. Sgt. Richard Laursen, who stood next to the banned fan throughout the fourth set, saying the man may have “(A)sparger syndrome or could have autism,” per the Deseret News. The BYU athletics official also told the BYU student-led newspaper the man was mentally challenged.
“When a mentally challenged fan approached a Duke player, the Duke team then suddenly recognized the handicapped man’s ‘voice’ as the same one shouting slurs,” the BYU Athletics official told the Chronicle. “They never saw or pointed out a face, just a voice. They banned this man. Not for slurs, but for interfering with visiting guests. BYU Athletics staff went through footage of the entire game and the man Duke identified was never seated in the student section. Her story doesn’t add up, BYU banned an innocent man to appease the mob and make their PR mess go away. While I don’t know if Ms. Richardson genuinely misheard something or intentionally made up this story, it certainly does not constitute the criticism BYU has gotten. There is zero evidence of a slur being said. Not a single witness, besides Ms. Richardson, has come forth. Not a single cell phone video or BYUtv’s several camera angles caught a single thing. How unlikely when this person supposedly said a slur during ‘every single serve.'”
Complete article can be found here.
