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September 22, 2022

In what has now become a par-for-the-course fabrication, Duke athlete Rachel Richardson’s story of being called racist epithets by racist BYU fans in racist Utah during a racist volleyball game have been debunked.  Richardson had claimed that a fan had yelled the n-word toward her “throughout the entirety of the match.”  The white male aggressor then threatened her, and a police officer needed to be posted near the players’ bench.

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Before anyone investigated anything or even examined the veracity of her allegation, BYU had apologized and suspended the alleged offender.  The University of South Carolina canceled its girls’ basketball team’s upcoming games against BYU.  At Duke University, the Black Student Alliance issued a “call to action” (there was no response from the White Student Alliance…because that organization does not exist).  ESPN’s Stephen Smith chortled at the idea that this “incident” would drive away prospective students from BYU.  At USA Today, Mike Freeman ranted that anyone who dared question Richardson’s story was analogous to the Klan.

And then, a BYU student newspaper, The Cougar Chronicle, did something that nobody in the mainstream media could be bothered to do.  Its journalists investigated the story.  And they found no evidence whatsoever that a single racial slur had been uttered toward Richardson or anyone else.  Other than Richardson, nobody heard any racial slur.  Not the 5,700 attendees, both black and white.  Not the ushers who were deployed during the game to the fan section in question to search for the Mystery Racist.  Not the referees or the players, including Richardson’s black teammates.  Video footage from different angles and sources corroborates that nothing of the sort occurred.

Maybe Rachel sincerely misheard the shouts of the raucous crowd…somehow over and over again, every single time she served the ball.

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Maybe Rachel has superhuman hearing abilities like Dolores from Encanto.

Or maybe Rachel lied.

Other than John Avalon at CNN (?!?!), leftist media largely ignored this development.  They also largely ignored an actual incident of bigotry that occurred a couple weeks later that was directed against the student body of the very BYU that they’d just spent nearly a month vilifying.

At a recent football game between BYU and the University of Oregon, several Oregon fans were videotaped chanting, “F— the Mormons!”  Utah governor Spencer Cox called them out on it, and, to be fair, the University of Oregon immediately issued an apology and promised to investigate.

In complete contrast with Richardson’s allegation, this one has indisputable video evidence in which the bigots’ faces are clearly identifiable.  Will the guilty parties be suspended from future games as the BYU student was?  We’ll see.

Here’s what we know didn’t happen, and probably won’t.  The University of South Carolina didn’t cancel any upcoming games with the University of Oregon.  No “student alliance” anywhere stood in “solidarity” with BYU Mormons.  There were no “calls to action,” no pleading to “have difficult conversations” or “start a dialogue.”  And, unlike after Richardson’s fabrication, where we were treated to the legacy of racism within Mormonism, there is now no similar lesson exposing the fact that Mormonism is arguably the most persecuted religion in American history.