BYU Finds No Evidence Of Racial Abuse Against Black Duke Volleyball Player

The school said in a statement it reviewed all audio and video recordings of the August August 26 match and conducted interviews with more than 50 players and personnel at the match and failed to find “any evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event.”

Rachel Richardson, the sole Black starter on Duke’s team, said following the contest she and other Black teammates were the targets of racial slurs and heckling during the match, leading BYU to subsequently bar the person who Duke identified as the abuser from all BYU athletic events.

Following the game, Duke refused to play another game on BYU’s campus, and the University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley followed by canceling her team’s upcoming games against BYU, saying she wanted to protect her players from facing racist taunts.

After BYU campus police said August 30 they did not observe evidence of the fan in question uttering a racial slur, many prominent far-right figures and social media users claimed the event was entirely fabricated, including baselessly accusing Richardson’s godmother Lesa Pamplin of using the incident as a way to prop up her campaign for an elected judge seat in Texas.