EDITOR'S NOTE: On Sept. 9, 2022, BYU issued the results of an investigation into the allegations that fans engaged in racial heckling and uttered racial slurs at a Duke volleyball player last month and said no evidence was found to support the claim. As a result of the investigation, the university said it has lifted a ban on a fan who was identified as directing racial slurs at the player.
Brigham Young University banned a fan who yelled a racial slur at a Black player on the Duke volleyball team during a match Friday night, the university said in a statement Saturday.
The fan was sitting in the BYU student section but was not a student, and has been banned from all athletic venues on campus, the statement said.
“We will not tolerate behavior of this kind. Specifically, the use of a racial slur at any of our athletic events is absolutely unacceptable and BYU Athletics holds a zero-tolerance approach to this behavior,” the statement said. “We wholeheartedly apologize to Duke University and especially its student-athlete competing last night for what they experienced. We want BYU athletic events to provide a safe environment for all, and there is no place for behaviors like this in our venues.”
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The player, Rachel Richardson, who is the only Black starter on the team, was called a racial slur “every time she served,” Richardson’s godmother, Lesa Pamplin, said in a tweet.
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Pamplin is currently a candidate for Tarrant County's Circuit Court Judge's Number 5 position.
“For far too long, individuals have been subjected to racist slurs, taunts, and threats like the unfortunate incident that happened to my goddaughter, Rachel Richardson, at BYU," Pamplin said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that this incident has only received attention after I tweeted about it."
“Every American should be enraged that a young lady was subjected to hateful, demeaning language, and we should be even more outraged that it took a tweet from me in Tarrant County, Texas, to bring this incident to light,” the statement continued.
On Sunday, Richardson posted a three-page statement on social media about the incident and said BYU coaches and officials "failed to take the necessary steps to stop the unacceptable behavior and create a safe environment."
Richardson said the incident provides an opportunity for student-athletes, coaches, fans and administrators to educate those using hateful language.
"This is an opportunity to dig deep into closed cultures which tolerate amoral racist acts, such as those exhibited Friday night, and change them for the better," Richardson said.
Richardson is a 19-year-old sophomore from Ellicott City, Maryland.
Rachel's father, Marvin Richardson on Sunday said he was unaware of what was happening during the match Friday as he watched via a live internet broadcast from his home in Maryland. Later, his daughter called him from the team bus in tears.
"I had no clue this was going on but during the match, while this was going on, she was struggling," Richardson said. "There was no question. She told me it was hard to focus."
Richardson, who grew up in Fort Worth in the 1960s and 1970s during the era of desegregation of local schools, said he would share his experiences from that era with each of his four daughters.
"To know that same hateful rhetoric is still being spewed in 2022 in college athletic arenas, that’s not encouraging," Richardson said. "But the fact that it is being called out and the fact that it will not exist in the dark is encouraging.”
Duke said its match Saturday against Rider was moved from BYU’s Smith Fieldhouse to a different venue in Provo.
“First and foremost, our priority is the well-being of Duke student-athletes,” Duke athletic director Nina King said in a statement. “They should always have the opportunity to compete in an inclusive, anti-racist environment [that] promotes equality and fair play. Following extremely unfortunate circumstances at Friday night’s match at BYU, we are compelled to shift today’s match against Rider to a different location to afford both teams the safest atmosphere for competition.”
Duke and BYU are playing in a four-team, round-robin invitational along with Rider and Washington State. BYU beat Duke 3-1 on Friday.
