If a racial slur is yelled in a packed arena and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
That is the question Duke University volleyball player Rachel Richardson and our obedient establishment media have sought to answer.
When Richardson (and her politically ambitious godmother) alleged that someone in Brigham Young University’s student section yelled racial slurs at her, the establishment media flocked to support her. There were softball interviews for her and her father, as well as dozens of pieces asserting that a slur was, in fact, said. USA Today’s Mike Freeman declared Richardson “a hero surrounded by a lot of people who failed her.”
Hero or no, Richardson was clearly failed by those who sought to validate “her truth.”
Somehow, in the packed stadium, only Richardson heard the alleged slurs. Neither her teammates nor security officers in the area nor the people around the BYU student section (including black members of the school’s basketball team) have reported hearing the alleged slurs.
Richardson even helpfully picked out the exact student she claimed to hear the slurs coming from. But when police reviewed the video, they found that the student wasn’t even present the first time Richardson and her family claimed a slur was shouted, and the second time, he was looking down at his phone.
While Freeman calls it a “conspiracy theory” to say a slur was never said, all the available evidence indicates that a slur was not said. Maybe Richardson is lying, or maybe she simply misheard something shouted from the crowd. Or maybe a psychic broadcast the word into her head like Professor X in the X-Men. We may never know exactly.
But we do know that not a single person, or camera, can vouch for the accusation.
And we know that the BYU student section is owed an apology. It is owed one by Richardson, Duke, ESPN, Freeman, and every other media figure that jumped on this story. BYU is owed an apology as well, including from the University of South Carolina, which canceled a women’s basketball game in protest of this imaginary incident. And BYU students are owed one by BYU itself for jumping in with the mob instead of trusting that their student section wouldn’t allow this to happen unquestioned.
And we are all owed an apology for yet another racial hoax being perpetuated by the media based on one unsubstantiated claim. Unfortunately, you can expect these apologies to be much like the alleged slurs: No one will end up saying them.
