Black Duke volleyball player says BYU heckled with n word

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Source: Mitchell Layton / Getty

What do you get if you mix the state of Utah, a predominantly white Christian university, competitive sports, and a few Black women? Racism.

According to CNN, a Black women’s volleyball player named Rachel Richardson spoke out against the Brigham Young University coaching staff and match officials for failing to properly address the egregious racist taunting and threats that she and her other Black teammates experienced this weekend.

“Friday night in our match against Brigham Young University my fellow African American teammates and I were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match,” Richardson tweeted. “The slurs and comments grew into threats which caused us to feel unsafe.”

Richardson posted a lengthy letter to Twitter explaining what had happened and how it made her and her teammates feel.

Richardson’s aunt Lesa Pamplin, a candidate for judge in Tarrant County Criminal Court #5, was also in attendance and took to social media to voice her displeasure with the fans’ behavior as well.

“My Goddaughter is the only black starter for Dukes volleyball team. While playing yesterday, she was called a n***er every time she served,” Pamplin’s tweet read.

Hell, even LeBron James caught wind of the f***ery and chimed in.

@LesaPamplin, you tell your Goddaughter to stand tall, be proud and continue to be BLACK!!! We are a brotherhood and sisterhood! We have her back. This is not sports. #striveforgreatness #morethanavollyballplayer

In response to the public backlash, BYU finally released a word salad statement “condemning” the bigoted behavior that you can read in full HERE:

All of God’s children deserve love and respect, and BYU athletics is completely committed to leading out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice of any kind and rooting out racism. When a student-athlete or a fan comes to a BYU sporting event, we expect that they will be treated with love and respect and feel safe on our campus. It is for this reason BYU has banned a fan who was identified by Duke during last night’s volleyball match from all BYU athletic venues.

Seems like the BYU fans didn’t feel this “commitment” when they were sitting right next to someone making these obscene threats.

Categories: Bolitics