I’m not completely sure whether this column is an apology, a reiteration, an accusation, a warning or a plea. Maybe it’s a swirl of all of those things or only some of them. Do they cancel each other out? I dunno.
When a Black Duke volleyball player indicated she repeatedly had a racist slur hurled at her during a match at BYU on Friday night, and her godmother put that information out on social media, I, like a whole lot of others, critically wondered why nobody — not fans, not BYU officials — reacted in a manner to have that perpetrator immediately tossed from the Smith Fieldhouse.
BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe met with the player the next day and addressed BYU’s volleyball crowd the following night, calling for proper treatment of the school’s guests, saying if BYU fans knew the athlete, Rachel Richardson, they would “love her.”
Though I didn’t write about that last part, I thought it was strange wording, considering if someone had hurled the N-word at a player, what difference would it make whether they loved her or not? They could have not liked her demeanor or her at all and that behavior would have remained just as idiotic and unacceptable.
What’s love got to do with it? It’s more about human decency.
Subsequently, some BYU fans automatically started defending the crowd and doubting Richardson’s account. Media from across the country, as well as prominent observers, from athletes to advocates, sharply criticized the racist encounter, and more than that, the racism at BYU.
At that point, as Richardson’s accusation hung thick in the air, nobody was sure what had happened, not with any exactness, myself included.
But those two primary lines of thought emerged, without conclusive evidence, one way or the other.
1) Those defending the crowd — “I don’t think it happened, she either concocted the story for her own purposes or she misheard what was yelled at her” — and, 2) those criticizing one more ugly racist mind screaming more ugly racist things.
To reiterate, nobody knew.
An investigation by BYU, which is ongoing, not only could find no real evidence, it found that the fan who had been banned in the aftermath did not utter the slurs.
Two more things here.
The first is disturbing, that so many, without actual knowledge themselves, were so quick to knock down the accusation, to kick it aside, to say it was fictional and, thereby, in too many cases eagerly denying that racism exists at BYU. Not only were those supporters eager to defend BYU, they were just as eager to fire a counter accusation back at Richardson and her godmother.
The second is also problematic, that some critics — myself included in this circumstance — are quick to attack any hint of racism, even when the proof of it is not yet in hand. Then again, so much racism in this country is not overt and proven or provable. It’s cloaked in five layers of camouflage. Too many Black Americans have suffered in that way for hundreds of years.
On the one hand, you have a young Black athlete, then, who says she heard what she heard and felt threatened by it and on the other hand, you have a mostly white institution with a mostly white fan base screaming and yelling this, that and the other at a raucous sporting event.
The accusation is made, the blowback is loud, further damaging the reputation of a school that believes it is doing what it can to correct its own attitudes and actions and connect with the Black community, even as the church that owns and operates the school cannot run from a past loaded with mistakes perpetrated against that Black community.
Conversely, the accuser is now the accused — of lying or being either badly or sadly mistaken.
What’s to be done with this?
The investigation will find what it finds. And we’ll see about that. Not all injustices are found.
Either way, maybe we all can learn from this experience.
God knows, we need to learn more — about racism, in all its forms, from the obvious to the subtle, everything in between, to become more aware of it, to not get so defensive when it does occur or even when it might have occurred or even if it is thought to have occurred. And also to be diligent in determining fairness and justice, when stupid things happen and when stupid things do not happen.
Misguided accusations in certain circumstances diminish authentic accusations when injustices actually occur.
I’m not going to call Rachel Richardson a liar or any kind of faux victim. I wasn’t there and I didn’t hear what she says she heard. She stands by her account. And that should grab the attention of everyone.
I also don’t believe everyone at BYU is racist. I don’t believe most people are. There likely are some racists who sit among their fans at games, just like there are racists who sit in the stands at most schools. And there are people who may not be full-on racist, but they sometimes are ignorant in their thoughts and behaviors.
People being aware of that, though, and being both introspective and outrospective, if that’s a word, being vigilant in rooting out every element of racism, is the lesson to learn here. And for all of us to be fair to each other in that pursuit.
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