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It is one thing you might not have seen. It’s like QAnon. Or mass voter fraud. It is one other conspiracy principle. This one? That Duke volleyball participant Rachel Richardson, who stated she was called multiple racial slurs while playing in a game at BYU, made the whole factor up.
My e-mail inbox has been overwhelmed with this conspiracy principle. It is grown throughout social media. The proper wing has spent intensive time selling it.
However earlier than I break down the absurdity of all of it, I need to go to a second after that sport. It occurred on CNN when Richardson’s father, Marvin, was interviewed by host Brianna Keiler. This second has principally gone below the radar, nevertheless it’s essential.
You may see the interview here. Marvin Richardson describes getting a telephone name from his daughter, who was crying. One thing was incorrect.
“After the sport, she known as,” he stated, “and this was a special name.”
THE INCIDENT: Duke volleyball player Rachel Richardson details racist incident
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She went on to explain to her father what occurred. The second is useful as a result of it is contemporaneous. It reveals Rachel’s mindset instantly afterward. That second additionally results in three totally different factors:
1. Say, only for argument’s sake, that Rachel Richardson made up this story. It’s a must to imagine that she did figuring out she was placing not simply her volleyball future in danger however her school future as a scholar at Duke. She’d be eternally tarnished as a liar. One of many worst liars.
2. It’s a must to imagine she then lied to her dad. Which is feasible. Youngsters misinform their dad and mom, however about this? But in addition…
3. You’d need to imagine she would then let her father go on CNN and repeat that lie.
What the conspiracy theories primarily all come right down to is one factor: nobody heard Richardson being known as the slur. The idea, out of the blue, is that microphones choose up each phrase within the area or scholar part. Or that cameras are all-seeing and figuring out, like mini one-eyed gods.
The factor about this story, this unimaginable story that I knew would take the route of “she’s mendacity” however am nonetheless shocked it did, is that I imagine Rachel Richardson. I do not imagine anybody prematurely backed her. I do not assume she’s mendacity. I feel she’s telling the reality.
If I am confirmed incorrect, I will be first in line to say so, and write that, however I’ve seen nothing to indicate she made it up.
who else believes her? South Carolina girls’s basketball coach Daybreak Staley, who canceled her program’s series against BYU. Staley believes her or she would not put her popularity, or that of her program, on the road.
In some ways, this story is about race and the way Black folks need to continually show we’re not criminals or liars. That we do not commit mass voter fraud. Or that we get jobs solely due to affirmative motion. We’ve to show, as Richardson does, that we heard what we heard. That we noticed what we noticed.
To many of those folks, Richardson’s phrase does not imply something. She robotically can’t be trusted.
But this story is exceptional for an additional motive. The general public calling Richardson a liar are from the right-wing media ecosystem or have MAGA of their Twitter bios.
These are the identical individuals who for 5 years ignored information. They imagine that Hollywood liberals eat infants. Or the Parkland college students have been crisis actors. Or that JFK is alive. Or is it RFK? One thing or somebody with a “Okay” in it. They ignored the 30,000 lies instructed by the person they worship. They believed the Russia investigation was a hoax. That COVID was. That international warming is.
However out of the blue, they’re now fact-hunters, combing over audio and video, looking for fact when earlier than, the reality by no means mattered. These are the folks calling Richardson a liar. These are the folks focusing their Scooby Doo forensic powers on a 19-year-old Black volleyball participant who instructed a reputable story of racial abuse.
A number of the identical individuals who continually site visitors in conspiracy theories predictably jumped on this story. Proper-wing extremist Clay Travis said the story of a 10-year-old rape victim was a lie. It turned out to be true, of course. He and others at the moment are again to shovel extra of the identical.
The opposite conspiracy principle is that she misheard the phrase. That may be a phrase you do not mishear. You actually do not mishear it greater than as soon as.
These folks additionally ignore BYU’s personal previous. We may return a long time and even to its origins however a report from BYU itself final 12 months stated college students of colour felt remoted and unsafe.
All of this and we have not even gotten into what occurs in the remainder of the state of Utah. A ten-year-old Black lady died by suicide final 12 months after bullying. In a separate scenario, the Justice Division detailed a horrific pattern of racist abuse the place Black and Asian college students at a faculty district in Farmington have been harassed for years, and the complaints of oldsters and college students have been ignored.
The College of Utah stated it acquired complaints of racism on its campus. On Aug. 16, a Black college member stated he was called the N-word whereas ready for a prepare to depart the varsity.
A number of Utah Jazz followers have been banned indefinitely final 12 months after making racist and vulgar feedback towards the household of Grizzlies guard Ja Morant.
My guess is BYU will clear BYU of wrongdoing. They may bury this story as a result of they’ve a vested curiosity in it not being true.
Then the suitable wing will name all of it a hoax. Once more. They may name her Jussie Smollett 2.0. In truth, some already are calling her that. The identical individuals who watched the Jan. 6 rebellion, essentially the most documented riot in American historical past, and believe the rioters were antifa, will now see the absence of microphones choosing up the phrase as proof it was by no means used.
And none of her accusers can have a solution to a very powerful query of all:
Why would she make it up? Why would a sophomore majoring in neuroscience at Duke make it up?
Return to that night time. Richardson stated she heard racial abuse. She and teammates went to the Duke coaches. Police have been moved close to the Duke bench. BYU coaches have been made conscious. That night time, after the sport, she known as her father to inform him what occurred. Quickly after, she put out an announcement. She then went on ESPN to say the same thing.
So at this level, in keeping with the conspiracy theorists, she’s lied to her teammates. Her coaches. The BYU coaches. The BYU athletic director. The police. Her godmother. Her father. The world due to her assertion. ESPN. Then allowed her father to misinform a CNN viewers.
What’s extra seemingly? All of that?
Or that she’s telling the reality?
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