Down the Woke Memory Hole

Just make like it never happened and everything will be OK

It was a month ago when a black Duke volleyball player, Rachel Richardson, claimed that a white spectator at a match at BYU repeatedly shouted racist slurs at her and later accosted her with direct threats. I covered the story here and here.

Ms. Richardson’s account of the episode showed beyond any rational doubt that this was not a case in which she might merely have misheard or misunderstood what she claimed were loud and persistent racial smears. Thus, as the Salt Lake City Tribune reports, Ms. Richardson’s godmother (who could only have obtained her information from the player), tweeted:

…that Richardson “was called a n— every time she served.” (Richardson served eight times in all during the match, according to the official play-by-play.)…

Rachel Richardson, having flown back to Durham, N.C., tweets out a statement, saying that during Friday’s match at BYU, “my fellow African American teammates and I were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match. The slurs and comments grew into threats which caused us to feel unsafe.”…

An interview between Holly Rowe and Rachel Richardson is broadcast on ESPN. Richardson says as the match went on, “the racial slurs and heckling, it just grew more extreme, more intense.”

Given Ms. Richardson’s own account, which she iterated more than once, there is no chance that she was unsure about what she heard or what she wanted to say about it.

The outraged reaction was swift, predictable and widespread:

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley announces that her program is canceling a home-and-home series scheduled with BYU as a result of the allegations of racism. “As a head coach, my job is to do what’s best for my players and staff,” Staley says in a statement. “The incident at BYU has led me to reevaluate our home-and-home, and I don’t feel that this is the right time for us to engage in this series.”

Duke’s President, Vincent E. Price, was suitably enraged:

I am outraged by the racist slurs and taunts directed at members of our volleyball team at BYU this weekend. Duke is fully committed to providing a safe, inclusive environment for competition, and we will not tolerate any racism or harassment of our student-athletes, coaches, staff, or fans.

As Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King noted yesterday, our primary concern is for the safety and well-being of our student-athletes and coaches. I have expressed to Coach Nagel and her team that they have Duke’s and my full support, and we will be working with them in the days and weeks ahead to provide any assistance and resources they may need.

Yes indeed, gotta promote “safety” and — did he forget this one? — “healing.”

Former NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks was quick to upbraid the wahoos at BYU for their “moral incompetence.”

The Deseret News tells us:

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox had strong words about what happened, especially for those who hurl racial slurs.

“Just catching up on this terrible story. I’m disgusted that this behavior is happening and deeply saddened if others didn’t step up to stop it. As a society we have to do more to create an atmosphere where racist a**holes like this never feel comfortable attacking others,” he tweeted.

But Gov. Cox was not the only politician to chime in:

State Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, said in a statement Monday, “The racial taunting of Duke volleyball player Rachel Richardson and her teammates during a game last weekend was shocking and shameful. But the failure of game officials, coaching staff, and fans to intervene to stop the harassment shows that basic awareness about racist behaviors and how to respond appropriately is lacking.”

Hollins was the first Black woman elected to the Utah Legislature and is currently its only Black member.

I could go on — and on and on — but I won’t. Routine, chip-shot outrage gets to be tiring, not to mention disheartening, to repeat.

You all know the punchline by now. The whole thing was fake — a hoax. The volleyball match was attended by more than 5000 people. Not one of them heard what Ms. Richardson says she heard. No other player on either team reported hearing it. BYU, after an investigation whose bona fides have not been challenged by anyone, interviewed more than 50 nearby spectators. Zip. It reviewed audio and video tapes. Zip. The security staff investigated. Zip. Almost four weeks ago, BYU set forth its findings that it could not find any evidence corroborating the Richardson account, which it ended with, “We renew our invitation for anyone with evidence contrary to our findings to come forward and share it.” You will have guessed what the response has been all this time. Zip.

That the whole thing was a race-huckstering hoax is, I regret to say, not a big surprise at this point. Indeed, Duke itself produced the mother of all race-huckstering hoaxes, the Lacrosse Team Hoax of 2006. What is more surprising, although if I wised up maybe it wouldn’t be, is that not a single person who condemned BYU or its fans for this non-existent episode of racism has apologized.

I think I was maybe eight or nine when I learned that when you accuse someone falsely, you apologize. This is just basic stuff. It’s rudimentary honesty and rudimentary consideration for the feelings and reputation of the person you have wronged.

But the Woke, race-huckstering crowd who were in full throat a month ago, moral indignation spouting from every pore, is nowhere to be seen or heard.

Why not?

I doubt it’s that they didn’t learn what I learned, and every normal person learns, as a child. I doubt it’s that they don’t know the Richardson story was a point-blank lie. My guess is that it’s the same thing we see every day in what remains of America’s journalism: They don’t apologize because they know they can get away with just dumping it down the memory hole and no one will ever hear of it again. There’s no big, fancy reason. Yes, there’s a supporting cast of arrogance, dishonesty, cowardice and malice, but I’m trying to keep my entries here about relatively recent stories.