On Saturday, a Duke University women’s volleyball competition had to be moved to a new location after someone in the crowd had shouted racial slurs and insults, including the “N” word, at a black volleyball player in a match the day before.
The match on Friday was with Brigham Young University (BYU) and the instigator of the rant was later identified, causing BYU to apologize and ban the fan from future games.
Every time the 19-year-old black player, Rachel Richardson, went up to serve, she was verbally attacked, according to her godmother’s post on Twitter, by “a white male that told her to watch her back going to the team bus. A police officer had to be put by their bench.”
The Duke University Vice President commented on the incident and expressed his regrets that the security of the players and spectators was threatened.
BYU made a statement that they had banned the spectator from games. They reviewed video of the incident and spoke with game management officials and security about how to avoid incidents like this in the future.
The BYU spokesperson said that the screaming spectator was not a BYU student. They apologized that they were unable to correct the situation while it was happening, because apparently the big mouth was not immediately identified for some reason.
Lakers star LeBron James tweeted: “We have her back. This is not sports.”
Of note, in the Saturday game, Duke won against Rider, 3-1. Richardson was the hit of the team with three aces. The term “ace” in volleyball refers to a play in which the ball is served and the opposing team cannot pass it.
Richardson said on Twitter that she didn’t want pity, but she wanted to draw attention to the unacceptable situation in which she was called the “N” word, and that nothing was done to stop it while it was happening.
