Posted on 10/14/2022 5:52:00 PM PDT by karpov
It’s time for a few words on what we might learn from a Black volleyball player’s claims about what happened at a match she participated in at Brigham Young University this past August. I have refrained from commenting on this for a spell, in case there were further revelations. As there have been none yet, I shall proceed.
Rachel Richardson, a Black member of Duke’s volleyball team playing in a match at Brigham Young University, claimed that she and other Black teammates were “targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match,” such that they had to face a crowd amid which slurs “grew into threats.”
But a sporting match such as this one is attended by thousands and is well recorded, both professionally and also by anyone in attendance with a cellphone. To date, no one has offered evidence that corroborates Richardson’s claims of racist verbal abuse, either independently or as part of an investigation by B.Y.U. There is nothing comparable in the security footage or in the television feed the school took of the match. No one at the match representing either school has described hearing such a thing happening. No witnesses have been reported as coming forward.
To be clear: It is possible that some racist spectator shouted a racial slur at Richardson at some point during the match. But it seems apparent that no rising tide of slurs and threats occurred during that match — that would be clear in the recordings. And Richardson’s having possibly exaggerated what happened casts into doubt whether there were any slurs at all, given that people leveling such words tend to do so with the intention of being heard by others, and no one present has come forward and explicitly said they heard it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
McWhorter is not your typical NYT opinion columnist.
I like McWhorter. Thanks.
Even if what Richardson says is true, the fact still remains she has more, much more to be afraid of from other blacks than she does white folks at a BYU game.
The third paragraph reminds me of the Tea Party protests against obamacare in DC. Remember- “the “n-word” was cascading down from the crowd” yet there was no evidence of anything of the sort, even when Andrew Brietbart himself offered $10,000 for a shred of evidence it happened.
McWhorter is an intelligent guy who is not afraid to apply reason and let the chips fall where they may. He’ll probably get the “Cosby” treatment if he keeps it up.
I once read that Jesse Jackson has been quoted as having said (or written) the following two things.
One: “when I’m walking down a dark,deserted,street and hear footsteps behind me I’m relieved to look back and see it’s a white person”.
Two: “it’s not the KKK we should fear,it’s the BBB (big black brother)”
If Jackson did,in fact,say either of those things it speaks volumes IMO.
Both Jackson and Sharpton are shameless race pimps....but they’re not stupid. At the end of the day, they don’t believe most of their own rhetoric.
John McWhorter is not only a genuine academic intellectual with a degree in linguistics, but he is clear-minded about racial issues, regarding anti-racism and white guilt as having destrucive effects on blacks and on race relations.
Indeed, despite being an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University no less. While the usually rush is to join the chorus of politically correct choir, as exampled by one of the cases he cites (White lacrosse players at Duke did not rape a Black stripper at a party, despite the 88 Duke professors who published a newspaper ad implying the lacrosse players were guilty) McWhorter dares to argue "that claims of especially stark and unfiltered racist abuse, of the kind that sound like something from another time, often do not turn out to have been true. Accounts of this kind, I have realized, should be received warily. Not with utter resistance, but with a grain of salt."
Bump
It teaches us that if you ask 100 different people to define racism you are going to get 100 different answers.
“And Richardson’s having possibly exaggerated what happened “
That’s a nice way to say she is a liar pulling out the race card for personal fame.
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